Folks enjoy Alamo Plaza on Saturday evening at the time when a naked bike ride scheduled to depart. Credit: Michael Karlis
Plenty of people were present at Alamo Plaza on Saturday evening. All clothed and none riding bicycles.

Which probably was a big disappointment for anyone who’d read online for San Antonio’s iteration of the World Naked Bike Ride, a series of nationwide events where bare-assed cyclists protest oil dependency and body shaming.

The three-hour ride was supposed to have departed at 8 p.m. from Alamo Plaza — had any nudists actually showed up.

Instead, the plaza drew a few curious onlookers who’d heard about the event from reporting in the Current and News4SA.

Organizers haven’t responded to the Current’s request for comment about why the event didn’t take place as scheduled. The World Naked Bike Ride in Portland, Oregon, was canceled last week due to planning issues, according to Portland NBC-affiliate KGW8.

The apparent cancellation of the SA event could have come down to a city ordinance banning nudity public spaces. In a statement, the San Antonio Police Department said officers were prepared enforce local laws if naked bike riders did show up.

“This event is not sanctioned by the city, and the police will handle any violations of state law or city ordinance accordingly,” an SAPD public information officer told the Current Saturday.

Saturday’s scrubbed gathering is just the latest twist for San Antonio’s World Naked Bike Ride.

Initially, the gathering was scheduled to take place at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort, but it was moved downtown after hotel officials said they were unaware of the event and hadn’t spoken to its organizers.

Although San Antonio’s ride was a bust, some 200 nude cyclists turned out Saturday at a similar event in Madison, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

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This article appears in Jun 12-25, 2024.

Michael Karlis is a Staff Writer at the San Antonio Current. He is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., whose work has been featured in Salon, Alternet, Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Orlando...