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Bike Night location change fires up protesters in downtown Fort Myers

Posted at 1:03 AM, Nov 10, 2019
and last updated 2019-11-10 01:03:04-05

Bikers rode in to the Fort Myers annual bike night -hosted at the Rockstar Harley Davidson. The event that always draws large crowds- filled with everything from food trucks, to vendors, and even live entertainment.

The general manger of Rockstar Harley Davidson and others worked to keep the momentum going after city council voted to move the event from downtown to there.

“A couple week after that we said how do we resurrect it we got our team together and we picked it up and tried to save it because its been going on for 15 - 20 years,” said Geno Demauro.

Demaruo hopes it will return to its original location. Norm Cormier who has been biking since he was 10 also says, moving it from downtown was a huge mistake

“The atmosphere here, as you can see there is not many people here and the atmosphere downtown is what made it and when you take that away from us its just not the same,” Norm Cormier.

Meantime, an organizer of the bike night protest in downtown says they came out to prove a point.

“So we’re down here tonight to show that no matter if they have the security down here to pay for it we can still come down here and have a good time civilly and not make any trouble,” Shayne Justres.

He and others at the protest making it known that they aren't bad people, they're just men and women who love their bikes and want to support the economy of the city they love.

“As you can see all these bikes that came out here tonight were here to have a good time, new bikers were not bad people we support our local community, we do good things for our veterans our teens and we’ve come down here tonight i have a good time and show our support,” said Shayne Justres.

Many bikers shared their concern about the location change but said no matter what, they will all remain a biker family.