Bikes, Blues & BBQ spreading regionally

Frank Hardman, general sales manager, prepares to ride past a row of motorcycles for sale Saturday at Pig Trail Harley-Davidson in Rogers. The business has had its own event during Bikes, Blues & BBQ for a decade. An extra 100 employees will be brought in for the event, said Frank Hardman, general sales manager. In addition, he said the business expects to sell about 200 motorcycles through the event.
Frank Hardman, general sales manager, prepares to ride past a row of motorcycles for sale Saturday at Pig Trail Harley-Davidson in Rogers. The business has had its own event during Bikes, Blues & BBQ for a decade. An extra 100 employees will be brought in for the event, said Frank Hardman, general sales manager. In addition, he said the business expects to sell about 200 motorcycles through the event.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Throttle jockeys can get the Bikes, Blues & BBQ experience without ever running tread on Dickson Street.

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette/CHARLIE KAIJO

Colton Williams and Elijah Williams, 5, of Fayetteville walk through rows of motorcycles Saturday at Pig Trail Harley-Davidson in Rogers.

What started in 2000 as a gathering of a few hundred riders to benefit Meals on Wheels has blossomed into a sprawling, thunderous regional event. Organizers quickly realized they needed to spread the traffic burden from the main drag downtown and in 2002 started strategically placing road barriers and tents. The festival has grown exponentially ever since.

Bikes, Blues & BBQ

Wednesday

Venue hours

Dickson Street Beer Garden — 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Baum Stadium Motorcycle Village — 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Washington County Fairgrounds Saloon — Noon to midnight

Monster Experience Venue at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale — Beer sales 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Event schedule

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Factory demo rides, Baum Stadium

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — CAF AirPower History Tour — Arkansas Air and Military Museum, 4290 S. School Ave., Fayetteville

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. — HOG registration and pin stop, Baum Stadium

9 p.m. — Miss BBB preliminaries, Washington County Fairgrounds

Music

Main Stage on Dickson Street

5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. — The Squarshers

7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. — Arkansauce

9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. — Mountain Sprout

Blues Alley Saloon at Bikes, Blues & BBQ Campground

7 p.m. to 11 p.m. — Blew Reed and the Flatheads

Thursday

Venue hours

Dickson Street Beer Garden — 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Baum Stadium Motorcycle Village — 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Washington County Fairgrounds Saloon — Noon to midnight

Monster Experience Venue at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale — Beer sales 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Event schedule

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Factory demo rides, Baum Stadium

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — CAF AirPower History Tour — Arkansas Air and Military Museum, 4290 S. School Ave., Fayetteville

9:30 a.m. — Bikes on the Bricks guided ride

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. — HOG registration and pin stop, Baum Stadium

10 a.m. — Whataburger VIP guided ride

2 p.m. to 7 p.m. — Military appreciation event, Arvest Ballpark

8 p.m. — Mr. Bikes, Blues & BBQ — Washington County Fairgrounds

Music

Main Stage on Dickson Street

4 p.m. to 5 p.m. — Gary Hutchinson

5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. — Funk Factory

7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. — Oreo Blue

9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. — Earl and Them

Blues Alley Saloon at Bikes, Blues & BBQ Campground

6 p.m. to 11 p.m. — Brickfields

Friday

Venue hours

Dickson Street Beer Garden — 2 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Baum Stadium Motorcycle Village — 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Washington County Fairgrounds Saloon — Noon to midnight

Monster Experience Venue at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale — Beer sales 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Event schedule

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Factory demo rides, Baum Stadium

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — CAF AirPower History Tour — Arkansas Air and Military Museum, 4290 S. School Ave., Fayetteville

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Fayetteville firefighters poker runs, Baum Stadium

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. — HOG registration and pin stop, Baum Stadium

6 p.m. — Cruise on Dickson for car show

6:15 p.m. — “Bring the Heat” Whataburger jalapeno eating contest, Pabst Blue Ribbon stage on Dickson Street

6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. — People’s Choice at the Arkansas State BBQ Championship, Washington County Fairgrounds

7 p.m. — Lawn mower pulls, Washington County Fairgrounds

8 p.m. — Miss BBB qualifier, Washington County Fairgrounds

Music

Main Stage on Dickson Street

3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. — Leah & the Mojo Doctors

5 p.m. to 6 p.m. — Vintage Pistol

6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. — The Uncrowned Kings

8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. — Hot Lix

10:30 p.m. to midnight — Jason D. Williams

Blues Alley Saloon at Bikes, Blues & BBQ Campground

6 p.m. to midnight — Boston Mountain Playboys

Saturday

Dickson Street Beer Garden — 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Baum Stadium Motorcycle Village — 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Washington County Fairgrounds Saloon — Noon to midnight

Monster Experience Venue at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale — Beer sales 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Event schedule

