With Enthusiasm to Rival a Hurricane, Motorcycle Lovers Came in Droves to the 13th Annual Barber Vintage Festival
Birmingham, AL – The 13th Annual Barber Vintage Festival presented by Triumph welcomed fans from all over the world this past weekend. Although the 3-day event weekend was cut short due to the effects of Hurricane Nate, fans from Barber Motorsports Park headed back to the Barber Museum on Sunday for continuing weekend festivities. While this year’s attendance numbers have not been finalized, last year’s annual event brought in 73,541 people.
Over 4500 people visited the Barber Museum over the three-day weekend, enjoying new exhibits in the museum expansion, participating in museum seminars, and being treated to complimentary hospitality on Sunday provided by Five Star Event Catering. World maps that were installed inside the museum this weekend to represent locations from which people traveled comprised all 50 US states and Canada, along with countries including Hong Kong, Bali, Russia, Italy, the Galápagos Islands, Morocco, and Columbia.
They say motorcycles bring people together, and nothing could be truer on every level at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. From the moment Barber Vintage Festival guests stepped off the trams Friday morning and made their way into the 228,650-square-foot museum, you could hear their collective “wow” and see all forms of delight in every direction.
Friday evening’s Motorcycles by Moonlight event in the museum’s Grand Atrium kicked off the three-day weekend festival with a plated dinner, proceeds benefiting the not-for-profit Barber Museum. The silent auction included valuable motorcycle leathers, art, sculptures, and big-ticket items provided by generous donors. After the silent auction closed, the live auction saw active bidding on a painting artist Bill Patterson created in two hours onstage during the event, as well as the official 13th Annual Barber Vintage Festival art painted by Anne Hicks. Some lucky auction winners got to take the “rides of their lives” in parade laps on the track on Saturday, where they rode as passengers in the museum’s Radical SR3 Supersport and Lotus 2-Eleven Roadster.
Event Grand Marshal Wes Cooley, an AMA Superbike Champion known for helping modernize the Superbike racing class, was interviewed in front of festival guests by renowned former motojournalist and racer Cook Neilson. Cooley signed autographs and chatted with guests throughout the weekend in the museum and racing paddock. The late John Surtees, CBE (1934-2017) was honored in a “Moment of Sound” on the track Friday and Saturday.
The Turn 9 Club served thousands of meals to members during the three days and entertained celebrities such as master car restorer and television personality Wayne Carini. Throughout the weekend, guests of the museum asked questions and interacted with some of the industry’s top experts in seminars on topics such as motorcycle restoration and the fine art of motorcycle pinstriping. The 14th Annual Barber Vintage Festival presented by Triumph will take place October 5-7, 2018.
About the Barber Museum and Barber Motorsports Park:
The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum is a 501(c)(3) Not for Profit Foundation located at the 880-acre Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Alabama, dedicated to the preservation, interpretation, exhibition, and history of motorcycles, vintage vehicles, and motorsports. Over the course of the past decade, the Barber Museum has brought people from around the world to Alabama, and it has been named the #1 tourist attraction in Birmingham. The museum is the home of the world’s largest motorcycle collection and is widely known for its collection of vintage Lotus racecars and other rare vehicles. Each year it hosts vintage motorcycle and vintage racecar events, including the Barber Vintage Festival and Barber Historics. For more information, visit www.barbermuseum.org.
The 880-acre Barber Motorsports Park, located in Birmingham, Alabama, features a challenging 2.38-mile, 17-turn racetrack that hosts motorcycle and car racing events throughout the year, including the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Since the inception of Barber Motorsports Park in 2003, the Porsche Sport Driving School has been a partner and is North America’s only Official Porsche driving school. The park also features the Barber Proving Grounds, where Mercedes-Benz hosts the Mercedes Brand Immersion Experience for its employees. Zoom Motorsports, LLC is the exclusive event promoter for Barber Motorsports Park. In 2013, Jalopnik named Barber Motorsports Park one of the “10 Prettiest Racetracks in the World,” for reasons including the natural terrain track with elevation changes, safety considerations, and art. For more information, visit www.barbermotorsports.com.