Spring Break
Sturgis South 2007
Better take off those training wheels before heading to this Mississippi motorcycle rally
David Breland
Issue date: 8/24/07 Section: Entertainment
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Motorcycle owners and enthusiasts bombard the town over the three-day event. Some even come a week in advance to the rally.
"I've been coming here for five years and always love to ride. I take three days of vacation every year to come here it's sort of a mini vacation for me," Florence, Miss. native Vernon Black said.
Throughout the town campers of all shapes and sizes, along with tents and whatever else folks can sleep in, are strewn about.
What is the attraction to this sleepy Mississippi hamlet? The name.
Sturgis, Miss. happens to share the same name of the infamous South Dakota town that is home to the oldest and largest bike rally. So, a few years ago a group of friends that rode motorcycles together decided to start a "little Sturgis" motorcycle rally, hoping those folks who couldn't make the trek to South Dakota would come to Sturgis, Miss. instead.
The rally grew quickly. 800 people attended the event in 1997, with that number increasing to 35,000 just eight years later.
This year the tradition continued.
Motorcycles of nearly every imaginable shape, size and color were parked along the main street of the town. All the while, cars, trucks and motorcycles cruised up and down the street. Even one rider was wearing a Viking-esque motorcycle helmet complete with actual horns extending out.
"We have riders from all over the country come here," rally entertainment director Donny Hanson said. "We get a lot of folks from Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas, but we get folks from as far away as Texas and from up north."
Vendors selling everything from hot dogs and funnel cakes to leather chaps and motorcycle parts neatly lined along the sidewalks and lawns of Sturgis.
A group of students from MSU also had a booth at the rally. MSU's National Association of Industrial Technology chapter was present with their ten-foot tall cowbell at the rally selling MSU ice cream and cold water for rally attendees in the heat.
The club was also selling a T-shirt featuring a cowbell on the front and the saying "I got my bell rung at Sturgis."
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