Monday, October 12, 2015

FatTire Fest: Interview with Amie Hinton

By: Deanna Jones, JSU Student (2011-2015)

On October 9, Amie Hinton, Program Director of the Coldwater FatTire Fest, sat down to discuss some of the events that will be going on at the festival. It begins Friday, October 16, at Zinn Park, where a shuttle will take you to the Coldwater Trail, located in Anniston, Alabama. The festival will continue until Sunday, October 18th.

Can you give some information about the FatTire Fest?

Yes, the festival is for mountain bikers of all different levels of riding. From beginner on up to your more professional style riders. It is a time for riders to come together, have fun, ride and enjoy being outside. It’s also a time to utilize the Coldwater trail. There’s a lot of people that haven’t ridden the mountain yet, so it give them an opportunity to come and enjoy the trail. It is also a great opportunity to promote the resources that we have here in Calhoun County.
There will also be coordinated group rides, some mountain bike games, live music, a beer garden, and camping.  

My next question was on some of the events that will be taking place there like: night rides, live music, other group rides. Can you expand a bit on some of those?

Yes, the night rides are when cyclist go out on the trails at night. They will have headlamps for the dark, and it’s really about the thrill of riding at night. There will be log pulls with the bikes and other mountain bike oriented games. We’ll have things like a movie night on Friday night. There’s a lot of things that will be going on during the day time at the beer garden. We have four different groups playing. There will two on Saturday and two on Sunday. The beer garden will be set up with table so people can eat and enjoy beer from the local breweries. Anniston’s own Cheaha Brewery and Back Forty Brewery, located out of Gadsden, will be providing that.  
 
I was talking to you the other day about a group called the Trail Angles. Can you talk to me about the group and how they got started?  
Yes, the Trail Angels is an all-female riding group. It’s just to encourage and promote women to ride. It started with me and a couple of my friends who were beginner mountain bikers. We were honestly a little intimidated to ride with the larger crowds and the guys who have been riding for a long time. We felt like we couldn’t keep up and just needed to figure things out. It started that way and just kept growing from women who were interested and who were enjoying the social aspect of riding as well as being active. It’s just a comfortable place for women who are beginners to feel less intimidated. We do have women riders who are more experience, but we are sure that there is someone there for the beginners, so they do not get left behind.

Can people still register for the event? Where can they go to do so?

Absolutely. They can register on the website and they can also register the day of. T-shirts are first come first serve.

Where can people go to find out more about this event and other events coming up?

They can go to the Northeast Alabama Bicycle Association(NEABA) website. They can also go to the International Mountain Bicycling Association(IMBA) website that list the different mountain biking events as well.  

Thank you again to Amie Hinton for taking the time to speak to me about the FatTire Fest coming up on October 16-18. If you are interested in in this event and other mountain biking events, links are provided though out the interview and down below:

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