By now the campground dust has settled after the 70th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally which brought thousands of motorcyclists and music fans to the legendary Buffalo Chip.
There were raucous crowds mixed with top tier entertainment at the “Chip” this year. Even Pee Wee Herman lived through it to write on a blog for The Huffington Post about his experience. See his video HERE. But, overall it cemented the venue as one of the better entertainment locations with an array of art, vendors, food and people gawking (responsibly of course!). The selection of musical guests resulted in one of the biggest music festivals of its kind in South Dakota. Doing a bit of name dropping, the entertainment included; Ozzy Osbourne, Bob Dylan, Kid Rock, Motley Crue, the Scorpions, ZZ Top, The Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason, Lee Rocker, Tesla, Drowning Pool, Creedence Clearwater Revisited, The Guess Who, Trailer Choir, Buckcherry, Orianthi, Stone Sour, Jason Aldean, Williams & Ree and Disturbed.
But here’s the rub… there were a lot of people going to/from the Chip. I was part of the 5 mile commute from town to the campground traffic jam that ran from the Buffalo Chip to I-90 on Tuesday night (August 10th) as rally-goers sat on over heating motorcycles for a couple of hours on what locals call the annual “biker crawl” to catch the Bob Dylan/Kid Rock show.
The Chip celebrated it’s twenty-ninth year of operation. That’s twenty-nine years of motorcyclists trapped in wicked heat and traffic grid lock. There’s no excuse for an experience like this. In Sturgis there were NO law enforcement officers directing traffic nor were there any Buffalo Chip staff. Just grid lock. What went wrong and why is there no traffic coordination? Were people improperly trained? Did too many people overwhelm the event or have budgets been cut so slim that the job can no longer be done? It’s a case of pointing fingers.
Bob Dylan at The Buffalo Chip -- 2010
Ron Woodruff is the owner of the Buffalo Chip campground who I’m sure has great pride having overseen the tremendous growth and World Wide recognition the “Chip” has earned as one of the premier concert venues in the mid-west. Tried to correct this situation, he has and last fall he tried again to get the Meade County commissioners to take corrective action, but the commissioners defeated a Woodruff backed bill which would have set aside money to purchase land for a shortcut from the major campgrounds to I-90. I’m sure the meeting went something like this: “We don’t need no road that will only be used for two weeks out of the year. It will kill the vendors who depend on Main and Lazelle traffic for their business.”
The dust settles on "The Chip"
But as a business, the Sturgis town council and the Buffalo Chip should never be happy when people attend the rally, put down hard earned money for music concerts and have a bad experience for any reason. It’s a simple situation. How many times a year can someone afford to drop $300 for two people to go to a concert, drink a few beers, eat a Gyro and buy a t-shirt? Not many. So, they need to listen to the customer and make changes. How about traffic police coordination? How about traffic alerts? Or Twitter updates on the expected delays or reasons? How about park and ride buses with express lanes? Something. Anything!
And while I’m on this rant… how about that lame video set up on the Chip stage? Hey Ron, 1979 called and said they want their VCR camcorder back! Are margins so tight that a short-term rental of a couple video JumboTrons for people to see the artists or the Miss Buffalo Chip Beauty Contest be out of question? Lastly, there use to be a TV segment on ABC called the “Fleecing of America”… I suggest a segment called the Sturgis “Fleecing of Every Motorcycle Music Fan?” You see those stop signs that help create the grid-lock, become after the Chip concert, mixed with Monkey Rock and Full Throttle motorcyclists into a law enforcement sobriety stop as police officers stood in the street wafting for alcohol with their scientifically trained nose. When they found an offence they processed tickets speedier and more efficient than the Hertz rental car return!
Were there irresponsible riders? Oh yeah, and many of those who participated a bit more than others caught a free ride out of the traffic jam. Yep, the Chip truly captures the essence of the motorcycle lifestyle, but it’s time for some changes.
Photo’s taken at the Buffalo Chip.
Northwest Harley Blog 
I am perplexed. Mac refers to the town council defeating a motion to set aside money for a bypass. As a member of that council, I do not have a record of any such motion being presented and voted on. I believe he is referring to the Meade County commissioners who would be responsible for any purchases or road building as the Chip is in the county….not in the city limits. I worked at the Chip for many, many years as stage manager and know how important the Chip is to the Rally. This year was difficult. It was the 70th, Harley moved it’s operation back to Sturgis, and there was an additional concert venue on the road that goes out to the Chip. As a city we care very much about the experience of our “guests” (we went so far as to provide more parking and eliminating some of the charges for it). We would like nothing better than to provide quick easy access for concert goers (I am one of them), but people have to realize we are also a small community that puts on the biggest event of it’s kind in the world! We will continue to try and find solutions for traffic issues and would welcome any and all suggestions….you have my email.
David, thanks for your feedback/comments. I stated “town council”, but was indeed referring to Meade County commissioners. I’ll update/correct the post to make it more clear, but the negative perception waterfalls onto the city as most don’t know where the county lines reside.
From my vantage the overall grade on the Sturgis experience was good and the city deserves a shout out.
But, that traffic jam is obscene and a major negative to spending money/time at the Chip etc. During peak times couldn’t law enforcement work the 2-3 stop signs on main street and control/provide priority travel flow to the people (80%) trying to make it to the music venues? One simple thought is make people looking to cross the street wait longer than 5 seconds before they stop/back up traffic. -mac