Carmen Toromino wants to bring the four-year running Niagara Motorcycle Rally to Buffalo. For the past four years the successful rally has been held in Niagara Falls, attracting crowds up to 15,000 people. Now that's not that big when compared to bike rallies like Sturgis, but now that Niagara Falls is out of the picture, wouldn't this be perfect for Buffalo? Carmen has already scoped out the amenities at LaSalle Park, which he says are perfect for this sort of 3-day event. He has already begun talks with The City and hopes that they will agree that the underutilized LaSalle Park would be the perfect venue for this rally.
I met up with Carmen this morning so he could show me some of the planning details surrounding the MC Rally. "There's already a band-shell there," he told me. "I would arrange to have three different music events over the three days. The first day would be dedicated to Southern Rock, the second day would be all country music, and the final day would showcase blues and jazz. This would not just be a bike festival... this would be a music festival. And it's already established and ready to go. We just need a new venue and we figured that the Buffalo waterfront would be the best place to do it. As soon as we get the OK from The City, then we can circle a date. Only then can we can notify sponsors and vendors."
These are the types of events that can be big moneymakers for a city like Buffalo. The days of disruptive biker rallies have now been replaced showboating bikes, music... and camping if allowed. If you would like to participate in this year's Buffalo MC Rally, or just want to keep up to speed with the event (dates, times, sponsors, etc.), then follow this link for any future updates.