The Uptown Theatre’s annual Boilerfaker, a caricature ‘road race’ held on the Friday before Sunday’s international Boilermaker road race, will take place July 10.
The event will kick off at 5 p.m. with “Social Hour” at The Beer Hub, 2643 Genesee Street, which also serves as the Boilerfaker “starting line.”
For the seventh year, the Uptown Theatre team is putting on the event to raise money for The Uptown Theatre Creative Arts.
“We’ve always loved the Boilermaker and thought it would be fun to do our own little tribute to celebrate the excitement of the weekend,” said Uptown Theatre for Creative Arts Co-Founder Briana Mahoney about the “Boilerfaker” origin story. “We always get a great mix of participants, including several who also run the Boilermaker on Sunday.
2026 Annual Boilerfaker
The event kicks off at The Beer Hub, with registration and “Pre-Race Social Hour.” All registered participants will receive one free drink, a 2026 Boilerfaker t-shirt, and a “show-off sticker.”
At 6 p.m., racers take off from The Beer Hub down Genesee to cover the 1.1-mile course to the Uptown Theatre at 2014 Genesee.
A “Finish Line Party” for all racers who cross it will begin at 6:30 p.m. at “The Uptown.”
The registration fee to participate in the 2026 Boilerfaker is $40 and can be completed using this link.
Boilerfaker raises not just funds for “The Uptown,” but also awareness
About 100 racers have participated annually, raising $4,000 – $5,000 per year for “The Uptown’s” restoration mission. But the historic theatre’s UTCA co-founder notes that the race raises much more.
“We’re always glad for the funds raised, but we also look at it as our biggest awareness-building event,” said Mahoney of the event. “We get a lot of participants who we don’t otherwise see at our events, who are new to us and what we do!”
All are welcome
Uptown Theatre encourages all to participate “whether you’re running the Big Race or not quite up to the challenge.”
It is a great way to be part of the energy of Boilermaker weekend in Utica while contributing to the city’s arts and culture scene, according to organizers.
Concluded Mahoney, “The Boilerfaker has its own personality and draw to it, and we love that it’s become one more way that people learn about what we’re doing at the Uptown.”
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Seventh annual Boilerfaker set for July 10
Reporting by Cara Dolan Berry, Utica Observer Dispatch / Observer-Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Cara Dolan Berry, Utica Observer Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
