Photos: Anarchic Jubilation at the 13th Annual Bike Kill

Bike Kill is the best day of the year. It’s better than New Year’s, better than Christmas, it’s better than my birthday.

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The annual block party was held, for the first time, indoors, inside a massive warehouse near the corner of Morgan and Knickerbocker avenues.

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Now in its 13th year, this Bike Kill was well attended! Hundreds of people turned out to participate and spectate.

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For the uninitiated, Bike Kill is a raucous, rowdy party surrounding a improvised track on which one can ride any of the custom-built “mutant bicycles” designed by our event’s hosts, the Black Label Bicycle Club. And then you get hit in the head with a dirty, dusty pita. And a firecracker explodes at your feet.

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Some bands and DJs played, the atmosphere was amazing. But year after year, people return for the main event: tall bike jousting.

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Two riders hurtle towards each other with full force, attacking with joisting sticks, flanked by a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of drinking, drunk punks, burners, makers, shoegazers, photographers, and riders.

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Explaining Bike Kill to someone who’s never been is difficult, and photos just don’t do it justice. I think that’s because of the event’s unadulterated lawlessness.

At Bike Kill, anything goes. Does that make it dangerous? Maybe a little.

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But 13 years in, it’s only gotten bigger and more widely beloved with each iteration!

Personally, I relish the opportunity to ride crazy bicycles in an abandoned warehouse hellscape of anarchy.

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I can only hope we do it again next year, and for years to come.

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All photos by Andy Smith for Bushwick Daily.

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