Neighboring event hopes to attract disappointed bikers

“I think we’ll get some traffic from it,” he said. “I think it will get a little bigger. The people looking forward to that event are looking for similar events, so I hope they’re able to come to our event and enjoy it just as they would E’town’s.”

Griggers said he hopes to benefit from the news, but he was shocked by it.

“I was surprised they canceled it,” he said, saying he tries to attend every year but missed last year’s event. “I always thought they put on a decent event. People enjoyed it. … I know a lot of people were looking forward to it.”

The Hodgenville event is set for June 3 at Creekfront Park with a lineup of bands which will play from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., Griggers said.

“The ones helping me with the event, we’ve got to work a lot harder now,” he said, about the anticipation of a larger gathering because Elizabethtown canceled its event. “We just want to make sure we have enough stuff there for people to enjoy, enough music, food and all that good stuff. We want people to come out and have a good time is the main goal.”

The event has grown from the American Legion post’s parking lot to Creekfront Park, Grigger said.

“The creekfront has a nice stage setup,” he said. “We have three music acts that day.”

The event was established to attract members and educate others about the American Legion, Griggers said.

“We hope that if anybody has any questions about what the American Legion does, we hope they come and see us,” he said. “We’ll have a booth set up.”

Like the Elizabethtown event, the Hodgenville version features a charity bike ride to kickoff festivities that starts at LaRue County High School, Griggers said.

“It’s very similar,” he said in comparing it to the Elizabethtown event. “Of course, it was always a smaller scale than E’town.”

It also had a smaller budget, Grigger said.

“Everything we do comes from vendors fees or comes from us,” he said. “The first one we did we had a couple thousand motorcycles come through and we were able to raise $2,000. It’s grown over the years and we want to put on a little better show this year.”

The event, as always, will have a police presence, but Griggers doesn’t have the same concerns Elizabethtown officials did about safety. For the three years the Legion has held the event, he said there have been no incidents — not even a speeding ticket has been issued.

“As an organizer, of course you’re always concerned that something could happen,” he said. “Thank God we haven’t had any issues in the years we have done it. Everything’s went off well.”

Part of the reason, Griggers said, is the Hodgenville event is easy to monitor by keeping overall view from the hillside and it isn’t as spread out as Elizabethtown’s downtown gathering.

“We hope everybody comes out and enjoys themselves,” he said. “We have stuff for kids. We have bouncy houses lined up. This is a family-oriented bike event.”