The annual Rolling to Remember event is set to be held this weekend in the Nation’s Capital and turnout is expected to be even greater after the group was denied a permit for a staging area from the Pentagon under President Joe Biden’s leadership.
The highly anticipated event garnered much attention over the last few months after it was reported that the Pentagon had rejected a staging permit for the annual motorcycle event over coronavirus health concerns.
The event, formerly known as Rolling Thunder, is being organized by AMVETS, a veterans group, and is held annually each Memorial Day in Washington, DC. Organizers expect an even greater turnout now because of the attention they received after being denied the permit.
Speaking exclusively to Breitbart News, Joe Chenelly, the national executive director of AMVETS, said that Muriel Bowser, the mayor of the District of Columbia, granted the group permission to stage at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.
“We’ve built out a very robust plan, great infrastructure, so Sunday morning we will be staging at RFK stadium,” Chenelly said, noting that the event is now “expecting 100,000 bikes.”
Chenelly also said that the Metropolitan Police Department has “been very cooperative” in working with organizers to make sure that safety measures are in effect for the event.
“The Pentagon telling us no and the story that created has actually driven up our expectations of how many people are coming in by quite a bit,” Chenelly added.
An itinerary for the event, which can be found on the organization’s website, is as follows:
Friday, May 28, 2021:
9 PM – Candle Light Vigil & Wreath Laying at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Saturday, May 29, 2021:
Many veterans organizations, motorcycle other groups and Harley-Davidson dealerships in the area will be holding events on Saturday. Parking will be extremely limited at the National Mall, but many will visit the memorials. Two gatherings will be attended heavily by those in town for Rolling to Remember. They are:
Open House for Rolling to Remember at Harley-Davidson of Washington
Rolling to Remember Observation of Memorial Day Weekend at Crystal City Sports Pub
Sunday, May 30, 2021
7 AM – Parking lot opens, rallying begins in Lot 8 of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium
12 PM – The 2021 “Rolling to Remember” Demonstration Run begins from RFK Stadium
Earlier this month, Chenelly spoke with Breitbart News and explained the Pentagon’s decision-making process that ultimately ended with them not granting a permit to the group.
In early March, Chenelly said the Pentagon approved the permit, but he was wary of the approval because there were no meetings that typically take place in order to get safety protocols in place. Upon calling the permit office, Chenelly said the permit was confirmed and he was told to contact Pentagon police to work on conducting a meeting “in a few weeks.”
“I called the Pentagon police and said, ‘let’s work together,’ and for eight days we did that,” Chenelly said, noting that he had already began planning for other sites in fear that the Pentagon would back out over COVID-19 concerns.
“Once we got confirmed for the permit … we stopped working with them and then eight days later the Pentagon calls and says, ‘Sorry, we made a mistake, we shouldn’t have sent that to you. You don’t have the permit. We will tell you when we make a decision,’” Chenelly said, paraphrasing remarks from the Pentagon.
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