All day — Factory demo rides, Baum Stadium

7 a.m. — Registration for Stokes Air/Nabholz Construction “Battle of the Bikes,” Dickson Street Beer Garden

7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. — Arkansas State BBQ Championship at Bikes, Blues & BBQ, Washington County Fairgrounds

8 a.m. — Bikes, Blues & BBQ Car Show registration and show — Arvest Ballpark

9 a.m. to 2 p.m. — “Battle of the Bikes,” Dickson Street

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — CAF AirPower History Tour — Arkansas Air and Military Museum, 4290 S. School Ave., Fayetteville

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Fayetteville firefighters poker runs, Baum Stadium

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. — HOG registration and pin stop, Baum Stadium

1 p.m. — Bikes, Blues & BBQ karaoke wild card competition, Washington County Fairgrounds

3 p.m. — Bikes, Blues & BBQ karaoke finals, Washington County Fairgrounds

3:30 p.m. — Parade of Power sponsored by Heritage Indian of Northwest Arkansas, staging at Washington County Fairgrounds

7 p.m. — Lawn mower pulls, Washington County Fairgrounds

Music

Main Stage on Dickson Street

2 p.m. to 4 p.m. — Mister Lucky

4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. — Divas on Fire

6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. — Arkansauce

8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. — The Mixtapes

10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. — Dead Metal Society

Blues Alley Saloon at the Bikes, Blues & BBQ Campground

5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. — Brody Buster

9 p.m. to midnight — Dr. NOLA and the Soul Shakers

Source: Staff report

Exhibitions have gone up at Baum Stadium, and campers have settled in at the Washington County Fairgrounds for about a decade. Arvest Ballpark in Springdale became a satellite venue in 2014 with car and motorcycle shows and barbecue cook-offs. It marked the first officially sanctioned venue outside of Fayetteville and has grown from a two-day affair to all four days of this year's festival.

Pig Trail Harley-Davidson in Rogers has had its own mini-rally outside the store since 2007. A new addition this year, Bikes on the Bricks, will offer riders a chiller vibe, care of the Rogers Downtown Partners.

Eureka Springs, already known as a tourist destination, has become a second home of sorts to the rally because of its scenic rides and lodging. Riders frequently book a year in advance.

The regulars got savvy about the experience, said Mike Maloney, executive director of the Eureka Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission.

"Let's put it this way: Not everybody will ride up and down Dickson Street because there are so many motorcycles," he said. "But for a lot of people that's an OK thing."

Fayetteville officials are OK with it, too. The rally's regional reach doesn't take away from the city's piece of the proverbial pie, because with an estimated 325,000 to 350,000 attendees, there's plenty of pie to go around.

Shiloh struttin'

The natural progression of the rally lent itself to expand north, said Tommy Sisemore, executive director. With Pig Trail in Rogers and the festival's main hub in Fayetteville, Arvest Ballpark right in between seemed like a perfect fit, he said.

New attractions this year in Springdale include a demo truck with all the latest and greatest Harley-Davidson models available for test ride. The Full Throttle Stunt Riders on Friday and Saturday will put on a high-energy show. Of course, the car show will be there. The latest models from Everett Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Fiat will be, too. Snap-On will have tools on display to go with the motorcycles.

In Fayetteville, participants usually grab a turkey leg and meander about. In Springdale, they'll be able to sit down, like in a restaurant, and have a pulled pork sandwich. And, beer sales will be available all four days this year, just like the beer gardens in Fayetteville.

The idea wasn't to expand for the sake of it but to cultivate a partnership that made sense, Sisemore said.

"We're going to continue to try to grow and cultivate Springdale and push people downtown now that they've started the downtown revitalization program," he said. "They've got some great entertainment spots at bars and some nightlife."

Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse said he's heard residents talking about organizing a ride through the city. Construction might prevent that now, but that won't be the case in a year or two, he said.

"I can see it being a real attractive place for some expansion of Bikes and Blues events," Sprouse said. The Springdale City Council unanimously voted in August to recognize Bikes, Blues & BBQ as a city-approved special event.

Roger, Rogers

The Pig Trail rally on Hudson Road is independent from Bikes & Blues, although the store serves as a sponsor. Sixty to 75 vendors sell food, T-shirts, merchandise and leather goods. About 400 motorcycles will be on display for sale.

Mike Hall, who works in marketing for Pig Trail, estimated 25,000 to 35,000 riders attend during peak times on Friday and Saturday, although it's hard to know for sure. Heritage Indian Motorcycle of Northwest Arkansas is just down the street.

"It just keeps getting more and more and more," he said. "We're to the point now where we rent out any available space around us to use for parking just to handle the volume of traffic we have during the rally here."

A few miles away, downtown Rogers will have its first bikes-themed event. The local merchants association, Rogers Downtown Partners, coordinated with rally officials, but it's not an official rally event, said Julie Loose, a board member.

