Sturgis Rally saw younger crowd

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - The City of Sturgis wrapped up the numbers for the 2022 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Tuesday, and the demographics show attendees are getting younger.

Demographic surveys this year indicate a shift in the average age of attendees. In 2015, the average age of rallygoers was 53.1 and this year that figure was down to 50.8.

“One thing that stood out for me this year is the median age of our attendees. You can see that it is getting younger, and I think that that really speaks to the efforts that the city has made in appealing and marketing the rally to a younger crowd,” said Beka Zerbst, Sturgis city council member and chair of the city’s Rally & Events Committee

The city also found that 15% of people were first-time attendees in 2022. This is down from last year, statistics show that it was at 27% in 2021 and 37% in 2020. This correlates with the average attendee who had already been to Sturgis 9 times before attending this year. Meaning, while new people did attend the rally, those who had attended before were more inclined to return.

According to the City of Sturgis, a topic of concern were the daily attendance numbers, which indicated a big drop-off during the last weekend of the rally.

The city said they are planning to add more events during the last weekend in order to hold the crowds longer before ending the rally.

This year social media played a big role in what age group the City of Sturgis was trying to reach.

“We always are trying to reach a new audience with social media with the Sturgis motorcycle rally. The algorithms are always changing so we are always chasing the next generation of not just riders but rally attendees,” said Chris Hornick, HomeSlice Group media vice president.

Most people at the rally were from South Dakota followed by Colorado, Minnesota, and Wyoming. International rallygoers, only accounted for 4.4%.

Plans are already underway for next year.

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