Manifesto celebrates three years of Bike Church

Manifesto’s Bike Church isn’t your typical Sunday morning of sitting inside a stained-glass structure, listening to scripture and quietly reciting prayers. But there are some similarities. People with similar beliefs do congregate, listen to music and socialize — however, they’re surrounded by bicycles.

On Sunday, around 200 people came through to celebrate Manifesto’s 3rd anniversary of Bike Church. Since 2008, the owners of Manifesto Bicycles have hosted Bike Church at their shop on 40th Street in North Oakland. The idea is to bring together people from the neighborhood creating a community gathering place for people to meet and hang out.

“It’s just getting the community together, bicyclists and non-bicyclists, to have a fun event not about endurance and competition,” says Manifesto co-owner Mackay Gibbs. “It’s casual, there’s music and street food and it represents what we love about Oakland.”

On Sunday, live bands played in the shop’s side yard and out front, Fist of Flour Pizza Company oven-baked fresh pizza and El Taco Bike served tacos and burritos. Local Oakland print shop, Team, made limited edition t-shirts and posters for the event, with all proceeds from the t-shirts going to the Ella Baker Center’s Soul of the City Campaign, which is focused on creating new leadership and stronger community in Oakland.

Bike Church started out with friends and neighbors gathering at Manifesto on Sunday mornings to listen to music while drinking coffee and eating donuts. However, over the years it’s evolved. Now, the owners don’t host it every Sunday but do occasional bigger events instead, similar to Sunday’s party. Gibbs says that the shop plans to have one Bike Church in the middle of summer and another at the end of summer. To find out the dates, check Manifesto’s Facebook or Twitter feed.