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Tour de Fat will not return to Boise in 2018

After a big drop-off in attendance last year, Tour de Fat will not be returning to Boise this summer.

BOISE - New Belgium Brewing's Tour de Fat has become a long-standing tradition in Boise.

And now, it is no more.

"Well I'm sad that won’t come back because I have enjoyed it," said cyclist Robert McGarvey.

"It sucks that they are not going to be here, it really does because there is a tremendous amount of people that go to it," said parade enthusiast Jason Cappalino.

Hearing New Belgium's Tour de Fat will not be coming back to Boise this summer is sad news for people like McGarvey and Cappalino, who look forward to going each year.

"They got unicycles, some people can ride them some cant, they have got bicycles where the front end goes one way and the back end another. It is crazy, I love it," Cappalino said.

"It's been a great thing for the bike community I don't think without New Belgium any of us would have been able to do what we do," says Lisa Brady, board president of the Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance.

Aside from being one heck of a party, Tour de Fat beer and merchandise sales support nonprofits that grow bicycle communities, like the TVCA.

Brady was sad to hear the news.

Each year, she says she could count on the parade to bring in at least $5,000 for the alliance, which was crucial.

For us, we don't have any other funding sources," says Brady.

Last year, Tour de Fat didn't have its usual turnout.

Event organizers started charging $25 to get in and moved the concert to a new venue.

"It was a massive change that happened and they started charging for the concert and tried to bring bigger names into the cities and I think that was pretty challenging for people. For 15 years running, all you had to worry about was beer and a T-shirt and now you have to pay for a concert ticket and expected to buy beer and merchandise," Brady said.

Even though the parade won't be returning this year, Brady says no hard feelings.

"It really did change the face of bike advocacy here, we wouldn't be who we are without that help," he said.

And something more local could be replacing it this year.

"It's got a lot of moving parts to it so we will be shooting for sometime later in the summertime to do an event that is street oriented," Brady said.

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