ARTSETC.
Harley rides into its next century
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by Mac VerStandig
Thursday, September 4, 2003
MILWAUKEE — It’s been 100 years since Harley-Davidson, an icon of sheer Americana, was born, and the motorcycle brass was not about to let the occasion go unmarked.
For the past year, Harley has been throwing itself one of the largest birthday parties of the modern era, with concerts, open-road treks and celebrations around the world. The party has stretched from Germany to Washington, D.C. to Australia, but the finale last Sunday was here, where Harley has now hung its hat for a century.
The culmination was titled, “The Party,” an understatement on par with calling any one of the company’s shining, chrome-laden machines a simple “motorcycle.” The party came complete with a message from President Bush, a charitable donation in excess of $7 million, a legendary comedian as emcee, 100 candles, countless fireworks and, oh yeah, four A-list musical acts.
The gates opened at noon. Given the immediate flow of leather-clad bodies into downtown’s Veteran’s Park, you’d never have known the show didn’t actually start until 6 p.m. Breathtaking photomontages, memorable video clips and assorted trivia questions kept the crowd entertained during the break, and when not peering at the large screens or oversized stage, it seemed everyone in attendance had an open-road biking story to share with the stranger next to him or her.
Estimates are that 150,000 people filled the grounds by the time the show started and that up to an additional 50,000 watched from nearby points downtown.
First on stage were The Doobie Brothers, who jammed until sunset, even cranking out a tune about Harley Davidson motorcycles between better-known hits like “Jesus is Just Alright” and “Takin’ it To The Streets.” Although the musical lineup for the evening remained a closely guarded secret, The Doobie Brothers were an assumed act by mid-afternoon, given their presence at pre-show festivities. Everything after the classic-rock band remained a mystery until musicians actually took the stage.
So when emcee Dan Akroyd “spotted” a motorcycle coming towards the stage around 7:45 p.m. and then “recognized” the lone rider to be Tim McGraw there was a genuine sense of pleasant surprise throughout the crowd.
Tim McGraw was not the only headliner of the evening. Before long, Kid Rock was entertaining the mammoth crowd, and before the show had ended, Elton John made his way on stage to help usher Harley into its second century.
The musical acts were as diverse as the crowd itself. Attendees came from all over the world to pay homage to a company that has formed one of the most successful subcultures in society today. There were not a few “token” international riders; the crowd was saturated with people proudly displaying flags from down under, various European nations and elsewhere.
The domestic crowd had a leg up on those from overseas since bikers from America were able to proudly make the trek on their American-built Harley-Davidson motorcycles. I-94 and I-90 were inundated with packs of bikers, downtown was covered with parked motorcycles, and the city drowned in a sea of chrome unlike anything ever witnessed before. After all, only Harley’s big birthday could bring so many bikers together.
For those in attendance, it really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The predominately middle-aged crowd seemed liberated from life’s woes — nearly everyone agreeing that when their left hand rolled back on the handle bar, when their bikes made that Harley growl, their mind was overtaken by youthfulness.
Unfortunately, some bikers seemed to blur the line between a young mind and a young body, as countless middle-aged women commenced to bare their breasts in public for what was probably their first flashing experience since Woodstock.
Still, some in attendance were making a maiden voyage into the world of Harley-Davidson, inspired to come by the sheer magnitude of the event and the promise of A-list musical talent. UW sophomore Adam Smith commented, “I had a great time at the Harley Party. I never saw so many bikers in one place in my life. I never realized how much history and culture there was to the company.”
Part of that history is Harley’s long-standing relationship with the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Between The Doobie Brothers and Tim McGraw, top Harley officials appeared on stage to present the charity with an oversized check in excess of $7 million. Throughout the afternoon, videos documented Harley’s commitment to aiding a charity famously promoted by Jerry Lewis.
A cloudy sky and gentle breeze proved to be only teases as rain stayed away for the evening. But as soon as the last firework danced through the sky and nearly 200,000 bikers mounted their motorcycles, you could hear the thunder, riding off into Harley-Davidson’s second century.
