Bike Shed rocks! 19,000 custom bike fans turn up for spectacular three-day biking festival at London’s Tobacco Dock

The Bike Shed London Show has returned to the capital after a three-year Covid-enforced absence, with 19,000 visitors flocking to the capital’s Tobacco Dock site over the long weekend of May 27-29.

The show was organised by Shoreditch venue, the Bike Shed, who offer everything from food and drink, to contemporary biking clothing, to tattoos, and a barbershop. They recently opened a second base in Los Angeles.

“We planned a show in 2020 that had to be cancelled,” Bike Shed co-owner Anthony ‘Dutch’ Van Someren told MCN. “We are kind of lucky to still be here to be honest, so the event was our comeback.”

The three-day gathering began in 2013 and has gone from strength to strength. This year was the first since 2019 and housed 318 custom motorcycles and 495 exhibitors, with fans flocking from as far as the USA and Asia. Famous visitors included bike-mad actors Jason Momoa and Tom Hardy. 

“We had a couple who said ‘we flew in from Thailand just for your show’,” says Dutch. “The sector of biking is growing. Now, with the American connection, we’ve got that market as well.”

Alongside the bikes, fans were also treated to seven bars, pop-up tattoo shops and barber shops, as well as film screenings and the opportunity to watch Sunday’s dramatic MotoGP races live.

“We had a lot more in the electric room than last time, which is good. We also did a rally room,” the Bike Shed man added. “We had a little bit of a celebration of MotoGP because we were showing the racing on the Sunday. It was just a little bit more of everything.

“It’s just nice literally seeing all our followers and customers in one place. We get about 2500 people through our doors a week when it’s busy, but on Saturday we had about 9000 to 10,000 people.”

Despite the impressive attendance figures, Dutch believes there could’ve been more visitors on Sunday, had there not been the Ride London cycling race, which closed some roads in the area.

“We certainly anticipate that next year we’ll need more bars and more space,” he said.