If the city revoked permits for outside vendors, where would the attendees eat? Is there enough restaurant space in Sturgis for everyone? Or would the attendees cram into the indoor seating areas making things worse?
This is information useful in considering Joey_P’s position. I am definitely not saying you advocated closing them down.
Well, I WOULD advocate having cancelled the rally, myself. But to answer your question, not a chance on Sturgis having enough room to feed everybody! Rapid City (about 30 miles east) is the largest city in western South Dakota, and they could potentially take a lot of the overflow (they do normally, even during the rally there isn’t really enough room to feed everybody in Sturgis even with the pop-up vendor eateries). I mean, it’s not even a town of 8000 people- there are a few fast food places (McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway), a tiny Chinese place, a couple of small cafes, and then the biker-centric places that staff up for the Rally.
I can somewhat sympathize with the monied interests in the region- cancelling the rally is a bitter pill to swallow, because they have invested in these properties and licenses and whatnot to recoup their investments during that couple of weeks, and they will get NOTHING for the rest of the year, because as I said earlier, Sturgis really is a soulless husk of a town the rest of the year… almost literally, any more. So many investors from out of the area have bought properties that just sit vacant to open only during the rally that it does feel emptier now than it did even when I was a kid.
You could spend the entire 2 weeks at the Buffalo Chip or any of the other campgrounds and not run out of concerts to see, food to eat, liquor to drink, or motorcycle events to participate in.
All that, and you’d never once be within a mile of the Sturgis city limits.
I was going to make a comparison to Rennaissnce fairs. The Houston Renaissance Festival, which I assume is typical, is open all day, but the fairgrounds close at sunset. While many guests come for the day and then go home when the park closes, a large number of visitors choose to stay over on the park campgrounds, which is essentially a large open area for extra parking and space for trailers and tents. This is an area with no real amenities except for they bring in a bunch of port-a-potties.
The reason for the camping is the festival, and people aren’t camping there the rest of the year when the park is closed. However, you have a large assembly of people with at least one common interest hanging out from dusk until they feel like going to bed for the night, which for most people is not for a few hours. So, like any big group of people congregating for fun, they party.
They wander around and socialize. They hang out and drink. They throw a big bonfire and gather around for a drumming circle to dance to. None of this is official entertainment, there is no admission fee, there is no schedule of activities. It’s just people having out together like people do.
I would expect that any area catering to camping for the visitors would at a minimum be like that.
From the links provided, it looks like some have upped the ante to provide a bigger draw to their campground and make money on the venture. “Why go all the way into Sturgis, there’s plenty to do right here.”
Now none of this would be happening of not fit the Sturgis rally. However, if people have already made plans and arranged being off work and places to stay, and they are used to doing this big event and have their hearts set on it, then if they are suddenly told, “Sorry, we’re canceled,” I would expect a lot of them to say, “Screw it, I’m going anyway. I don’t have to go into Sturgis to have a good time.” Especially this crowd, who pride themselves on their independence and are already half protesting the pandemic.
And then maybe they start talking, and decide that if Sturgis is going to be so mean to them, maybe next year’s rally should be held somewhere else. I mean, what’s in Sturgis that’s the big draw? How did the really get started?
Well, close the restaurants for a couple days. safer for them anyway.
I’m not sure I understand the comparison. How is a bunch of people gathering outside and camping outside in, I assume, tents occupied with members of their household (or people they otherwise spend a lot of time with) the same as a bunch of people riding motorcycles around, and hanging out in bars and occupying the same hotels?
Besides, any comparison to any other city that had a large gathering just sounds, to me, like a 'if they jumped off a bridge, would you" question.
Did you ever get around to this? Slate has a better critique of the study than what was quoted from Reason above.
The comparison was with regards to there being plenty of activities outside of Sturgis proper to keep people occupied and socially interacting.
