The 84th Sturgis Rally aftermath

Sturgis, S.D. (KELO) — The 84th Sturgis Rally ended just a few days ago and already the city is getting back to normal day-to-day operations.

This year’s rally attendance was up around 3% compared to last year.

“Last year it was 458,000 and this year it was 470,000. And so we’re pleased, I mean this is a year leading into an anniversary year and so when you can see even a little bit of an increase, that’s a good sign.” Director of Communications Deb Holland Said

Officials and workers here at the Sturgis Rally every day said that, while walking through the streets or the events, the feelings among all the riders here were very positive.

“From our side, I think they did really well. We had staff that were here the whole rally. We didn’t have anybody get sick, which was great. The 15 to 18-hour days were well worth it to make everything go off smoothly for everybody,” Rally and Events Director Tammy Even-Cordell said.

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A major topic of discussion leading up to the rally was the inclusion of American Flat Track racing through downtown Sturgis on the final day of the rally.

“The adventure trackers, those kinds of bikes, so you can tell that they are certainly targeting a different demographic and they’re younger. And so we’re excited that it will bring in a new and varied audience to the event,” Holland said.

The success opened up opportunities for new manufacturing vendors to attend the rally in the future.

A successful rally is also determined by community support.

“The library, public works always does a great job. Our finance office does incredible planning and developing. Lisa Katzenstein, she does a little bit of everything, keeping everybody’s IT going, helping out in catering. We just have a great group here,” Even-Cordell said.

As city officials take some time to recover from the rally, plans for the 85th anniversary will be discussed in a few weeks.