www.msrally.com
They are having this again this year after 3 years. Anyone going? I live 50 miles for there so i am going down to check it out.

 

I'm going

 

I'll probably go.

 

I went, along with a couple of friends with whom I'd attended for several years before it went dormant. We didn't have any great expectations, just wanted to see how the locals would try to resurrect an event they had pretty successfully killed.

We rode up from Baton Rouge on Thursday, 8/14th. Sturgis MS was almost totally dead -- only a couple of vendors setting up on Main St, saw only a handful of bikes in the area. We had reservations at the (relatively) new La Quinta Inn on the north side of town -- nice hotel, nice staff, good rates.

On Friday, 8/15th, we rode down to Sturgis after breakfast to register for the event -- a few more vendors setting up, still few bikes visible. Interesting discussion with some of the ladies in the registration tent -- apparently Sturgis, SD, had threatened to sue if they used the wording "Sturgis Bike Rally" in any fashion, so they had been forced to scrap t-shirts, patches, etc, with that wording. Official language now was something like "The Bike Rally at Sturgis, MS". We went back late afternoon to find a noticeably greater number of bikes on the street, but only about 10-20% of the vendors participating in the past were present. We went to the concert Friday PM -- local garage bands, not so good!

Saturday, 8/16th, was an interesting change -- lots of bikes, lots of folks walking up/down Main St. I didn't take part in the organized rides, but some friends who did seemed to enjoy themselves. The few vendors who had been willing to risk attending seemed to be doing very well(!) We attended the Saturday night concert -- the first band was "Southern Halo" and they were three teenage sisters who were actually pretty good(!)

Sunday, 8/17th (today), we left the hotel at 07:00 heading home. The overall rally experience was pretty poor, but considering that the locals are trying to resurrect a 3-year dead event I'd have to say they did a decent job. For me, this was primarily a fun weekend spent with a couple of good friends with whom I've covered a lot of miles over the years. Will I come back to Sturgis, MS, next year? Probably not, simply because I'm planning on going to the rally in SD. But I wish the locals well and maybe I'll check it out in 2016.

 

I had a great time

There was way more ppl there than I figured it would be.

It's not spectacular but it's 45 min from the house so I hope it survives

 

Is it still a "dry" area?

 

I went 1 year and never wanted to get back. As i recall the only interesting thing to speak of was the concerts at the ball field. and even then i cant remember who performed. sad but true!
Starkville was fun though! I remember all of that!!!!

 

Went one yr , 4 couples and we liked to died of thirst , dry county never went back never will go back , next year planning on heading to the real Sturgis Motorcycle Rally .

 

Well it was really more than i was expecting for an event that had been dead for 3 years. Food from the couple vendors was way high. Alligator on a stick was $7 and apparently it was a baby alligator! I guess the girls that played saturday night were ok but to me everything they played sounded like an old "Heart" song from the 1980's. I looked around the ball field saturday night when the bands were playing and saw few bikers. There were a large number of regular non-biker people who were walking around a bike rally in the middle of the streets with their backs turned to traffic like they were in Wal-mart, completely oblivious to motorcycle traffic that was missing them by inches.

 

We had some excellent BBQ from the two black guys set up on a side street, and their pigskins were great; didn't try any other vendors.

And you're right about the pedestrians -- there seemed to be more cages than bikes. We struggled to get thru the crowd to ride back to the ball field. One broad-beamed woman complained loudly that we "almost run right over me!" (we really didn't, but a blast from my air horn to get her attention probably made her soil her spandex...