25th rally hailed a success
The Magpie Madness Rally’s 25th annual event held at Winchester over at the weekend has continued its success, its organisers say.
Timaru, Temuka and Geraldine (TTAG) Motorcycle Touring Club president Shawn Allen said the event, held at the Winchester A&P Showgrounds, was held from Friday evening and ran right through Saturday, offering many forms of entertainment including good music, motorcycles, a mechanical bull and sumo wrestling.
‘‘It was a long weekend with very little sleep. We had about 800 people that came in.
‘‘We saw all types of bikes from the 1950s right through to the 2000s at the weekend.’’
Allen said the rally was all about those who attended and feedback from those at the event was ‘‘tremendous’’.
‘‘The rally is for the punters coming in and they actually make this rally what it is.
‘‘Everybody I spoke to enjoyed it and they will be coming back next year. That is what they tell me.’’
He said the entertainment began on Friday evening after people began piling in after 3pm.
‘‘We had two bands on Friday night, and on Saturday the ‘sausage motor bite’ proved to be entertaining. This is where you bite off a sausage from a pole while riding a bike.
‘‘We had sumo [wrestling] and a mechanical bull which were big hits as were the bike shows and two bands on Saturday night.’’
Funds were also raised for the Westpac air rescue helicopter appeal but it was too early to confirm how much they had raised, Allen said.