The 2nd Annual Nice Motorbike Show, a free block party, takes place on Purchase Street in downtown New Bedford this Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. and will fill the corridor between Union and William streets with vintage motorcycles, choppers, custom builds, and hot rods. Organizer Danny Baptista expects a bigger turnout than last year's roughly 40 custom bikes, plus vendors, food, drink, and three live musical performances on a full stage set up in the middle of the street with professional sound.
A Barber's Vision for Downtown
Baptista owns Stepping Razor, a throwback barbershop on Purchase Street, and organized the motorbike show himself. According to 1420 WBSM, he said the event is designed to increase visibility for downtown New Bedford and hopes attendees will wander into nearby businesses while they're there. The city's Stepping Razor location opened in January 2024 at 747 Purchase Street, taking over a storefront that had operated for 42 years as Your Father's Mustache, according to FUN 107, and it expands on the original Stepping Razor shop founded in Bushwick, Brooklyn in 2010.
Baptista splits his time between the two cities, operating a Stepping Razor location in Brooklyn and traveling between it and his New Bedford shop each week, the station's report notes. He's also opening The Seabird, a neighborhood rock-and-roll pub around the corner from Stepping Razor that's currently in the construction phase; he hopes it opens by early spring, or possibly late winter. Baptista described downtown New Bedford as developing into a village, per the same account.
City Council Cleared the Street Closure
City Council Cleared the Street Closure The closure itself required formal sign-off from New Bedford's City Council, which approved a motion in August granting municipal authorization to shut down Purchase Street between Union and William for the Nice Motorbike Show on September 26, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to the City of New Bedford. The 2nd Annual Nice Motorbike Show was originally scheduled for September 26, but organizers postponed it to this Saturday after a Nor'easter brought heavy weather across the South Coast, as reported by The New Bedford Light.
Baptista modeled the gathering after Joe Jesus 50s Night, New Bedford's long-running annual classic car festival that celebrated its 35th anniversary downtown in July, according to the City of New Bedford. Baptista partnered with AHA! New Bedford for the block party; the organization has a 25-year history of free monthly events and nearly 100 partners. That stretch of Purchase Street is already a go-to spot for outdoor gatherings downtown, having hosted half of the city's 14-week Summer Sound Series block parties in recent summers, FUN 107 reports.
Live Music Lineup Includes RISD Professor
Three acts are slated to perform, including Mark Milloff of the Cannibal Ramblers, a professor of art at the Rhode Island School of Design and an internationally exhibited painter who picked up electric blues-punk guitar in his 50s, according to Rhode Island PBS. The lineup also includes a group Baptista believes is called the All-Star Stars, thought to be from Providence. Headlining the show is Atlantic Thrills, a garage-rock band that released its album III through Brooklyn-based label Almost Ready Records in June 2025, according to Culture Beat. DJ Eddie Youngblood will spin vinyl throughout the day.
Recent motorcycle crashes in Bristol County include a fatal crash on Walnut Street in New Bedford last month that killed 21-year-old Anthony Navarro Rodriguez, one of several severe motorcycle collisions reported across the county in late summer, including a serious crash that injured a 69-year-old rider on Route 138 in Raynham.
Baptista's wife opened a shop with Bushwood Tailors in Kilburn Mills. Saturday's show is free to attend, with bikes, vendors, and bands on Purchase Street from noon to 6 p.m.
