Bimmerfest East 2014

[shedby_budwin]

I agree with everything but the age limit.. I'm only 18 and drove in.. and I think the people doing burnouts were all at least 21 anyway.

[jalopi]

So was the normal vinyl wrapped e9x/60 crew there blasting shitty music from their shitty aftermarket stereos in their shitty cars?

that's what they've changed to, yes.

in general people got way too rowdy and the cops overreacted a bit(just from what I saw and the earlier post) but considering what they were facing...

some people were seriously being dumb as fuck. I was parked towards the north side of the lot, every five minutes or so a squad car would drive towards the southern section (where most people were doing the really smoky burnouts) and people kept doing burnouts/speeding.

burnout in a parking lot? fuck yeah, light em up bro

burnout in a parking lot surrounded by cars and drunk people? not the best idea, seen shit go real wrong on youtube but hey no harm no foul

burnout in a parking lot with the aforementioned obstacles AND tearing up the asphalt? definitely not cool, property damage is just gonna cause trouble for the organizers, especially when they wanna hold the event next year

20+mph burnouts (read: 10x more shit to go wrong [saw a few]) with ALL aforementioned factors AND children in the parking lot (yes, I saw MANY people speeding / doing burnouts and shit with kids within 20-30ft)? Fuck them, I have no problem with the cops getting the nightsticks and mace out on those reckless hooligans AND the people giving them a tough time with their jobs.

Just wish they hadn't taken it out on the rest of us though...

[adonwilson]

I was there for the burnouts and pepperspray. Much rowdiness indeed. Some "Young Money YOLO" types were doing burnouts in M cars in one corner of the parking lot, one did a burnout that went down to the steel belts in his tires, throwing sparks and taking chunks out of the pavement. Then there was an early model Bronzit Coupe with an LS swap that did a very good one, but he got caught.
As the officer was leaning into the passenger side of th car yelling at the driver, the ~250 person crowd began booing, and chanting "Let him go!" as someone, whether he knew the driver or not is still unclear, opened the trunk, got the screw driver out of the toolkit and removed the plate. He threw it in the trunk and a number of people began to push the car, Just to make it harder for the cop I guess.
An older lady cop came out of nowhere and without any warning sprayed Mace into the faces of everyone pushing the car, and a handful of bystanders behind them. That's when the crowd got VERY rowdy and event organizers started to disperse the crowd, apparently the PD threatened to bring riot guys if the crowd didn't disperse and stop heckling the officers.

Crowd disperses, mostly, I went over to my car to get water bottles to help the kids that got maced. once they can see and breathe again we find the officer that did it and we tried to get her contact information. She refused to give us her badge number or name, just saying over and over "Call the Police department"
Then an older black cop comes from behind her and gets in the face of one of the people asking her for info, "BACK OFF! STEP BACK!" Yelling/spitting in his face. That was pretty funny actually, he just stood his ground and looked the cop right in the face.

Eventually an older cop (Lt?) Came over and got everyones side of the story. I haven't heard yet if the lady cop is going to get a raise or discipline But that was a pretty crazy experience.

We left shortly after, and about 6 or 7 cruisers passed us coming into the lot.

Epic. Thank you for sharing!

Sounds like it's basically turning (turned?) into a BMW-centric IA.

Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

Thank you. And no problem!

That's why I have a overwhelming hate for cops. They are just ass hole that think becuase they have a badge and night stick they are hard asses. If that cop would have gotten in my face I'd be in jail for sure....

Pics are great bud I love that you got some of everything not only e30's

Thank you! I am a BMW lover, not just e30's. My first love was a 535is

So was the normal pinstriped e9x/60 crew there blasting shitty music from their shitty aftermarket stereos in their shitty cars?

pffff of course!

Beats waiting for 1 hour in food and water line, last year sucked.

The BimmerFest organizers are responsible for security, I don't know all of the details but based on the last year they really suck at organizing such a big meet. I would not be surprised if they did zero security training for the cops they rented from the city.

Having random cops patrol a lot with 1000's of cars is a bad idea.

Also that meet should have a strict age limit. 21+ to drive in.

They definitely had the food thing down better this time. I was prepared with my own chow last year because we arrived as a big group and had a tent/grill/coolers etc

And I couldn't agree more about 21+.

[adonwilson]

I agree with everything but the age limit.. I'm only 18 and drove in.. and I think the people doing burnouts were all at least 21 anyway.

