Bikes, booze and a mechanical hog: Full Throttle Saloon will bring its entertainment to Milwaukee

Sturgis, S.D. – For a peek at what the Full Throttle Saloon will bring to Milwaukee Labor Day weekend for Harley-Davidson's 115th anniversary party, take a stroll through the saloon parked on 600 acres at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Full Throttle, across the road from Bear Butte, a holy place for the Lakota and Cheyenne American Indian tribes, has an earned reputation for wild adult entertainment.

There are, of course, nearly naked female bartenders dancing on the bar for swarms of gawking male customers. And the live music would hold its own against any rock concert in Milwaukee.

The 26,000-square-foot saloon’s motif would fit right in Brew City, too. It’s an eclectic mix of old factory machines that looks like the Industrial Revolution exploded and left a ton of wreckage behind.

Full Throttle is bringing a scaled-down version of the saloon to Milwaukee for Harley-Davidson’s 115th anniversary celebration, Aug. 29 through Sept. 2.

The saloon, under a circus tent, will be at Veterans Park on the lakefront where Harley’s also staging motorcycle drag racing at Bradford Beach.

“We are going to have an amazing setup there, with Ferris wheels, bungee slings and not a mechanical bull but a mechanical hog dressed in a leather jacket,” said co-owner Jesse James Dupree.

“It’s absolutely going to be a Full Throttle experience,” Dupree said.

Some other things you can expect at the 115th include lots of street parties across the city with live music and motorcycle field games.

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FULL COVERAGE:Harley's 115th anniversary

The original Full Throttle Saloon, made famous by a reality TV show about  “The World’s Largest Biker Bar,” burned to the ground in September 2015.

The fire was sparked by an electrical cord on a beer keg cooler.

“It was $10 million in ashes with no insurance,” Dupree said, because the place lacked running water and was uninsurable.

The reincarnated Full Throttle Saloon is 6 miles from the old location, on a 600-acre site that had been the Broken Spoke Campground on Highway 79 northeast of Sturgis.

It’s surrounded by the Pappy Hoel Campground on the same 600 acres, with 300 cabins, hundreds of tent sites, RV sites, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a grocery store and a restaurant.

And the adults-only campground is where a lot of the action takes place with the rally crowd.

“It’s the last fantasy island for adults. ... Motorcycles, beautiful women and a cold belly-washer beverage, which happens to be Jesse James Bourbon if you ask me,” Dupree said.

“A lot of things happen naturally out here, including people conceiving children. They do all kinds of stuff like that,” he said.

Want to get married at the campground?

No problem. Dupree officiates at about 10 weddings a week during the Sturgis rally.

“I married a couple at the swimming pool today,” he said Wednesday while zipping around the bustling campground on a golf cart.

The campground is named after the late J.C. “Pappy” Hoel, a legendary motorcycle racer and founder of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally that continues through Sunday, pulling in about 500,000 people from around the world.

Thousands of rally-goers hang out at campgrounds in the Black Hills surrounding Sturgis. Some of them probably don’t even make it to Main Street because all of the entertainment they want is where they’ve pitched their tent.

What are some of the craziest things that happen at the Pappy Hoel site?

“You couldn’t put that in the newspaper,” Dupree said, “but it’s not like we have law enforcement standing on every corner. It’s just a place where you come to have some adult fun.”

Tens of thousands of people a day go to the saloon and campground during the rally that’s evolved into a two-week affair as bikers come a few days early and leave a few days late.

“We get people from all over the world. They come and have an out-of-body experience at the campground, and then they come back in multiples of 10,” Dupree said.

“Some people come out here and think it’s the Wild West. They’re a little scared of it, but we tell them they’re safe, and that they’re going to have a great time. We are very proud of creating an environment for people to let their guard down, have a great time and be safe,” he added.

The Full Throttle Saloon has a full lineup of concerts during the rally, including Molly Hatchet and Trace Adkins.

Dupree is a rock star himself, as the lead singer in the Southern rock band Jackyl. He came across the original Full Throttle Saloon about 20 years ago while touring with his band and quickly became friends with Michael Ballard, the owner.

Dupree, from Keneesaw, Ga., is a lifelong biker.

“My dad used to put all four of us — me, my brother, my mom and him — on his 1968 Harley and take us for rides. We would go to Alabama, all over. And when he worked at Lockheed aircraft, while he was supposed to be milling parts for the C5A aircraft, he was making custom parts for his bike that he would send out to be chromed.”

Dupree has spent nearly a year preparing to bring the Full Throttle experience to Harley’s 115th party in Milwaukee.

He’s bringing the saloon’s Wall of Death, Globe of Death and high-wire motorcycle stunt acts with him, along with a concert stage under the circus tent.

And, of course, there are the “beautiful rock-star bartenders we got,” Dupree said.

“We will just strap everything down and head that way. … It’s going to be like Sanford and Sons and the Beverly Hillbillies combined. … A Full Throttle experience that I promise you won’t be disappointing.”