STURGIS — The Little Sturgis Motorcycle Rally returns this week with a three-day event starting Thursday.

Between 6,500 and 7,500 people are expected to make their way through Sturgis this weekend for the annual event, which will include rides throughout Oktibbeha County, concerts and vendors.

“We’re very excited, and we’re looking for a really good crowd,” Sturgis Mayor Leah Brown told The Dispatch on Tuesday. “The park is already showing good activity, and we’re looking forward to more and more people coming into town.”

Brown said festivities will kick off at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Diane Jackson Memorial Park with a cruise-in for classic cars, motorcycles and trucks. Then local group Full Circle Party Band will take the stage for a 7 p.m. concert.

On Friday, the Dinner Ride will leave from Sturgis at 4 p.m. Brown said the ride will go through Downtown Starkville, out to Clayton Village to the Village Cycle Center, then to Louisville, through Ackerman and back to Sturgis.

“It’s really just a nice ride,” Brown said of the Dinner Ride. “The Mississippi Highway Patrol motorcycle group escorts it.”

Once the ride is over, riders can pick up their dinner and settle into an evening of entertainment. Juke Joint Gypsies will perform at 7:30 p.m. followed by More Cowbell at 10.

On Saturday, riding kicks off at 9 a.m. with the inaugural Poker Run. The 75-mile ride includes pre-planned stops where riders can build their poker hands. The riders with the two highest hands by the end of the ride win a prize, and proceeds will benefit the Alzheimer’s Association
There will be a morning concert from Jessica Horton at 10 a.m. followed by a bike show and sound competition starting at 11, when riders will have a chance to show off their bike and sound system.

There will be four more concerts on Saturday: Melissa and Gary Osburn at 1 p.m., Hippy Heart and Soul at 4 p.m., Oktoc Outlaws at 7:30 p.m. and The Garrett Oswalt Band at 10 p.m. Before the last concert, the Alzheimer’s Association will host a luminary lighting ceremony.

Festivities will wrap up Sunday with a morning service and a blessing of the bikes hosted by the Christian Motorcyclists Association.

Visitors can purchase a $10 wristband that will cover admission to the park for the entire weekend.

Brown said there will also be a large selection of food and merchandise vendors working throughout the weekend. The money spent during the annual rally is always a boost for the town, she said.

“It does have a good impact for Sturgis and some of the other local towns around us too,” she said. “It brings people in, some spending money. With the town, that is a boost to our economy.”

Morgan Scribner is on the organizing committee for the rally, and his band, Full Circle Party Band, has played at the event since it started. He said the rally hit its prime in 2010 with about 30,000 riders attending. Losing a year to the pandemic was a big hit, he said, but since then, the event has been bigger every year.

“In the last three years, it’s probably grown I’m going to say 30 to 40% ,” Scribner told The Dispatch on Tuesday. “It helps the town of Sturgis out tremendously.”

McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.