You may be an exception, but it kinda scares me letting anyone with a license into a big tailgate party. And then telling them to leave at 4PM. That's just my opinion though. If I were still 18 my opinion would be much different.

that's what they've changed to, yes.

in general people got way too rowdy and the cops overreacted a bit(just from what I saw and the earlier post) but considering what they were facing...

some people were seriously being dumb as fuck. I was parked towards the north side of the lot, every five minutes or so a squad car would drive towards the southern section (where most people were doing the really smoky burnouts) and people kept doing burnouts/speeding.

burnout in a parking lot? fuck yeah, light em up bro

burnout in a parking lot surrounded by cars and drunk people? not the best idea, seen shit go real wrong on youtube but hey no harm no foul

burnout in a parking lot with the aforementioned obstacles AND tearing up the asphalt? definitely not cool, property damage is just gonna cause trouble for the organizers, especially when they wanna hold the event next year

20+mph burnouts (read: 10x more shit to go wrong [saw a few]) with ALL aforementioned factors AND children in the parking lot (yes, I saw MANY people speeding / doing burnouts and shit with kids within 20-30ft)? Fuck them, I have no problem with the cops getting the nightsticks and mace out on those reckless hooligans AND the people giving them a tough time with their jobs.

Just wish they hadn't taken it out on the rest of us though...

I missed a lot of this. I saw a few burnouts and thought it was pretty normal and just went on my way. I was parked up towards the entrance though so I was pretty far from the action.

There were a few drifting in the parking lot last year while there was still a lot of cars around.

[Aleksey]

I agree with everything but the age limit.. I'm only 18 and drove in.. and I think the people doing burnouts were all at least 21 anyway.

Perhaps. Were they serving alcohol on premises? If so, how does event organizer does not see a problem with cars + heat + alcohol + teenagers.

[shedby_budwin]

They weren't serving alcohol, as far as I knew. People brought their own.

[EddieNYC]

the representation of older, classic BMWs is definitely down this year, even compared to last year ;(

[jalopi]

You could go into the stadium and get beer at most of the places that sold food. They were ID checking but who's gonna stop someone from handing a beer off to someone under 21?

Regardless, keeping sub 21ers out would be tough.. it was hard enough getting in without ID checking.

[adonwilson]

the representation of older, classic BMWs is definitely down this year, even compared to last year ;(

I'll have the 2002 there with the e30 next year :D

[SmokeE30]

I was there for the burnouts and pepperspray. Much rowdiness indeed. Some "Young Money YOLO" types were doing burnouts in M cars in one corner of the parking lot, one did a burnout that went down to the steel belts in his tires, throwing sparks and taking chunks out of the pavement. Then there was an early model Bronzit Coupe with an LS swap that did a very good one, but he got caught.
As the officer was leaning into the passenger side of th car yelling at the driver, the ~250 person crowd began booing, and chanting "Let him go!" as someone, whether he knew the driver or not is still unclear, opened the trunk, got the screw driver out of the toolkit and removed the plate. He threw it in the trunk and a number of people began to push the car, Just to make it harder for the cop I guess.
An older lady cop came out of nowhere and without any warning sprayed Mace into the faces of everyone pushing the car, and a handful of bystanders behind them. That's when the crowd got VERY rowdy and event organizers started to disperse the crowd, apparently the PD threatened to bring riot guys if the crowd didn't disperse and stop heckling the officers.

Crowd disperses, mostly, I went over to my car to get water bottles to help the kids that got maced. once they can see and breathe again we find the officer that did it and we tried to get her contact information. She refused to give us her badge number or name, just saying over and over "Call the Police department"
Then an older black cop comes from behind her and gets in the face of one of the people asking her for info, "BACK OFF! STEP BACK!" Yelling/spitting in his face. That was pretty funny actually, he just stood his ground and looked the cop right in the face.

Eventually an older cop (Lt?) Came over and got everyones side of the story. I haven't heard yet if the lady cop is going to get a raise or discipline But that was a pretty crazy experience.

We left shortly after, and about 6 or 7 cruisers passed us coming into the lot.

Thank you for posting this, I was one of the people who got maced it was a really shitty way to end a fun day. I tried calling the police station about it only to be told they don't take reports over the phone and that all the officers were at the stadium and I would have to wait for them to get done and come back here because non of the ones I talked to wanted to do anything to help me besides threaten me and ignore my questions. Guess that means next year it's cool if I bring some bear mace and level the playing field a little, fucking waffleswaffleswaffleswaffles cop...

[shedby_budwin]

My mom has a video of most of the exchange between you (I think that was you) and the lady cop, as well as the yelly black cop. I didn't wanna post it, but it does sum the situation up pretty well. Do you want me to send it to you?

[SmokeE30]

^Pm sent, anybody else take videos there?

[KIRIEIW]

Oh god I was expecting a peaceful thread with pictures of cars... Sounds like that event turned ugly, hopefully it doesn't affect the organization of next years event.

[jalopi]

My mom has a video of most of the exchange between you (I think that was you) and the lady cop, as well as the yelly black cop.

I tried calling the police station about it only to be told they don't take reports over the phone and that all the officers were at the stadium and I would have to wait for them to get done and come back here because non of the ones I talked to wanted to do anything to help me besides threaten me and ignore my questions.

jalopnik + video evidence = potential settlement for you + justice for the people who shouldn't have been maced

[F34R]

I'm glad I don't attend these events.