"We just wanted, with the area tourists and the motorcyclists here in town, to offer them something they can't possibly get in Fayetteville, which is more of just a laid back setting," she said. "We have a beautiful historic downtown, and we've got everything they want."

An organized ride will happen Thursday morning, starting in Fayetteville and heading to Rogers for lunch. From there, the group will head to Eureka Springs for some shopping.

Perhaps most notably, Ozark Vintage Motorcycle Association will have its vintage motorcycle show at Frisco Park. It has been at Arvest Ballpark.

Pieces of the pie

It got harder for riders to find lodging about year five or six of the rally, once crowds swelled to more than 100,000. That's when Eureka Springs saw a boom, Maloney said.

"They found if they rode not too far to the east, about 45 minutes away, they had a whole town at their disposal," he said. "They had plenty of lodging, Monday through Friday, which was hard to find in the [NWA] corridor."

Maloney estimated 10,000 riders come into Eureka Springs every year although the city isn't directly associated with the festival. The riders serve as a huge economic asset with money spent on dining, lodging and refueling, he said.

"I equate Bikes, Blues & BBQ as ground zero in the eye of the hurricane, and we get the bands of wind and everything else that goes along with Bikes, Blues & BBQ in Eureka Springs," he said. "It's like dropping a rock in the middle of a pond, but we get the big, big ripples."

Sisemore said the crowds the last few years in Fayetteville haven't waned with rally-goers staying in Eureka Springs or hanging out in Rogers.

"Rather than try to keep everybody condensed down into one area, it makes more sense to be able to spread it out to the outlying areas," he said. "Bikes, Blues & BBQ is definitely a regional rally."

Hotel, motel and restaurant sales tax receipts for September have gone up consistently since 2007, from $177,243 to $301,790, according to figures from the city's tourism bureau, Experience Fayetteville.

The taxes reflect everything that went on in Fayetteville in September, but for the 2013 rally, the University of Arkansas' Center for Business and Economic Research issued a study on the rally's economic impact. Researchers found the average visitor spent 3.8 days at the rally, ate 8.9 meals in Fayetteville and spent $401, or almost $106 per day.

The study compared attendance estimates from 2005 and 2013. Estimating attendance is no pure science. Organizers have used hotel and campground occupancy rates, tracked trash tonnage and tallied beer and merchandise sales. They've also tried aerial photos.

Carla McPhee of Chicago said she and her boyfriend are coming to the rally this year to spread the word about the Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial in Marseilles, Ill.

The names of soldiers killed in action are etched into granite slabs after each Memorial Day. Those soldiers, and their families and friends, are honored at the annual Illinois Motorcycle Freedom Run on the third weekend in June, according to the organization's website.

The organizer of Arkansas Run for the Fallen, who had a son killed in action, was inspired by the Illinois wall and decided to bring such an event to Arkansas, McPhee said.

McPhee and her boyfriend plan to have "home base" in Branson, Mo., for a six-day trip. They'll spend Friday and Saturday at the rally and meet up with some friends from Colorado.

"We really want to explore as many miles in Arkansas as we can," she said. "I've never been there."

Better with age

Over the years the rally has gained new venues in Fayetteville and unofficial ones in other Northwest Arkansas spots, which means it's attracting more and more people, said Steve Clark, president of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce. From the city's perspective, that's a good thing.

"The secret of all of our success is our collaboration and cooperation," he said. "It's that regionalism. This is an event that's gone from a Fayetteville event to a regional event."

The charitable beneficiaries of the rally are regional entities, so it makes sense the region would come together during the rally, Clark said. The $200,000 commitment over 10 years the rally made last year to Arkansas Children's Northwest Hospital in Springdale is something everyone will benefit from, Clark used as an example.

The rally bills itself as the country's top charity rally. It has donated more than $1.5 million since 2000, according to organizers. Last year's beneficiaries included 7 Hills Homeless Center, Habitat for Humanity and the Northwest Arkansas Center for Sexual Assault.

More attention regionally means more attention nationally, which can translate into more economic opportunities for the city, Clark said. Tourists, businesses or organizations that might not otherwise hear about Fayetteville will as the rally's scope grows, he said.

"It's all good, and it's only getting better," Clark said.

Motorcycle magazines, websites and publications frequently list Bikes, Blues & BBQ among the top rallies in the country. Its effects are felt far and wide, including in Joplin, Mo., which sees a noticeable bump at its convenience stores and hotels, said Patrick Tuttle, director of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"I know they're coming through. They always have. I think it's probably increasing. It's been on the increase the last couple of years," he said. "We talk about it as the biggest thing outside of Sturgis and Daytona."

Sisemore kept future plans to expand official rally venues close to the vest. But, there have been no signs of slowing down, he said.

"We're trying now to make sure we get the best quality sponsors and vendors we can find," he said. "Growth is always great, but we want to grow with great partners and offer the best product we can to folks in Northwest Arkansas."

NW News on 09/18/2017

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