The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally 2026 is underway as hundreds of thousands of riders descend on South Dakota’s Black Hills for the 86th edition of the world’s largest bike rally.
Motorcycles pack downtown streets and riders fan out across the Black Hills, with concerts, races, stunt shows, motorcycle demonstrations, vendor exhibitions and organized rides taking place throughout the region.
Country star Lainey Wilson is set to perform August 12.
The event extends far beyond the city itself, with concerts, races, stunt shows, motorcycle demonstrations, vendor exhibitions and organized rides taking place throughout the region.
The concert lineup includes David Lee Roth on August 7, YUNGBLUD on August 9, Megadeth on August 8, Lynyrd Skynyrd on August 11, and Lainey Wilson on August 12.
Other acts on the concert schedule include Rob Zombie and Insane Clown Posse.
Pappy Hoel was an Indian Motorcycle dealer in Sturgis, South Dakota, in 1938 when he started the rally, largely as a racing event and as a way to promote his local dealership.
“He was like a P.T. Barnum-type character. He always had a trick up his sleeve,” said Vinny Terranova, who knew Hoel and his wife Pearl and who operates their original Junction Avenue motorcycle shop today as Pappy’s Vintage Cycles.
“He loved motorcycles, loved racing and loved motorcyclists,” said Terranova of Pappy Hoel.
“He and Pearl always had a pot of beans and franks on the grill. Pearl remembered the menu of that first year: ‘Weenies, sloppy joes, potato salad and watermelon for dessert.’ The rally riders washed their free meal down with iced tea or coffee, served in a tent behind the Hoels’ garage at their dealership.”
Two hundred motorcyclists attended the first rally; then 800 showed up the next year, and it continued to balloon from there.
In the viral moment that launched the rally’s legacy,
there were 9 racers for that first Saturday in 1938, with 8 Indian bikes and 1 Harley, and the overall named champion was Johnny Spiegelhoff.
Pappy Hoel crashed through a ‘burning wall’ which became a common practice for many future Sturgis Rallies.
The rally has grown exponentially since those humble beginnings.
Attendance has historically been around 500,000 people, reaching a high of over 700,000 in 2015.
The event takes place over 10 days and generates around $800 million in annual revenue, and the first rally was held by Indian Motorcycle riders on August 14, 1938, by the Jackpine Gypsies motorcycle club.
Harley-Davidson is making its own mark on this year’s rally. The motorcycle manufacturer announced it would be debuting its new Deadwood motorcycle at the event, a new model inspired in part by the post-war history of the Sturgis Rally.
Indian Motorcycle is also introducing a new bike at the rally.
The 86th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally runs August 7th through August 16th.