MORGANTOWN — Expect to see and hear hundreds of motorcycles beginning today as Morgantown gets revved up for the 14th Annual MountainFest Motorcycle Rally.
Crews spent Wednesday setting up Mylan Park and Triple S Harley-Davidson for the four-day event.
Jamie Summerlin, director of major events and destinations at Greater Morgantown Convention and Visitors Bureau (GMCVB), said MountainFest is one of the pillar events for the GMCVB, and next year’s event is something they’re already talking about.
The festival will host music, vendors and a lot of motorcycles traveling to the area.
Summerlin’s jobs is to make sure all the pieces come together, whether it’s the entertainment, camping, vendors or the Coal Bucket Saloon, where artists will be performing.
“It’s not something that just one person can do, and they’ve built a great team here with MountainFest. The organization is a nonprofit,” he said, “volunteers and people who really want to see a great event for our community.”
Summerlin said ticket sales are exceeding last year’s numbers, and the weather looks great.
Jennifer Sutherland, chief operating officer at Triple S, said MountainFest is the dealership’s biggest event of the year. Sutherland said they already saw an increase in business since last week.
“Some people will come in the weekend before, and they’ll spend the beginning part of the week out riding around West Virginia and take advantage of all the great riding that’s here and all the great turns and twisty roads,” she said, “and then that way they can really enjoy the park on
the weekend and go to all the concerts.”
Sutherland said many of the same people attend MountainFest every year, so it’s nice to see them again and hear where they’ve been riding. There are also new attendees they meet each year. She said there were people all the way from Germany in the store Wednesday.
