Sacramento Bike Kitchen will be holding their 20th anniversary party this weekend featuring local sister duo band Dog Party, six other local bands, and a bike polo exhibition this Saturday at their I Street location. The free event will be accepting donations and selling beer to help support the bike kitchen.
According to the organization’s president, Irie Honeyeater, the Sacramento Bike Kitchen is where they’re “cooking up bikes” — providing free and low-cost bike repairs to Sacramento’s cyclist community.
“We’re trying to increase accessibility to bikes because they are such a great, personal low-cost transportation for everyone,” Honeyeater said.
He said that his bike is his main source of transportation, and that it’s the most affordable option for a lot of people to get around.
“I don’t turn my car on more than maybe once or twice a week,” Honeyeater said. “A lot of people lean on bikes for affordable transportation, and the bike kitchen is a main resource for that.”
Honeyeater got involved with the Sacramento Bike Kitchen six years ago, initially just as someone who needed their bike repaired. Since getting involved with the kitchen, he’s witnessed it open doors for people.
“I’ve seen people that just moved to Sacramento and they need a way to get around and they come in, we set them up on a bike, and then they keep coming back,” Honeyeater said. “I myself started going there, and then I got a job at a local bike shop, I learned bike mechanics.”
Honeyeater said that proceeds from concerts held at the bike shop on the first Saturday of the month go towards repair parts for the shop and facility costs like rent, but the kitchen is entirely volunteer-run.
However, their landlord is looking to sell the building the kitchen has been operating out of for 17 years, and Honeyeater is afraid that rent under a new landlord would surpass the discounted rate they’ve paid to the building’s current owner.
Fundraising for the organization has grown more necessary with this prospect on the horizon, and they’re looking at what it would take to buy their current building. According to Honeyeater, it could take as much as a million dollars.
“We don’t get any grant money currently. We’re entirely self-sufficient. No one’s paid. So we’re in an okay position financially,” Honeyeater said. “But, we’re a far cry from a million dollars.”
The Sacramento Bike Kitchen full of volunteers on June 23, 2026Courtesy of Sacramento Bike KitchenThe event on Saturday features Dog Party as its headlining act. The sister act duo, Lucy and Gwenn Giles, started playing in Sacramento when they were six and nine-years-old, toured with Green Day in 2016, and last year opened for Jack White of the White Stripes at Channel 24. They have been a fixture in the Sacramento music scene for over 10 years, despite still being in their 20s.
Honeyeater said that the Sacramento Bike Kitchen has thrown their first Saturday shows for over 10 years, after a pause during COVID lockdowns, and they’ve had a longstanding relationship with Dog Party.
“We used to have a show for high school bands, they actually used to perform at the Bike Kitchen when they were teenagers, they used to perform there years ago,” Honeyeater said. “We thought it would be fun to have them come back. We’re kind of having a mix of legacy bands and some newer local acts.”
During one act of the show, when local band the Me Gustas will be performing, there will be an exhibition match of bike polo, which is exactly what it sounds like — polo on bikes, usually played on tennis or basketball courts.
The match will be put on by the Davis Bike Polo Club. Ed Henn, a member of Davis Bike Polo, said that the game is played with three players on each side, each team trying to hit balls into the opposing team’s net, all on bikes.
“It’s some of the most fun you can have on a bike,” Henn said. “I like things that are a little strange that most people think might be dangerous. I don’t do a lot of dangerous things, but I love anything on a bicycle.”
Henn said that despite the sport being played close-quarters on bikes, swinging mallets, on concrete, injuries are not commonplace.
“[There’s] occasionally an accident, usually when we’re running into each other… If you do, it generally is happening at pretty slow speed and people can safely dismount,” Henn said. “If you come out and try it, I can’t guarantee anything, but people don’t usually come out and get hurt. It takes some coordination at first, I’ll say that.”
Henn’s been involved with the Davis Bike Polo club for ten years. He first saw the club play in the middle of a parade in Davis. They set up nets right in front of him in the street and started playing.
“I had no idea bike polo existed, I was very surprised and very interested in anything a little unusual happening on bikes,” Henn said.
His love of cycling, however, has persisted since he was a kid.
“It’s a great community, it’s great exercise. I often feel like biking is what sort of keeps me on the level,” Henn said. “[It] keeps me happy, keeps me sane, it gets you outdoors and exercising.”
The fundraiser for the Sacramento Bike Kitchen will take place at 1915 I Street in Sacramento this Saturday at 3 p.m. The bike polo exhibiton match will take place at 5 p.m., and Davis Bike Polo meets weekly on Sunday afternoons at West Manor Park in Davis.
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