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In the aftermath of last weekend’s 2024 Harley-Davidson Homecoming Festival, the motorcycle manufacturer has shared some stats from the event and announced dates for next year’s Homecoming.
First, next year’s Homecoming is scheduled for July 10-13, 2025.
You can see more than two dozen great photos from the event at this link.
Harley says that early numbers suggest that more than 60,000 attended the concerts at Veterans Park over the course of two days, seeing Red Hot Chili Peppers (whose drummer Chad Smith made a surprise appearance onstage with Kitty Soft Paw at Ope! Brewing in West Allis), Jelly Roll – who brought his own surprise guest Machine Gun Kelly – and HARDY, along with The Offspring, Warren Zeiders, Cypress Hill, Priscilla Block, Destroy Boys, Otoboke Beaver, Hueston, Shaylen, Scarlet Demore, The Criticals, Hank Ruff, DJ Chill and DJay Mando.
There were also stunt shows presented by Nitro Circus and Monster Energy action with athletes in freestyle motocross, BMX and skateboarding.
Over at the Juneau Avenue headquarters, the new Davidson Park was rumbling with hogs all weekend, too, with a STE(A)Magination Day, Interactive Art + Culture Fair, a vintage motorcycle and history tours in and around the complex that welcomed 1,550 guests.
The Harley-Davidson Museum hosted a free show by Kenny Wayne Shepherd, the Willie G. Davidson Ride-In Custom Bike Show with 75 bikes, and the 60-rider-strong police-escorted Harley-Davidson Women’s Ride in memory of Nancy Davidson and benefiting the Cancer Research Institute.
Across the weekend, the museum saw more than 19,000 motorcycles and more than 36,000 visitors.
Up in Menomonee Falls, more than 1,600 visitors took a self-guided tour of the Harley-Davidson Powertrain Operations factory.
In addition, six Milwaukee-area Harley-Davidson dealerships hosted events and entertainment during the Homecoming, and of course, riders could be seen all around town, enjoying restaurants, bars, the Air & Water Show, German Fest and more.
Last year, Harley said its first Homecoming Festival saw 80,000 attendees go to Veterans Park for the event's two high-profile performance days on the lakefront, while 130,000 fans dropped by the H-D Museum across the festival's four-day run and 7,000 motorcycles joined in on the event-capping parade on Sunday.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
