PANAMA CITY BEACH — The selling point for motorcycle rallies is not location, location, location.
It’s the date, the date, the date.
With festivities for this year’s Thunder Beach Autumn Rally set to kick off Wednesday, producers already are looking forward to 2015, which will nail down a permanent weekend for the event after several years of date changes.
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“What this does is it allows us to position ourselves permanently,” said Daric Freeman, general manager of Thunder Beach Productions. “There’s no competing local and regional events, and there’s no competing motorcycle events.”
Next year’s Autumn Rally will take place Oct. 21-25, with the same weekend secured moving forward. Freeman said the permanent position will help the event rival the Thunder Beach Spring Rally, which is about 25 percent larger.
The key, Freeman said, is to position the events between other major motorcycle rallies, which allows promoters to secure more national vendors and gives patrons a chance to make plans further in advance.
“The spring event is about 25 percent larger than the fall event, but hopefully with the date change, it will rectify that,” Freeman said. “Once the vendors start growing beginning next year, the attendance to the event will coincide.”
Although promoters have been eyeing the second week in October for several years, it often bumps heads with Columbus Day weekend, a popular time for fall break for schools in the Southeast.
“The city of Panama City Beach won’t grant us a special events permit for Columbus Day weekend because it’s the best time for families to come down and enjoy the beach before winter sets in,” Freeman said.
This year, the Panama City Beach rally falls the same weekend as Bike Week in Myrtle Beach, S.C., but Thunder Beach Productions still is expecting a good weekend based on the motorcycle traffic seen in the area early in the week.
The 14th annual Autumn Rally will feature nine official venues across Panama City Beach, with the main vendor village at Frank Brown Park. Festivities kick off at 6 p.m. tonight with the official Thunder Beach Kickstart Party at the Runaway Island restaurant.
With cooler temperatures and rain chances decreasing Saturday and Sunday, organizers are hoping for a busy weekend.
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“When you’re an outdoor event, weather is always a big deal,” Freeman said. “Our outlook is positive for turnout.”
Matt Culpepper, marketing specialist at Thunder Beach venue Boardwalk Beach Resort, said the property was busy Tuesday as vendors rolled in to begin setting up for the rally.
“Our reservation numbers have been pacing ahead of last year’s fall rally and we expect the trend to continue through the week, as long as weather does not become a factor,” Culpepper said. “We will again host the area’s largest indoor/outdoor Biker Vendor Village and expect it to be packed with shoppers from Wednesday afternoon through Sunday morning.”