Harley-Davidson Homecoming Festival Details Released, Summer Motorcycle Fun Is Pricey

It's not every year that a company celebrates such a birthday, so Harley just had to make something truly special to mark the occasion. As announced ever since last year, that special something is the Homecoming Festival, which will open its doors for the first time in the brand's home town in the week of July 13.

The Homecoming is envisioned as an annual event, but the 2023 edition is the inaugural one. As a result, it will be simply impressive, and packed with everything from music and food to the release of new motorcycles and, hopefully, even some custom rides.

With a little over a month left before the event kicks off, Harley-Davidson made public all the details of the mammoth gathering, giving us the final and complete picture of what to expect.

Homecoming spans for four days, starting on July 13 and ending on July 16, and will cover large portions of Milwaukee: the Harley-Davidson museum, Harley-Davidson Powertrain Operations, Veterans Park, and many of the city's streets, bars, and restaurants.

On the first day of the festival, Harley will treat riders and all the other people taking part to Division BMX stunt shows and live music, with performers American Progress, War Hippies, and Hairball taking center stage. There's even a show featuring police officers showing off their riding skills.

Those interested in motorcycles more than music will gain access to demos of 2023 Harley motorcycles, including the brand-new CVO Street Glide and CVO Road Glide.

Day two (July 14) brings with it Wall of Death and Ball of Steel stunts performed by Kyle and Cody Ives, and a freestyle motocross show. The music of Abby Jean, KennyHoopla, Phantogram, The Cult, and Green Day will ring out of Veteran's Park.

July 15 is packed full of entertainment, including the Nitro Circus freestyle show (which takes place on all other days as well), but also a burger build-off run by chef Matty Matheson. The center stage of the day belongs to the Foo Fighters, preceded by Ghost Hounds, White Reaper, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and Cody Jinks.

Homecoming ends on July 16 with a BMX stunt show, a Flat Out Friday Boonie bike race and, again, police skills demonstrations. The cherry on the cake will be the Harley-Davidson 120th Anniversary Motorcycle Parade going through downtown Milwaukee – sadly, we don't know yet how many riders and their bikes we should expect for this one.

The full list of events and schedule can be found here, but you should know all this motorcycle-related fun is not free, as Harley is selling tickets. Despite Homecoming being spread over four days, the bike maker is selling just one- and two-day tickets, in either general admission or VIP form.

Prices range from $129 for the one-day general admission ticket and can go to as high as $260 for the one-day VIP (the two-day ones are already sold out).

That may not seem very pricey for some riders, but you have to add to that the money needed for the trip to Milwaukee, and accommodation there, not to mention food and drinks. With that in mind, chances are the entire experience might end up being a bit expensive.

There's not much time left until the festival kicks off, and depending on where the trip to the motorcycle capital of the world in July starts, it could last several days. In a bid to help riders plan their trip to Milwaukee, Harley-Davidson released back in April a carefully crafted list of scenic routes in North America that lead to Milwaukee.

There are six separate routes, homing in on the company's hometown from Los Angeles, Oregon, New Hampshire, the Everglades, Halifax, and Vancouver.

The duration of the trip to Milwaukee greatly depends on the starting point and what type of terrain needs to be navigated to reach the target. The fastest of the six routes is the Northeast one, starting out in New Hampshire, which requires six days to complete. At the opposite end, the Northwest route from Oregon and Southwest route from Los Angeles take nine days.

Sure, you could say some faster ways to reach Milwaukee are available, but we all know riders like to attend bike shows with their bikes. Also, the Harley-suggested routes are so long because they are meant to take people through some of the most spectacular places in America.

We'll keep an eye out for more Harley-Davidson Homecoming bits of info, and we'll update this story if and when something new surfaces. After all, we still hope some kind of 120th anniversary motorcycle we haven't seen yet will be made for this once-in-a-lifetime event.