Plans to hold the 2008 Hollister Motorcycle Rally more than a
week after July 4 have caused complaints, but promoter Seth Doulton
defends the change.
Plans to hold the 2008 Hollister Motorcycle Rally more than a week after July 4 have caused complaints, but promoter Seth Doulton defends the change.
Along with moving event vendors to San Benito Street and closing off the road to motorcycles, Doulton on Tuesday said rescheduling the event is one of two key improvements for which he has pushed. A July 4 rally is a long-standing tradition, he acknowledged, but it now causes “numerous problems for the logistics of the event.”
“The catch is that all cities have something else going on July 4,” Doulton said. “They’re not willing to give up a large enough portion of their law enforcement.”
The new schedule actually took effect at the 2007 rally, he said. But with only a two-day gap between the holiday and the rally, locals may not have noticed. If Independence Day falls on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, the city will hold the rally at the end of that week, Doulton said. But if it falls later in the week, the rally will get pushed back. In 2008, that means the rally will run July 11 to July 13.
Former City Councilman Robert Scattini helped organize the new rally committee after the event’s cancellation in 2006. He said Tuesday that he still supports the rally, but he’s concerned that Doulton’s changes are causing the rally to be “diluted.”
“They’re not going to have the crowds,” he said.
Doulton said some rally attendees might be put off by the change, but there are others who will appreciate the new date.
When Doulton’s company Horse Power Promotions surveyed bikers at other large rallies they discovered that many people come to the Hollister rally “every two or three years.”
“A lot of people have something else to do on the Fourth of July,” Doulton said.
Police Chief Jeff Miller confirmed that moving the date will make it easier to recruit law enforcement staff from other areas.
“It’s always been a burden because they have their own Fourth of July events,” he said.
Some bikers may decide to show up on July 4 anyway, Miller said, as they did when the rally was canceled in 2006. But he’s skeptical that there will be many of them.
Mayor Brad Pike said he also supports creating some breathing room between July 4 and the rally. It’s good for the rally and for the Independence Day holiday, he said.
“I’m not a fan of (the rally) taking away from family, friends and the celebration of our country,” he said.
