The annual Republic of Texas Biker Rally—better known as the ROT Rally—is back in town for its 26th year this weekend. Actually, it's already started at the Travis County Expo Center, its main headquarters, but the constant roar and rumble it brings with it won't likely be in full effect until Friday.
The ROT Rally is one of the country's biggest celebrations of biker culture, which includes, in part, custom bikes and vintage cars on view, games and contests, live music (Cult and Chevy Metal are this year's headliners), and general revelry with badass motorcycles and the ladies and gents who love them.
Many of those things take place at the Expo Center, but the Austin citizenry at large is known to turn out in droves for the traditional ROT parade on Friday nights. As many as 200,000 Austinites pack the streets to ogle and wave at the bikers, who leave their Expo HQ around 7:45 p.m., travel into downtown via East Austin, and up to the Capitol building, where their rally/party on Congress Avenue commences.
It takes quite a bit of traffic control and some street closures to make this happen, of course. Courtesy of the city's special events office, we've shared this map of the parade route, as well as downtown street closures so you can more easily join in—or avoid—the fun.