Around 130 cyclists took to the streets for a themed party hosted by Recovery Bike Shop ownership. (Provided)
Recovery Bike Shop owners Seth Stattmiller and Elizabeth Richardson ran a Burning Man theme camp for ten years. This year, they restarted their themed camp dreams in Northeast Minneapolis during Art-A-Whirl®, dubbing the event “Sparcle” — part spark, part bicycle. They roped in fellow campmates and other artists from the Arts District for months of planning and implementation.
For Stattmiller, the concept was simple: a night ride during Art-A-Whirl. “For a hundred bucks, we could deck out a couple dozen riders with (electroluminescent) wire and some blinky lights,” he said. Even just a handful of lit-up riders parading around the District would be pretty visible. “That sounded like fun.”
But the recruits had ideas of their own. First was the unanimous adoption of the 2026 theme: Disco Cowboy. Deborah Barton and Chad Anderson’s western sets (built for other local Burning Man events) could be the centerpieces. Every meeting after this generated new ideas.
Attendees received invitations in wax-sealed envelopes. (Provided)
Visitors to the Flux Arts Building during the Art-A-Whirl weekend could access more than a dozen ways to deck themselves, or their bikes, out with free make & take events tailored to the Disco Cowboy theme. Visitors could decorate their bike helmet, make belt buckles, make “trash-chaps” and flags, write ransom notes and much more. Art to Change the World, located in the upper level of the Flux Arts Building, offered toy horses for bedazzling.
A community of cyclists
On Saturday evening, more than 100 “make & takers” showed up in their Disco Cowboy best for Recovery Bike Shop’s Sparcle night ride. They crowded the small parking lot behind the bike shop and spent hours decorating their bikes with Recovery Bike Shop’s free lights and items donated from the Flux collection.
Just before sunset, Stattmiller climbed on top of the bike shop’s truck to talk to the crowd, which spilled out into the alley. He explained his heartbreak at losing his Burning Man community several years ago and proclaimed that this night marked a new beginning.
Individuals made art and bedazzled their bicycles and outfits. (Provided)
Then he introduced them to the Pink Pony: a 1986 bubblegum pink Cannondale SR600, a vintage road bike. As the sun began to set, Stattmiller and the Pink Pony threaded through the crowd and took the lead. The riders turned on their lights and followed. Stattmiller rode down the bike path on Lowry. The line of cyclists stretched for blocks; the last riders had barely left Recovery Bike Shop before the front of the ride reached the JROW Sculpture Park.
Stattmiller led the group past the sculptures at Edison High School and the Alpine Fence on 19th. They stopped at the grain silos behind the Casket Building and the Sculpture Factory for a group photo and then drifted down 13th together for the first real surprise of the evening.
On a typical NE residential street, Stattmiller suddenly turned the Pink Pony into a private driveway and disappeared under an arch of lights into the back yard. There was no way for the hundred-plus riders to follow; they bunched up on the sidewalk and in the street until he reemerged and announced, “Find a place to put your bike and come on back. We’re here!”
The party’s final stop featured county music and a neon cowboy. (Provided)
A surprise party
Bleeding Hearts Studio, in the garage of a single-family home, has a chain-link fence marking the property line. In planning conversations, riders were meant to lock their bikes to this fence, a solution that could have accommodated a couple of dozen bikes. Instead, riders had to form lock-up clumps of bikes with their friends on the boulevard, in the parking lane and all the way up the driveway. Most left their bike lights on.
In Bleeding Hearts’ backyard studio, the group found food, beverages, more lights and karaoke.
Then it was off again into the night. They wound past the California Building and then to Holland Arts East, eventually coming to the Flux Arts Building and Barton and Anderson’s western sets.
At the Flux Arts Building, “Sparclers” were greeted by a neon Vegas Vic, a neon cowboy best known as a Las Vegas attraction. Live music by Soul Trouvère, a Minneapolis country band, had already begun.
Within minutes, flapjacks were poured onto a griddle. Some of the make & take stations were still going. 100+ “Disco Cowboys” again locked up their bikes and filled out another party. Lastly, Larry Gaga, a drag king, took the stage to the sound of cheers.
130 people showed up for the first annual Sparcle night ride. More than 1,000 were drawn to events at the Flux. Anyone who missed this year’s Sparcle event will have to wait until next year.