Philly Naked Bike Ride photos: Body paint, spectators, and fun

Aug 30, 2023

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The Saturday afternoon sun was as bright as the grins on participants’ faces as the Philly Naked Bike Ride returned for its 15th year.

Cyclists rolled through Center City wearing little more than body paint and glitter, catching the attention of spectators and spreading their message of body positivity.

Philadelphia’s ride has been happening near annually since 2009, and it’s one of the largest in the U.S. People traveled this year from New York, Baltimore, Virginia, and elsewhere to take part in the spectacle.

“Each year, more and more people come,” Stanley Ware, a longtime organizer with PNBR, told Billy Penn. “It’s to advocate the beauty of the human body in all stages. Mastectomy, colostomy, whatever — we love you just for being here.”

Like other events connected to the World Naked Bike Ride, which tracks more than 120 such meetups around the globe, the Philly ride promotes cycling as a form of transport and serves to advocate for less reliance on fossil fuels. (Hence one of PNBR’s slogans: “Less gas, more ass.”)

It’s also a lot of fun for those who take part, as evidenced by the smiles that abounded as riders painted color on one another and prepped for the 13-mile route at the start in Lemon Hill Park.

Scroll down to check out (NSFW) photos from the 2023 Philly Naked Bike Ride.

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Solmaira Valerio is a North Philly native photographer. They studied photography at the Community College of Philadelphia and graduated with a BA in Journalism and a minor in Clinical Psychology from Temple... More by Solmaira Valerio