Jungle vibes. Beach party. Silent disco. Tiny tacos. Pancakes. Femme Party trains. DIY Tie Dye.
What does all of this have in common? Spend a weekend at Roam Fest and you’ll find out. The Kona squad is fresh off the plane from a rowdy weekend at the first Roam event of the season and it was one for the books. You may have been to mountain bike festival before, but you’ve never been to one like this. Unless you’ve been to Roam that is…
The Kona marketing team joined forces with Ky Stewart of the Factory Team and Diana Allen and Kate Strom of the Ambassador program to share the Kona stoke with women, marginalized riders, & genderqueer femme mountain bikers from all around the country. The party started on a Friday morning with a pancake feed from our friends at Tennessee Valley Bikes. Riders lined up for piles of hot, fluffy flapjacks before picking up their demos and heading out for a day of riding. We had a full size run of Process 134 DL 29s, Process 153 DLs, and Rove DLs. It may have been a mountain bike festival, but we had a bunch of riders rallying gravel bikes on the singletrack.
We held two workshops on Friday and Saturday—one focused on the power of self-hype and the other was a skills clinic hosted by Ky Stewart. We were thrilled that both workshops had large turnouts of women who wanted to learn how to turn their ability to motivate their friends onto themselves. We worked through imposter syndrome, the fear of never being fast or strong enough, and how critical it is to find community. Ky showed riders critical bike handling skills, pumptrack skills, and everyone left with new tools in their toolboxes.
The evenings were spent listening to a panel of speakers dedicated to growing inclusivity in the sport. We heard from members of the BIPOC and adaptive communities about the need for greater representation and we watched a selection of films showcasing the energy and contagious energy of women riding together. On Saturday night each vendor hosted a happy hour with a beach party theme. Drinks were as colorful as the floral shirts. People danced around in floaties, mermaid costumes, and sailor outfits. The party went well past dark with the most epic silent disco that was anything but silent. The music may have been pumping through headsets, but the chorus of people singing along to the music let passersby know exactly what was being played. The crowd turned into a wave of bouncing blue and green lights that danced until their legs could take no more.
Sunday morning offered a slow start to ward off the effects from the prior night party. We emerged from our beds tired, but ready for the final day. With the threat of thunderstorms on the horizon demos were going out fast. The gravel-bike-on-the-trail fever caught on and Rove DLs were going out all day long. We received nothing but awesome feedback about the Processes and how they felt on the Tennessee clay. Speaking of clay, if you’ve never ridden bikes in Knoxville, it’s some kind of treat. The forest feels like a warm jungle and smells like the world’s freshest bouquet. Kudzu and Honeysuckle permeate the air as you fly though vine-covered trees, tunnels of bamboo and around perfectly sculpted berms. It was a different kind of Narnia than we’re used to in the Pacific Northwest, but it’s one we loved instantly. The trails are fast, flowy, and ripe for party trains.
And party trains there were! Each day hosted group rides for all kinds of riders. New riders? Adaptive riders? BIPOC riders? LGBTQ+ riders? Every size, shape, color, background is welcome at Roam. That’s what makes it so special. It’s a place to feel seen, safe. Welcome, and curious. It’s ok to ask questions and be vulnerable. It’s a place to show your true colors and find your community. It’s a place to be happy, get weird and truly dive into the expression, “When in Roam…”
One of the major highlights of the weekend was the raffle. One lucky Roam attendee walked away with this shiny new Shonky! She was ecstatic as both of her sons are big fans of the pumptrack and now their mom will be able to show off her newly-acquired pumptrack skills.
At the end of the day the weather Gods were on our side. No sooner had the festival wrapped up when a massive thunderstorm swept through the venue. It was a mad dash to get everything packed up, but with tropical temperatures, it felt like just another kind of party. We packed bikes, booths and danced in the rain. It felt like something out of a movie as people ran around and laughed at the power of the storm. A wild ending to a wild weekend.
A huge thanks goes out to the staff of Tennessee Valley Bikes who helped make our weekend extra special by sharing booth space, cooking pancakes, and feeding us. There is nothing like good, southern hospitality.
It was a weekend none of us will forget, and we hope to see everyone we met in Knoxville at the next Roam we’re attending in Fruita, Colorado.
