Las Vegas Bike Fest 2008
Las Vegas Bike Fest Event Page
Top names like “Artist Extraordinaire” Monte Moore and long time chopper guru Mondo from Denvers Choppers gave this show some special appeal to easterners like the Monster who mainly hang on the eastern side of the US. Monte Moore from Denver has a special painting talent and could be the finest motorcycle painter around today. Mondo, a Las Vegas local, is truly a living legend building world class choppers long before Discovery and TV builders were born.
With the entertainment capital of the world as the backdrop, Las Vegas gave bikers ample opportunity to enjoy everything you could ever ask for in the entertainment venue. As for the entertainment more specific to the event, Branscomb Richmond gave good performances along with Yellow Brick Road and Culture Killers at the Fremont Street Experience.
Accommodations in Las Vegas are as varied as it gets. We first chose the Plaza in downtown Vegas because of the convenience of it’s location to Fremont Street and the Cashman Center.
Frankly, the Plaza is a bit dingy and dated and we opted to move after a couple of days. After a couple of hours of A-C trouble, and little concern for our comfort from Plaza management, we packed up the Monster Gear and moved. Our next stop was the Holiday Inn Express 4 miles north on I 15 and that experience was perfect. Clean, fresh, and for only a few dollars more, the Holiday Inn Express was great.
As for local biker haunts, Hogs and Heiffers is probably the best known with a limited number of biker venues available. The Monster stopped in for a little undercover rating and the Hogs and Heiffers gets a thumbs up all the way around for fun, entertainment, lots of bikers.
Overall the Monster would rate the Las Vegas Bike Fest “good” and award three Monsters. Our opinion is that this is a well attended “regional event”. Las Vegas Bike Fest does pack some sizzle because of the City and the High End Builders taking part in the Artistry in Iron program, but it also lacks many of the national (semi) vendors found at the big boy events like Sturgis, Daytona, Myrtle Beach, and Laconia. We believe it also lacks ancillary biker events, venues and attractive riding tours and destinations. Concerts for the bikers were good but no national acts like you’d find at national rallies
We also believe the event might be more appealing if it were more closely positioned to the Strip and the upscale properties. When we traveled to “The Strip”, we felt we were a "long way" from a motorcycle event. For bikers to spend the bucks necessary to travel to national events, we believe the event needs to have a really special biker appeal and maybe better connect with Vegas and the excitement of The Strip.
In our opinion, Vegas has national entertainment appeal but Vegas Bike Fest needs a little more motorcycle/strip excitement to become the national power house it could be.
Best of Luck.
