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Jenny Foust
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New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat Pedals into Chicago
with Bike Antics, Sustainable Goodness and Philanthropic Fun

To Honor the Bicycle, New Belgium is Looking for Car-for-Bike Swappers:
Are you Willing?

Ft. Collins, CO, June 18, 2009 - Tour de Fat, New Belgium Brewing’s traveling celebration of all things bicycle, rolls through 11 cities this season, kicking off in Chicago on July 11 in Palmer Square Park. While this is Tour de Fat’s second visit to the Windy City, the touring festival is celebrating a decade of honoring mankind’s greatest invention - the bike. Opening the show with a costumed bike parade, Tour de Fat celebrates the power of the bike by encouraging everyone to embrace their inner-cyclist and ride the streets as a rolling carnival of creativity.

Tour de Fat was born in Ft. Collins, Colorado to increase awareness and participation in cycling as a sustainable form of transportation, Tour de Fat has grown into a national rite of passage for cycling advocates and bon vivants alike. Visit http://www.newbelgium.com/tour-de-fat to view schedules, videos and much more.

Tour de Fat is free to participants, but beer and merchandise proceeds from the Chicago stop will go to West Town Bikes, which offers bicycle mechanics workshops, youth programs and special biking events to Chicagoans. The philanthropic cycling circus helped 24 non-profit organizations in 2008 and raised more than $250,000, pushing Tour de Fat’s grand total for charitable giving to more than $1 million.

“The raised funds from 2008’s Tour de Fat were instrumental in helping our new non-profit grow and further our mission,” said Alex Wilson, Executive Director of West End Bikes in Chicago. “The money helped us move into a larger location, open a retail shop, offer excellent summertime and after school youth programs and expand our staff. Plus, Tour de Fat is just a great, family-friendly event with an excellent social focus!”

The celebration features the inspirational car-for-bike swapper series (http://www.newbelgium.com/videos#107) in which brave souls hand over their car keys as a commitment to commute by bike. As part of the program, one volunteer in each city will sign over their car title and receive a hand-built Black Sheep (http://www.blacksheepbikes.com/) commuter bike in exchange. The volunteer is chosen after submitting a video or essay describing their desire to live sans car for a year. For more information, log on to http://www.newbelgium.com/tour-de-fat.
We are still seeking a car-for-bike swapper in Chicago!

“The car-for-bike program is what gives Tour de Fat its deeper meaning as people make a life-changing commitment,” said New Belgium Spokesperson Bryan Simpson. “Anyone is welcome to be a swapper - whether you’re an avid cyclist or just starting to rekindle your love for the bike. We can’t wait to meet more good people willing to forgo four wheels for two.”
What:
Tour de Fat

When:
Saturday, July 11, 2009

Where:
Palmer Square Park, at the corner of Palmer and Kedzie, in Chicago’s 35th Ward

Tentative Schedule:
9:00 a.m. - Bike Parade Registration
10:00 a.m. - Bike Parade
12:00 p.m. - Performances Begin
1:30 p.m. - “Carpocalypse Now” – Funeral procession for the car belonging to the Car-for-Bike Trade volunteer
3:30 p.m. - Car-for-Bike Trade Celebration
4:00 p.m. - Curtain Closes

Acts:
Mucca Pazza: www.mucca-pazza.org
Sean Hayes: http://www.seanhayesmusic.com/home.htm
Squirm Burpee Circus: http://www.handsomelittledevils.com/
The Daredevil Chicken Club: www.daredevilchicken.com
Portland's Original Mini-Bike Dance Troupe, The Sprockettes: www.sprockettes.org/
Why Tour de Fat is the Must-Attend Event of the Season:

• Tour de Fat seeks to leave as small an environmental imprint as possible and composts and recycles waste from each tour stop. The waste diversion rate for 2008 was 92%.
• All musical acts will perform on a solar-powered stage with decorations made from recycled materials, trucks and transport use biofuel sourced from recycled waste oils, and all vendors operate off the grid.
• At the Team Wonderlounge, participants can join Team Wonderbike, New Belgium’s bicycling commuter advocacy program. Team Wonderbikers pledge to commute by bike, not car, as often as possible. Currently, 16,000 people have pledged not to drive 15 million miles in the next twelve months (www.teamwonderbike.com).
• This is a pro-bike celebration, not an anti-car rally…non-cyclists are more than welcome to join the festivities.
“Now is a great time to start sewing, pasting and thrift-store shopping for your Tour de Fat attire. All costumes will be celebrated and some will even be rewarded,” said Simpson. “This is a big year for us as Tour de Fat celebrates a decade’s worth of passionate bike advocacy. It’s going to be a ballyhoo and a half.”
Tour de Fat 2009 will cycle through each of the following cities:

Chicago 7/11 @ Palmer Square
Minneapolis 7/18 @ Parade Athletic Fields
Seattle 8/8 @ Gas Works Park
Portland 8/15 @ Waterfront Park
Boise 8/22 @ Ann Morrison Park
Fort Collins 9/5 @ New Belgium
Denver 9/12 @ City Park
San Francisco 9/26 @ Golden Gate Park
San Diego 10/3 @ Balboa Park
Tempe 10/10 @ Tempe Town Lake
Austin 10/17 @ Fiesta Gardens

For more information and to see videos of previous Tour de Fat stops, please visit http://www.newbelgium.com/tour-de-fat .

About New Belgium Brewing Company
New Belgium Brewing Company, makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale and a host of Belgian-inspired beers, began operations in a tiny Fort Collins basement in 1991. Today, the third largest craft brewer in the U.S., New Belgium produces seven year-round beers; Fat Tire Amber Ale, Sunshine Wheat, Blue Paddle Pilsner, 1554 Black Ale, Abbey, Mothership Wit and Trippel, as well as a host of seasonal releases. In addition to producing world-class beers, New Belgium takes pride in being a responsible corporate role model with progressive programs such as employee ownership, open book management and a commitment to environmental stewardship. For more information, visit www.newbelgium.com.