Harley Cancels Homecoming Festival
In the latest evidence of renewal at Harley-Davidson, the MoCo has announced that effective 2026 it is ending its annual Homecoming Festival in Milwaukee - after three years - and will revert to a milestone-anniversary event strategy instead.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the news in early March with the previously announced Homecoming dates of July 9-12, 2026, now canceled.
Harley will return to hosting large-scale hometown celebrations every five years, tied to major anniversaries. The next major event is expected in 2028, when Harley-Davidson marks its 125th anniversary.
The annual Homecoming festival debuted in 2023 for the 120th anniversary, drawing more than 80,000 attendees to Veterans Park concerts headlined by Green Day and Foo Fighters.
Attendance dropped to just over 60,000 in 2024, when Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jelly Roll led the lineup. The 2025 event also faced weather challenges, with storms forcing the cancellation of opening-night headliner Hank Williams Jr. About 40,000 attendees returned the following night for a concert headlined by Chris Stapleton.
This latest strategic shift comes after new CEO Artie Starrs replaced Jochen Zeitz as CEO in October and has started to unwind his predecessors failed rewind.
Harley-Davidson reported a profit of $339m in 2025, a 26% decline from the previous year. From $5.3bn in 2016, HD revenue from motorcycle operations had declined to $3.6bn in 2025. Over the same timescale Harley’s market capitalisation (HOG) had shrunk from $8.35bn in 2016 to $2.46bn by the end of 2025. Harley lost its much-vaunted place on the S&P 500 index in June 22, 2020.