The 81st Sturgis Motorcycle Rally begins its 10-day run tomorrow with some 700,000 people expected despite worries about the rapidly increasing number of cases and deaths from the Delta variant of COVID-19.
Last year’s Rally drew about 460,000 even though it was in the middle of the pandemic with vaccines still months away and South Dakota Gov Kristi Noem both opposed to mask mandates and encouraging visitors to come.
Most visitors did not wear masks, leading to the Rally being classified as a super-spreader of the virus, but the number of related cases, while significant, was much lower than predicted.