Thousands of bikers swarmed the small town of Salmon Arm these past few days for the first ever Sturgis North rally.
Some residents initially resisted the idea of the motorcycle rally because of possible drug, gang and noise concerns.
“I heard Hell’s Angels from Arizona and Montreal were out here,” one man said. “They don’t wear their colours but we don’t need people like that here. We really don’t.”
But it appears concerns like those were in the minority.
One downtown Salmon Arm business set up a white board so residents and bikers could write messages to the community about who they are and where they were from.
With the festival wrapping up Sunday, the boards were filled with scrawled messages such as “First Sturgis North, many more to come” and “Have lots of fun in our wonderful town!”.
Many residents say they feel the rally helped put Salmon Arm on the map and injected energy into the town.
Several businesses in downtown Salmon Arm even displayed signs saying “Welcome bikers” and many bikers say the community has welcomed them whole heartedly.
“We would stop at a red light and people would roll down their windows and say “˜how you doing?’” said biker Glen Slobodian of Surrey. “The people have been tremendous.”
“I haven’t had any problems”, said biker William Johnson, who came from Medicine Hat for the rally.
Johnson says residents may have been nervous about the rally due to fear of the unknown.
“Once this goes through, they’ll see how well it went, how the economy went well and it’ll be back. Why wouldn’t it?”
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