People who are born to be wild, or at least those who enjoy raucous parties, cheap beer and rock bands, should feel right at home in a new south Georgia town that has arisen in a cow pasture.
Known as Angel City, the US$2 million, Western-style town will cater to bikers, a group that values freedom and tends to have more tattoos than taboos.
While no one is expected to live there permanently, the 160 hectare site will host several events each year. Angel City's inaugural Iron Angels Rally & Music Festival will begin on Thursday at the site on the outskirts of Unadilla, a town of around 2,800 people about 160km south of Atlanta along Interstate 75.
Organizers say they expect between 10,000 to 20,000 people to attend the rally, which will feature eight rock bands, some of the nation's top custom motorcycle builders, and the biker world's pinup models, the Iron Angels, a group of young women who make rally appearances and pose with custom motorcycles for an annual calendar. Anyone under age 18 won't be allowed in the rally.
Also planned are bike tours to the infamous Civil War prison at Andersonville and to the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, each about 50km from the new biker town.
Angel City's builder, Unadilla contractor and longtime motorcyclist John Wayne Smith, said he wanted to create a biker haven -- where everyone appreciates a custom ride, a good time and beers will sell for as cheap as US$2 a bottle. He built it after one of his buddies, Marvin Jones, also of Unadilla, donated the land.
"I want people to have a good time," said Smith, 55. "And of course I wanted something in Georgia."
Angel City's main intersection is lined with four L-shaped, unpainted wooden buildings, containing booths for more than 50 vendors. There are larger rooms to accommodate restaurants and saloons, with swinging doors and chandeliers made from rusty horse shoes and wagon wheels. Tin roofs shade the wooden sidewalks. A bandstand stands nearby on the edge of a depression that forms a natural amphitheater.
During the rally, actors portraying gunslingers will have shootouts on the main street, Smith said. The Western theme was the logical choice, considering that his mother named him after the famous cowboy movie star.
With nearly 10 million motorcyclists in the US, the biker community pumps lots of cash into Sturgis, South Dakota, Daytona Beach, Florida, and other towns that host some of the US' leading motorcycle rallies, attracting upward of 500,000 enthusiasts each.
Smith, a partner in the Iron Angels calendar, said Angel City could also be used as a staging area for bikers heading to the major rallies in Daytona each year. They could haul their motorcycles to Angel City and then ride them the final 482km to Daytona.
His partner in the calendar, Lucas Foxx of Cody, Wyoming, has another vision for Unadilla and Angel City.
"Unadilla will be the Sturgis of the South," Foxx said. "That's our goal."
Smith said he canvassed businesses in Unadilla and talked with neighboring property owners and found strong support for the Angel City project. He said the site will also be used for bluegrass festivals and possibly arts and crafts, antique car and recreational vehicle shows.
Unadilla Mayor Sidney Hughes said some residents expressed concern initially about heavier traffic, but generally everyone supports it. The town annexed the land so it could provide sewer services.
Bob Jeter, Dooly County's economic development director, said he plans to attend the rally, even though he doesn't own a motorcycle. Angel City could benefit surrounding towns, such as Perry and Cordele, more than Unadilla because they have more motels and restaurants, he said.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered