Detour
Into the Wild
Sure, all those
flower shows and
Easter egg hunts
are a pretty great
time, but breaking out of your
postwinter routine
means heading
off the beaten
path. From antique motorcycle
contests to lost-and-found film
festivals, these
events supersize
the fun factor
and make your
free time anything
but predictable
BY CHRISTENE BARBERICH
ILLUS TRATIONS BY MARTIN O’NEILL
With the arrival of that first spring thaw,
who can’t attest to getting hit with a
mild—or major—case of wanderlust?
After a few frigid months of homebound
movie nights, bread baking and blizzard
dodging, those first signs of spring fever
can make anyone feel a little restless and
stir a craving for something a bit out of
the ordinary in the way of pure entertainment and honest-to-goodness fun.
Your local calendar and community
listings may well offer a cornucopia of
ongoing weekend events, but why not
veer a little off the grid to discover new
ways to spend a weekend and experience
the East Coast from a fresh vantage point?
From Gloucester, Mass., to Brooklyn,
N. Y., we scoured your favorite train
routes to discover a handful of unlikely
things to do that will put last season’s
recreational score to shame. Whatever
and wherever you choose to explore,
book your Amtrak ticket (spring and
summer festival parking can be a drawback), and be sure to bring a camera—
we think you’ll want to remember these
festivals for a long time to come.
Skin & Steel
Detail your Harley and tune up your
tats. April makes way for the ninth annual Skin & Steel Motorcycle and Tattoo
festival in the upstate New York town
of Henrietta. Since its inception in 1999
the yearly extravaganza—which includes
live music, fresh food and a county-wide ode to tattoo and motorcycle
enthusiasts—has banished the midwinter doldrums by drawing thousands of
attendees who come to explore Skin &
Steel’s racy attractions.
The Best of Bike show is open to all
makes of motorcycles and awards $500
to the top hog design, ranging from fully
custom bikes to classics (1960 or later)
and antiques (pre-1960). There’s also a
curious trike category, which showcases
ingenious three-wheeled roadsters.
On the “skin” side of the event, check
out the Physical Graffiti tattoo contest—
from best large tattoo to top use of tribal
designs. Here, tattoo devotees battle it
out for Best in Body Art.
In between competitions, the festival
invites more than 200 vendors to display
everything from offbeat riding accessories and bike accouterments to pins and
paraphernalia from bike groups such as
the Christian Motorcyclists Association.
Later in the afternoon, gatherers can
mingle among the many rides while kicking back to the city’s local blues aficionados, the Coupe de Villes. Besides beer,
bike-riding lessons will be on tap, so get
your motor running.
Henrietta, N. Y., April 6, The Dome Center;
585-234-0895; skinandsteel.com
Future Fun: Festivals to
Keep on Your Radar
The next time you feel compelled to
haul out old family VHS tapes of you at
your junior high school twirling recital
or dad at his cousin Larry’s not-so-famous Catskills costume ball, think
