I'm not a big fan of motorcycle festivals. I know, I know, I run a powersports site and I shouldn't say that, but it's the truth. Part of it is that I generally like to be alone while riding, and any sort of festival or rally necessitates other people, and that can get too peopley very quickly. The other part is that eh, why would I want to go somewhere to get off my bike?
I ride to ride, not stop and get drunk for a week. That's why I loved the Devilstone Run last year. It was the antithesis of a normal motorcycle rally where, while there was people, it was centered around riding and building a community. It's also why I refuse to go to events like Sturgis or Daytona.
And in the same vein as the Devilstone Run, the Malle Mile Festival—something I've only now been made aware of—held in England looks absolutely like my cuppa tea, as it's about the bikes, riding, and the camaraderie of the event. Oh yeah, I need to get myself to England to witness this in person at some point.
The company behind the festival is Malle London, an apparel company that was born like so many other small companies, after a few late-night libations in a bar in New York City. According to the company's history, "It was about 2am in a dive bar in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, on the 15th of April in 2013, the topic of conversation switched back again to old motorcycles and we were discussing the need for a really tough yet refined bag that we could use all week for work and use on the motorcycle for the weekend adventures.. 'We should make one!' The first Malle idea was born."
From there, the company grew and grew, adding more and more apparel and gear, and in 2015, the company put on the first Malle festival, which it describes in mythic detail as "In late December of 2014, a cold workshop in London needs a light at the end of the tunnel and we wanted to create something wild to look forward to the following summer. Racing is typically hugely expensive, dangerous, involves major sponsors, expensive race machines and is only accessible to a few people, but it’s all about risk and we like risk! We had an idea, that flipped racing on its head, we wanted to make it accessible for everyone. More than that, we wanted to create a motorcycle race, that if you joined, you had to race. An 'inappropriate motorcycle race', where everyone was invited to race anything on two wheels, where no one is expected to win and it focuses purely on the fun of the motorcycle experience for our community. The idea for The Malle Mile was conceived."
The festival is now in its 11th year and incorporates a number of races, events, and more, including some seriously sketchy things that sound hysterically fun. This year, the event runs from July 18th through the 20th in Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire in the UK, and will play host to 1/8th mile sprint races, a LeMans-start style mile race, and a hill climb. And there's countless other small head-to-heads, though one I didn't see which I hope is part of it are slow races, which I would've won at Devilstone last year...
Has the UK's highly stringent Health and Safety been informed? Who knows, who cares. That's not what this festival is about. And why I think it's probably one of the coolest events around.
Tickets for the Malle Mile are now on sale, with a host of purchase options that don't seem all that expensive compared to other festivals or events. Even the full banana three-day everything included pass only will set you back around $250 when converted from the British Pound. You do have to get yourself there though, which would be my biggest expense coming from Utah. But, honestly, it looks like it'd be worth it.
