Rally continues to grow
The Four Corners Motorcycle Rally’s gate attendance is up and it’s an overall bigger event, according to Fairgrounds Coordinator and member of the Ignacio Chamber Events LLC, Mel Silva.
Bikers and spectators from all over the country flooded the town of Ignacio to take part in the annual Four Corners Motorcycle Rally Aug. 29-31.
“From last year to this year the attendance really showed.” Silva said. “Last year, we didn’t have enough people for more than one [event] going on, and this year we did … it just felt like a bigger event.”
Silva attributes the increase in attendance to a new approach in advertising, and the closing of a competitors rally.
“We did a lot more online advertising with Google and Facebook, where last year we hardly did any,” he said. “Instead of full page ads in publications; we did smaller ads.”
Online advertising allowed the target demographic to be reached more accurately, Silva said. Ads in publications were still important, but were scaled back to allow money to be spent on more precise advertising.
Another big factor in attendance can be attributed to The Sugar Pine Motorcycle Rally in Mancos going out of business; Silva believes a lot of their bikers came to Four Corners instead.
Locally, the rally was advertised as an event for everyone, not just those with motorcycles; playing up the music and other events really helped gain local participation, he said.
“It’s just a bigger event, and whenever it’s a bigger event people are more interested,” he said.
No official numbers are in yet, but Silva believes the rally is on its way to getting back to what it used to be.
“I think we are on a 30 percent path, we can grow this thing by 30 percent for the next several years till the time we feel it’s enough, and the facility can’t handle anymore people,” he said.
Silva said feedback was very positive.
“There’s virtually no negative stuff out there against the rally anymore,” he said. “I literally had hundreds of people come up to me and say thank you … and that they’d be back next year.”