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Area officials Monday said the S&S Cycle 50th Anniversary Celebration that drew about 28,000 motorcycling enthusiasts from around the world to La Crosse last weekend was largely a success.
Company, city and Oktoberfest officials were all smiles Monday as they looked back on the event, which also raised more than $12,000 each for the Boys and Girls Club, Riverfront and the La Crosse Children’s Museum.
Using words like “great,” “fantastic” and “amazing,” the officials said the event was a smashing success. They praised the community for welcoming the throngs of motorcyclists, credited everyone involved for the advanced planning and lauded the cyclists for making the weekend so memorable. The event included several tours of S&S Cycle’s manufacturing facility in Viola.
S&S Cycle President Brett Smith said the event proved La Crosse can host a cycling event of this size and said it probably will repeat the event in five or 10 years.
“People were awestruck, not only by what we did and what we put on, but by the community,” Smith said. “We’re getting a lot of credit for this and we appreciate that, but this event really would not have been possible without the Oktoberfest Committee lending us space at the southside fest grounds.”
La Crosse Mayor Mark Johnsrud said he was barraged at the fest grounds with compliments about the event and the way the area treated visitors.
“It was a great crowd, a very mature crowd,” Johns-rud said.
Rain that fell on Friday and Saturday may have kept some area cyclists from venturing out, but an impressive 26,500 paid to attend the event, organizers said.
Brian Michaels, president of the Oktoberfest Com-mittee, said that number rivals attendance for an Oktoberfest Saturday.
“For the amount of people we had on the grounds, it went very well,” Michaels said. “It probably went better than any of us could have predicted.”
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