When I arrived in Fayetteville, the first impression about this city was “small and quiet.” I was pretty sure that my life in Fayetteville would be silent. Growing up in a big city, I always wanted to live in a smaller town that offers beautiful nature such as forest or extensive yards. In a way, my life in Fayetteville is what I have been looking for: There are horses, cows, big trees, and yards everywhere. There are not tall buildings, which I got used to being surrounded by, near the U of A campus. However, I had already started to feel a little bit bored and miss the busy city life in Seoul only after a few weeks.

BBB on Dickson Street

Meanwhile, one of my friends told me “Minjun, you will be able to see a lot of bikes during the BBB festival.” I learned that Bikes, Blues and Barbeque (BBB) was an annual festival held in Fayetteville every fall and a lot of bikers gather here from all parts of the country to celebrate their passion about bikes and share their enthusiasm. Yet, I could not imagine thousands of bikers riding their motorcycles and all the streets near the campus and Dickson Street would be filled with them in this town.

My friend was right! We started to hear all those noises on streets in Fayetteville! BBB was a perfect opportunity since I was looking for something exciting, interesting and fun that would help me to feel refreshed and energized! I ended up visiting BBB on Dickson Street three days in a row! I absolutely enjoyed it!

Delicious!

I am pretty sure that many of us, especially male students, have dreamed about riding a fabulous motorcycle. Although most of the bikers at the BBB festival were not in our age, they seemed to be enjoying their lives with cool looking motorcycles.  I also noticed that there were a lot of older couples enjoying riding motorcycles together. Another thing I realized was that they came from Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and many other places, which are far from Fayetteville! I was simply impressed by that they were enjoying their lives.

At the BBB event, I enjoyed not only watching different kinds of motorcycles, but also a lot of food vendors. They were selling barbeque, desserts, turkey legs, ribs, hotdogs and hamburgers! All of them looked great, and I decided to try a big turkey leg which is as big as my face. Delicious! While I was enjoying the turkey leg, I also saw many people holding something delicious. It looks like bread somehow with a lot of sugar powder on it… At first, I did not know what it was… I asked and finally figured it out: It was funnel cake! Funnel cakes are named because of its shape. Dough is fried in oil after it gets through the funnel. It was sweet! I strongly recommend you to try it if you have not tasted it before!

Funnel Cake

To be honest, I had not expected to have such a huge event in Fayetteville because, as I said, I thought Fayetteville was a very small town. However, I was really impressed by that many people around the states came to Fayetteville to enjoy the festival. I strongly believe that enjoying any kinds of festival makes us feel refreshed. BBB was definitely the event that gave me so much energy to enjoy the life at UofA. It has become part of my unforgettable memory Fayetteville. Once again, I recommend you to enjoy BBB every fall in Dickson Street! Please try barbeque and funnel cakes!

By Minjun Park