Quote:
Originally Posted by herr_oberst
If you don't have an inkling of what happens out there you probably don't need to know now.
The essence of what it was is long overshadowed by what it's become.
I think Sturgis is the perfect example of the reciprocal to Burning Man. One's for cowboys and one-percenters, the other is for gentle hippies and artists. (Or, these days for playacting the part.) I doubt if either event is any fun at all anymore. I'm not fascinated by the idea of attending. I wouldn't be surprised if the BM organizers didn't just say eff-it and shut it down for next year. Sturgis on the other hand, well, it's too big to fail now. The towns it supports need that money to limp through to next year.
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The really sad part about Sturgis is that the town, and surrounding towns, don't actually keep most of the revenue. Retail space fronting Lazelle Street has become lucrative enough for the month surrounding the rally that the owners of that space can leave it empty the rest of the year and more than make up for that during the rally. The businesses that rent it for that month during the rally are all from out of town. The place is a ghost town when the rally isn't on.
And, yeah, I know the official rally is only one week. The "unofficial" has dramatically expanded. As it got more popular, it became known that the week before was the "real" time to be there. Then Deadwood became the "real" place to be. Then a week before, in Deadwood... and so on. Now it's basically a full month in the entire area. And, like Burning Man, it all just pops up and then goes away. Very few of the locals reap any economic benefit from any of it.