Bikes, Blues & BBQ rally hitting road north to Rogers
FAYETTEVILLE — The anchor location of Bikes, Blues & BBQ will move to Rogers this year, festival organizers announced Thursday.
The event, traditionally held the last week of September, will happen Oct. 5-8. Specific festivities and locations in the city are to be determined, said Tommy Sisemore, the rally’s executive director.
An announcement posted on the Bikes, Blues & BBQ rally Facebook page at 4 p.m. Thursday said festival organizers partnered with the city of Rogers and the Rogers-Lowell Chamber of Commerce to host this year’s event.
A board of directors runs the rally’s nonprofit organization, which raises money during the event every year for regional charities. Sisemore said logistical issues largely contributed to the board’s decision to move the rally from Fayetteville to Rogers.
Construction will be underway soon on the privately owned parking lot at the northwest corner of Dickson Street and West Avenue to build a new parking deck. Groundbreaking for the parking deck is scheduled for Monday.
Several official Bikes and Blues vendors typically set up shop on that lot and the cityowned lot west of the Walton Arts Center. Construction of the parking deck is expected to take about a year. After that, the civic space of Fayetteville’s cultural arts corridor will start construction at the Walton Arts Center lot, where the festival’s main stage has been.
Additionally, the Arkansas Razorbacks football team will play Texas A&M in Arlington, Texas, on Sept. 24, and Alabama in Fayetteville on Oct. 1.
The combination of construction at the lots and Razorback athletic events
prompted the board to consider a different main location for the rally, Sisemore said. Several attendees had been reaching out to rally organizers asking where to book a hotel after the rally was canceled the past two years in Fayetteville, he said.
The most recent rally happened in 2019. The event was canceled for the first time in 2020 because of the covid-19 pandemic. A rally was planned for September last year; however, the University of Arkansas withdrew an agreement that would have allowed the event to set up at a parking lot near Baum-Walker Stadium, citing concerns with pandemic hospitalizations in the region.
Steve Clark, president of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce and a member of the rally’s board, said he didn’t see the main event moving to Rogers as a loss for Fayetteville. The rally has become more regional in nature, and the board’s decision moves in line with that trend, he said.
“There’s not anything wrong with Fayetteville, and there wasn’t anything about Fayetteville saying ‘you’re not welcomed,’” Clark said.
A 2014 study from the University of Arkansas Center for Business and Economic Research found that rally attendees from outside Northwest Arkansas spend $402 each during the event. With an estimated 170,000 out-of-town visitors among the 300,000 total attendees, the estimated figure comes to a nearly $69 million overall economic impact. Adjusted for inflation, that’s an estimated $79 million in today’s dollars.
When the region sees economic benefits, so do the individual cities, Clark said. Dickson Street will still see plenty of business from motorcyclists, he said.
A Fayetteville spokeswoman said about 5 p.m. Thursday that administrators had not gotten official word from Bikes and Blues about moving the event, and therefore had no comment.
Board members considered a few cities before deciding on Rogers, Sisemore said. The Northwest Arkansas Championship of the LPGA is happening Sept. 19-25 in Rogers, so event organizers opted for the first week in October instead, he said.
Rogers Mayor Greg Hines said in a text message Thursday that the city looks forward to coordinating with the rally board and supporting the festival as it moves into a new era.
Sisemore said the rally likely will keep its main events in Rogers for subsequent years.
“Nothing is forever, but I imagine this will be a multiyear deal,” he said. “It would be hard to continue to grow and plan on a year-to-year basis.”
The first rally was held in 2000 with about 300 riders, stemming from Bike Night at the former Jose’s restaurant on Dickson Street in Fayetteville, according to the Bike and Blues website. Participation grew, and annual attendance was estimated somewhere around 300,000 in recent years.
Festivities reached to different Northwest Arkansas cities as the rally’s popularity grew. Arvest Ballpark in Springdale became a satellite venue starting in 2014 with car and motorcycle shows.
For the past few years, Rogers has hosted Bikes on the Bricks downtown, and the Rogers Downtown Rotary Club has hosted the Frisco Inferno BBQ contest. Pig Trail Harley-Davidson for years has thrown its own Rally Off Exit 86 at the same time as the Bikes and Blues festival.
Putting the rally’s main event in Rogers presents the best opportunity to raise the most money for charities, Sisemore said. The rally has raised more than $3 million for regional nonprofits since 2000, according to its website.
Mandy Brashear, a Rogers City Council member, said the rally’s charitable efforts made her most excited about hosting the event. The city is in a strong position to accommodate a large regional event such as Bikes and Blues with its well-developed infrastructure and hospitality amenities, she said.
Brashear said she thinks Rogers residents will react positively to the news, understanding the economic benefit it will bring. The city has hosted events in conjunction with Bikes and Blues in the past that residents welcomed, she said.
“I think that getting to be the host city is exciting,” Brashear said. “I also think in some ways it won’t be a huge change in terms of what it feels like that weekend. People are already visiting Rogers as part of the event.”
Steve Clark, president of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce and a member of the rally’s board, said he didn’t see the main event moving to Rogers as a loss for Fayetteville.