And while Ren Faire camping does involve people in tents or campers with their close ones, there is a lot of social activity beyond the people you drove in with. For starters, groups of friends make group camps. Then there are the folks wandering from camp to camp socializing, drinking, etc. Supposedly some people even hook up.
I am not trying to day in any way ren fairs are the equivalent to the Sturgis rally. Only that even if Sturgis proper had decided to close to visitors, the people who choose to attend would have had plenty of opportunity to make it a superspreader event. Knowing now that there are formalized activities out at campgrounds just makes it stronger.
Having worked at a Ren Faire for a number of years, and having spent many overnights staying on-site, I can assure you that there is no “supposedly” about it. 
What Ren Faires are happening this year? The one I go to every year in New York was cancelled as were several others in New York. Also cancelled: Maryland, Georgia, Arizona, Massachusetts (King Richard’s), Ohio, Minnesota, Kansas City, Santa Fe, Michigan, Oregon, Conniticut, Fort Bragg, several in CA…
I don’t know that any are - another way they are not like Sturgis.
All I was doing was pointing out that if you stick a bunch of humans together for a common interest, they tend to intermingle. There’s no requirement for there to be an official list of events - just some reason to inspire them to be all in the same place at the same time. Even a canceled reason if they want to protest the cancelation.
Something that I think should be pointed out is that having a Ren Fair isn’t a a justification for Strugis (or the other way around). It only serves to make things worse.
It’s a two wrongs don’t make a right type situation.
If you knew of gym or library that wasn’t requiring masks, them saying 'well, [other gym/library] doesn’t require them either. Exposing twice as many people doesn’t make it right.
As I keep saying (online and IRL) the more people give the middle finger to those saying they should wear masks, the longer this is going to drag out. If we want this to be over sooner rather than later, everyone, even anti-maskers, are going to have to suck it up and deal with wearing a mask for a month or two until we can get over the hump
Iowa’s RenFest is currently happening with a relatively low amount of safety policies.
That Slate piece is interesting.
No, I still haven’t gotten around to reading the report. It’s Week 2 of the semester, I’m teaching four college classes online, and it’s kicking my butt right now. Didn’t have time yet to sit down and read a 60+ page report to win an argument on the internet.
My news feed, however, did contain this article, suggesting that folks at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health are also somewhat critical of the study.
I notice no mask requirements. Still, that faire is spread out and will only host a few hundred or so, maybe 1000.
Nearly 400K attended Sturgis.
There is no comparison.
I grasp the difference, thank you.
It has been questioned above that many RenFests has been canceled, and I replied with one that was open, in a state where the reported cases almost doubled in the past week, and very few safety precautions in place.
It’s now been about as long since the Laconia Bike Week events in New Hampshire as it was between the Sturgis rally and the start of an uptick in coronavirus cases. As I remarked in the OP, it will be interesting to se if there’s a rise i n cases because of this event.
The Laconia Bike Week was postponed this year because of COVID, but it was still held, on Labor Day week this year (August 22 - August 30, 2020 ). The crowd was smaller than usual, and there apparently was mask-wearing.
I can’t find attendance figures, but it was estimated at 20% to 30% of its normal size, which would put it in the ballpark of 90,000 attendees over the week.
There does appear to be a slight rise in the New Hampshire New Coronavirus Cases, to about 53.
Maine seems to have a similar rise
Massachusetts is hard to tell, with that negative glitsch
Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island don’t seem to have any increases.
They banned beer tents and outside vendors at Weirs beach (the epicenter of Bike Week), and this story shows booths sheathed in plastic (although the people aren’t wearing masks, I notice)
Restaurants limited their capacity to less than half of normal Bike Week attendance. With not much to do, bikers toured the state (actually, they always do that. But this time they apparently spent less time congregating).
I’m certainly not giving a hard time one way or the other. I was curious about your thoughts having read the study, given that I haven’t read it either.
Dear Og, they’re at it again:
South Dakota followed up the Sturgis rally with a State Fair. Attendance was apparently down (it usually gets 200,000 or so), but I don’t know by how much.
The more things change…