For the last 12 years this event was held at the beautiful Cashman Center that turned it from a small downtown event into a first-class national motorcycle event. Hands-down this was my favorite event to cover each year. The Cashman Center included The Artistry in Iron custom bike show, rally events as well as first-class vendors that you would normally not see at a lot of events.
This year the event was relocated between the 8th and 10th blocks of Fremont Street around four blocks from the Fremont Street Experience. The Artistry in Iron show was held in the lobby of what looked like a closed casino and hotel. The rest of the event was held outside in two parking lots that included a couple of small stages as well as what I call “Flea Market Vendors.”
Since I only stayed Thursday and Friday, I can only report on the attendance for those days and it seemed like there were more security and event personal than rally attendees. I’m sure Saturday was slammed as it usually is at these long weekend events.
I’m sure there were reasons for the change of venue for this event, possibly financial or maybe the Cashman Center was no longer available. I have read that the marketing manager of the event said, “They [the motorcyclists] wanted something that had more of a rally feel.”
I am very disappointed that I had to report what is solely my own opinion of this year’s event in a negative way. I have been accused many times over the years of sugar coating a lot of the events that I cover and that’s probably true. But, I usually try to bring out the positive and ignore the negative. I am also a firm believer of not burning bridges, but in this case it is a bridge I not longer plan on crossing.