BIKER FEST - THE HISTORY

BIKER FEST - THE HISTORY
It was 1987: at that time in Italy there was almost no biker meeting. Some small party was organized by the so called
“Blue Jackets of Italy”, some meetings between local motorcyclists, but nothing else. This is the reason why the
“Motârs” (dialect word for “biker”), a local biker group from Friuli (North-East Italy) decided to organize a new kind of
party, more complete than those existing in Italy. They wanted to create a meeting similar to those of North Europe
(especially those organized in Germany (German Bike Week, Biker Union Rally, President Rally) and in the USA
(Daytona and Sturgis).
The beginning was very hard and during the first edition (1987) it rained almost all the time. On Friday there were no
more than 250 people, but on Saturday 600 bikers arrived with more than 400 bikes, not many, but for a small village
like Villanova (near San Daniele del Friuli) with only one thousand inhabitants, the meeting was seen as a kind of
invasion: lot of tents, tattoos and forks so long that nobody had ever seen them. For the biker movement and the
Motârs MC organizers it represented really a great success. The interest and the number of guests increased year
after year, thanks to the engagement and the experience of the organizers, who planed a large entertainment offer:
lottery with wonderful prizes (a new motorcycle, helmets, leather clothes, etc.), flights to Daytona (for the Bike
Show winners), exhibition stands, tattoo and airbrush conventions, helicopter flights, bungee jumping, sexy shows
with erotic stars, bike games, unicycle races, the presence of very important people of the sport or of the show
business world, and above all the music with important and famous bands (Saxon, Ronnie James Dio, Kim Brown,
Creedence Clearwater R., Status Quo, Uriah Heep, Tolo Marton, Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, Dr. Feelgood, Sweet,
Alvin Lee, Modena City Ramblers, Whitesnake, Motörhead, Soon, Rats, Yardbirds, Animals, Canned Heat,
Wishbone Ash, Ten Years After, Trutz “Viking” Groth, Kim & The Cadillacs, Twin Dragons e Tony Martin (Black
Sabbath), Andrea Braido, Uli Roth degli Scorpions, Jaime Dolce, Paul Di Anno (ex Iron Maiden), Pino Scotto, etc.).
In 1990 there were 4.000 people, 13.000 in 1994 and more than 23.000 in 1997. A steady growing characterized by an
atmosphere of friendship and solidarity that put together all European bikers in the name of passion for bikes,
whatever the brand.
In 1998 the organizers made the successful choice to change the place of the meeting, since it had become too small
and not enough safe to welcome ten of thousand of people. The rally was moved from Villanova di San Daniele to
Osoppo, in the Province of Udine, at about 10 km far from the previous location. The new area, the Rivellino Park,
was very wide (about 280.000 square metres) full of trees. In 1999 there were more than 32.000 people with about
th
17.000 bikes of every brand. The biggest innovations of the 13 edition were the national Dragster Race and the
international Stunt Men Championship. The organizers received a public prize from the Mayor of Osoppo and the
nearest villages for the success of the event and for the common sense of the participants. But the Biker Fest isn’t
only made by numbers and shows: it means even social commitment. Every year a large part of the earnings is
allocated to poor people, to association and to no profit institutions.
In 2001 Biker Fest moved back to San Daniele del Friuli in the handicraft area, which was large enough to welcome a
large number of people but unfortunately without a natural shelter from the scorching sun. Bikers arrived even from
the United States and from Australia to live the exciting atmosphere that you can feel at the Biker Fest. Ricky Angerer
and the Show Action Group entertained the guests with their acrobatic performances. After some years of
bureaucratic problems in order to find a new area for the event, in 2004 it moved to Sutrio on the Monte Zoncolan
(Udine), a new wonderful area, where the rally took place until 2008. Then the Biker Fest was moved again to the
great location of the Rivellino Park in Osoppo, where it still takes place nowadays.
ASSOCIAZIONE CUSTOMBIKER – Via Ciro di Pers 39, 33030 Majano (Udine)
Tel. 0432-948777 – Fax: 0432-948606 – E-mail: [email protected] – Web: www.bikefest.com
P.IVA: 02476190307 - C.F. 94101490301