The Sturgis city manager said the motorcycle rally that ended Sunday might be the second largest in more than a decade. Over 400 thousand vehicles were counted last week.
Daniel Ainslie said that includes a demographic shift due to COVID restrictions.
“Unlike some of the traditional rallies, we still did not have very many international visitors. Usually, international visitors make up 10 to 15 percent of the crowd,” Ainslie said. “This year is about one to two percent, so it was a lot more American-focused.”
A new open container rule went into effect during the rally. It allowed people to have open containers of alcohol downtown.
Ainslie said the initiative was well received.
“That was something that was used to try and mitigate obviously some of the issues that are still revolving around COVID-19 to make sure people were able to be outdoors a lot more,” he said. “Not feel as crowded or cramped kind of in a lot of the bars.”
There were 60 injury accidents and four deaths during the rally. Those numbers are only slightly changed from last year. Meanwhile, arrests for serious crimes were down while citations and warning tickets were up.
This story comes from a recent interview on SDPB's weekday radio program, "In the Moment." Listen to the full interview below.