The Ladds 500 is the closest thing to a functional anarchist society that we've ever seen. While hundreds of people endeavor to complete as many revolutions of Ladd Circle as possible, the human spirit in its most generous and expressive form flourishes on the periphery.
It seems that the 500 not only attracts cyclists but also those who get a kick out of giving for the sake of giving; it's all too common to see a person lean out from the grassy center of the circle to hand a hotdog to a stranger or collect an empty can off of the sidewalk. In our time there we saw bike tubes replaced for nothing in return, free mustard doled out by a person dressed as (and perhaps covered in) mustard itself, pancakes being gleefully slung off of a gas griddle, and received more beer than we should have consumed that early in the day.
It reminded me of the mythical spirit of burning man in the years before the tech-bro migration enshittified the event; something that David, the organizer of the Ladds 500, actively seeks to avoid. "The point of the Ladds 500 is to be the Ladds 500, not to be a fair[…]" he wrote in a social media post shortly before the kickoff. While we were allowed to make a small contribution to the permit fees and hand out some free swag at the event itself, it's verboten to display large logos or hawk merch for money. This is not a commercial venture, it's a communal experience in casting off the norms of capitalism and embracing the collective effervescence of a shared goal: riding around in a circle and having a damn good time doing it. We'll see ya next year Ladds!
Check out our Instagram coverage of the event here
