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Bikes &
WATONGA – Need weekend plans? One of the biggest festivals in northwest Oklahoma is returning to Watonga this Friday and Saturday, April 29 and 30, for its second edition.
Bikes & BBQ will feature live music, a poker run, vendors and, of course, motorcycles and food. It will begin at noon on Friday, pick up at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and run until 8 p.m. both nights.
Lucky Star Casino, a major event sponsor, is also hosting an after-party with live music on Friday at 8.
Bikes & BBQ was born last spring as a post-pandemic celebration and a way to showcase the town. Event organizer John Morris said he wanted people to recognize Watonga for more than just a cheese factory, and thought bikers were a perfect target audience.
“We have upwards of 200 bikes ride through town every summer on a daily basis,” Morris told the Watonga Republican. “Why not capitalize on that a little bit, you know?”
Morris said this year’s event will be much like last year’s, just bigger and better. It will feature more music, more food options and a longer poker run, he said.
“It’s all basically the same – we have bands, we have beer, we have food, we have motorcycles,” Morris said. “But we’ve gone so much bigger this year.”
The Bikes & BBQ schedule kicks off at 12 p.m. Friday with Cooksey Band on the Main Stage, which will be on Main Street on the same block as the Liberty Theater and the Watonga Republican offices.
Friday will also feature a bike show at 1 p.m. and “bike games” at 3. At 3:30, Peach Trees will hit the Main Stage. The day ends with bike show awards at 5:30, followed by Dually Noted on the Main Stage at 6 p.m.
At 8 p.m. the party will move to Lucky Star for games, drinks and a performance by Coyette and the Haywire Band.
Josh Lamle will perform with Brandon Johnson to start Saturday activities at 9 a.m. Poker run registration begins that morning at 9 a.m., with all bikes gone by 11 a.m. as Sean Gallagher takes the Main Stage.
At 1 p.m. Cade Roth & The Blacksheep will perform, followed by Tyler Lee at 3:30. The poker run awards will be handed out at 5:30 p.m., and the weekend will wrap up with a performance by the Katie Ballew Band on the Main Stage.
Morris said he learned from the first event in 2021 and was encouraged to continue the rally by everyone who attended from near and far.
“Everybody I talked to said, ‘We will be back next year,’” Morris explained. “It was an experiment last year, honestly. But we had probably three times more people than we were expecting.
“We learned a lot,” he said, “and built bigger.”
More information about the Bikes & BBQ schedule and events is available on Facebook or at WatongaBikesandBBQ.com