‘Easy Rider’ coming to town

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, October 13, 1999

LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / October 13, 1999

LAPLACE – Get your motor running and head out on the highway – the Big Easy Ride is coming to the River Parishes.

As part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the 1960s icon film, “Easy Rider,” star Peter Fonda is coming to the River Parishes for events connected with that celebration.

These include a cochon-de-lait at Ormond Plantation in Destrehan and a motorcycle ride with friends and fans from the K-Mart parking lot in LaPlace to the Fair Grounds in New Orleans.

Part of “Easy Rider” was filmed in the area, commented Rae Lynn Tammariello Loop of the Big Easy Ride Foundation, a non-profit organization which benefits from the weekend’s events to assist families with critically-ill children.

Among the celebrities tentatively scheduled to appear are Gov. Mike Fosterand his son, Murphy.

On the schedule, the newly-restored “Easy Rider” film will be screened by Columbia Pictures Thursday at 7 p.m. at Canal Place Cinema, as part of theNew Orleans Film Festival.

On Friday, a celebrity ride down Decatur Street with Fonda on the original “Captain America” motorcycle will end up at the House of Blues, 225 Decatur, for a VIP party with entertainment by Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.

On Saturday, bikers will line up at the Municipal Auditorium for a bike ride to Ormond Plantation, River Road, Destrehan, for a cochon-de-lait and concert. The ride starts at 10:30 a.m. and the Ormond event will run 11a.m. to 3 p.m.On Sunday, registration for bikers will start at 7 a.m. in the K-Martparking lot at 108 West Airline at U.S. Highway 51. A “blessing of thebikes” is set for 9:15 a.m., and the ride will start at 9:30 a.m., proceeddown Main Street to River Road and eventually to the Fair Grounds in New Orleans for a day-long festival, open to the public.

For more information, call 566-RIDE.

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