American Motorcycle Design: 36th Biker Fest 2022

Biker Fest, Italy 2022
Words and Pictures by Onno Wieringa, Madness Photography

Located on Italy's Adriatic coast, Lignano Sabbiadoro is one of the most beautiful places to organize an event. South of Udine and north of Venice, Biker Fest has been one of the biggest outdoor motorcycle festivals in Europe for years.
Owned and operated by the experienced Persello family - owners of leading Italian custom Magazines including Bikers Life and Kustom World - this was the 36th edition of Biker Fest and it remains a cornerstone of the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building program.

Moreno Persello and his wife Carla, their son Micke and his wife Deborah know how to make Biker Fest better and even bigger every year. The fact that we had thirty degrees Celsius and a radiant sun all four days this time helped to flood the coastal town with bikers, no fewer than 92,000 visitors attended. We enjoyed a long weekend of custom bikes, sun, pizza, espresso and sambuca!

The Biker Fest Team

Entry to the event is free and all brands are welcome, but the emphasis is very much on custom bikes. Biker Fest is located along the main road, where the Luna Park site is used for custom bikes, stands, shows and parties, with a gigantic all-terrain park next to it used for dozens of off-road activities.

Nearby all the major brands and many smaller emerging vendors set-up for demo rides, with 3,800 demo rides made on the Friday and Saturday alone.
The well-known AMD affiliate bike show has the grand Italian finale here after a season in which the winners of the Italian Motorcycle Championship have been chosen during the year at various shows throughout Italy.
Showing off against seventy bikes, the Best in Show wins the Italian Motor I.M.C. (Italian Motorcycle Championship), and this year the honor was taken by Mirko's Harley-Davidson WL, by Gallery Motorcycles (Brescia).
The three winners who will advance to the next AMD World Championship are the beautiful Triumph "Trinity" of Marco, Lari Motori, the "Greta" of Stefano Saleve and the SR-1 Sportster of Jimmy Messina from France.
The crowds peaked on the Saturday, when the Bike Parade completely blocked the whole city of Lignano in a kilometer-long procession. Rock concerts, pin-up shows, parties, food and drinks reigned supreme right into Sunday, when the whole ritual was repeated - but this time with hundreds of American cars, hot rods and custom cars making their rounds after their American Car Show.

Is it worth going there? Oh yes.
The part of northern Italy where Lignano is located became known as the Florida of Europe, with its lovely weather, beautiful beaches and deep blue lagoons - it was Ernest Hemingway, who loved it there, who compared it to Florida.
The Italian Bike Week is on the weekend of 15-18 September, the weekend following European Bike Week in Faak, which is only an hour and a half drive from Lignano, the perfect combination for a nice ride and a wonderful week with two excellent, world renowned events!
www.bikerfest.com
www.italianbikeweek.net
www.madnessphotography.nl

AMD winners all won a 1,000 voucher towards travel expenses to the next AMD World Championship: