In 2005, did anybody really think Kensington would become home to a popular event where new neighborhood arrivals and longstanding residents and businesses build crazy-pants art bikes and drive them through an urban obstacle course, ending up in a mudpit on Trenton Avenue? No. No they didn’t.

But the Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby has emerged as one of the city’s most fun spring events. Let’s review a couple of choice rules:

My second favorite rule: “All participants must be sober while operating their vehicle.”

My first favorite rule: “Sculptures must not pose any direct danger to anything near it, no open flame, no pointy things, also the pilot must be able to escape quickly and safely in the event that it’s necessary.”

See? Go! The Derby kicks off at noon, but the Trenton Avenue Arts Festival goes all day, baby, with two stages of bands and like everybody you know in Kensington and all their friends eating and drinking and selling stuff. Who said Philly doesn’t make anything anymore?

The Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby and Trenton Avenue Arts Festival, Trenton Avenue Between Dreer and Dauphin. Tomorrow, 12:00 noon. Free!

–Nicholas Gilewicz

Photo by Dan Murphy