COSPLAY Tour de Fat participants party down in costume.

Logan Square will be getting some old-time religion on Saturday 21. A modern-day proselytizer and his minions will be “preaching” in and around Palmer Square (Palmer Street between Kedzie and Sacramento Avenues), but instead of trying to save your soul, these shamans are looking to lead you to the righteousness that is pedal power…with beer.

The commotion in the ’hood is Tour de Fat, the 11-city, ecofriendly, probike parade and beer-soaked celebration sponsored by the hopheads at Fort Collins, Colorado–based New Belgium Brewing Company, home of Fat Tire Belgian-style ale.

The day’s events will begin with a bike parade (organizers are asking spoke folks to come in costume, be it Teletubby, Smurf, lucha libre grappler or Halloween-leftovers mash-up) throughout the neighborhood, followed by a festivallike atmosphere complete with tunes from bands such as circus punks Mucca Pazza (playing on a solar-powered stage), and more than a few Fat Tire, Skinny Dip and Mothership Wit beers. Other cycle-centric attractions include bike-repair clinics and tune-ups as well as an interpretive dance-off with randomly paired contestants.

The centerpiece of the Tour de Fat is a Mardi Gras–like funeral procession throughout the park for one Chicagoan’s gas-guzzler followed by a replacement bicycle descending from the sky (via crane lift) like manna arriving from heaven. (Interested in going car-free and have a hunk of junk that qualifies? Contact organizers at followourfolly.com/index.html.) The winner will sign over the title to his or her car following the funeral and get a custom-built Schwinn cruiser replete with actual angelic wings to ride off into the sunset.

“For some people, I think it’ll be an upgrade from their car,” says Alex Wilson, director of West Town Bikes, the nonprofit cycling hub and workshop that will benefit from proceeds of the Tour de Fat (and use the cash for a shop expansion). “We’re in need of a larger facility so we can offer more youth and adult programs. This partnership with New Belgium Brewing is helping us reach that larger capacity.”

The brewery has long been an advocate of pedal power: Jeff Lebesch, who cofounded the brewery with his wife, Kim Jordan, became active in the bike community after a cycling tour of Belgium in the late ’80s. Jordan says the idea to bring the Tour de Fat (now in its ninth year) to Chicago was a no-brainer. “Our interests and Chicago’s interest in fostering a bicycling community are very much aligned,” Lebesch says.

According to Wilson, choosing the pedal over the pump is a quality-of-life (rather than dollars-and-cents) issue. “When you do start riding around on a bike for transportation, you quickly see your world transformed into a much nicer one.”

Tour de Fat begins at 9am Saturday 21 in Palmer Square.