STURGIS, S.D. – The city of Sturgis held its annual 2022 Post-Rally Summit Tuesday.
The event highlights the year’s largest tourist event in South Dakota and looks ahead to next year’s celebration.
Released Tuesday were demographic surveys of those attending this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. It shows the average age of attendees continues to fall, but the number of attendees who don’t own a motorcycle has actually increased.
Beka Zerbst, co-chair of the city’s Rally and Events Committee, says both statistics show the event shifting demographically.
Zerbst says the average age of rally-goers is 50.8-years old – down from 53.5 in 2017. Furthermore, she says time spent in downtown Sturgis during the rally has increased from 4.1 days to 4.6…
After the 75thy Rally in 2015, the number of long-term attendees began to drop. Then, during the pandemic year of 2020, the Rally was introduced to a new group of attendees – those from a seven state region surrounding South Dakota, including Colorado, Minnesota and Wyoming.
The rally also continues to shine a spotlight on its giving back to the local area. This year, just over a million dollars was raised for local charities. Sturgis City Manager Daniel Ainslie says it shows the Rally is one of the largest charitable events in the state.
Furthermore, the rally had a $784.1 million dollar economic impact on the state of South Dakota, supporting over 8,100 jobs. Plus, $44.8 million dollars in total state and local sales tax was collected.
Looking ahead, it was announced Tuesday, the city is planning to host a street race on Main Street, as well as keeping Main Street closed to motorcycle traffic only an extra day next year. Normally, Main Street is opened back up to all traffic the final Sunday. Plans are to extend that last Sunday for motorcycles only on Main Street.
The 83rd Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will run August 4th through through the 13th, 2023.
