Festival - 12th Annual Southern Illinois Fat Tire Festival

Festival Details

Presented by: Bike Surgeon October 21th-23th, 2016, Camp Ondessonk, Ozark, Illinois

--Reprinted from the Festival website located at: http://bikesurgeon.com/ftf/

Southern Illinois Fat Tire Festival (FTF) is back for the 12th year in a row!  Again sponsored by Bike Surgeon, New Belgium Brewing, Red Bull and Camp Ondessonk, the event will happen October 21st-23rd, 2016.  As always we will have miles and miles of great riding through the beautiful Shawnee National Forest, the best food in all of Ozark, IL, a plethora of free beverages, and mountains of schwag and prizes to give away.  We are also continuing the CampO traditions started a few years back; live music, climbing wall, vendor expo, bike demo’s, trail runs, hikes, zip lines and the totally rustic CampO cabins.

Friday starts off with ride options for all, both professionally guided and self led on the CampO trail network (over 35 miles of single track awesomeness). Guided hikes will be available for those that don't want to ride and this gives everyone a great chance to explore the amazing Shawnee wilderness that surrounds CampO.  The Fat Tire Challenge will go down on Friday night, and is sure to include the Huffy Toss, Keg Pull and who knows what else; loads of FUN for sure with the party being led from the RedBull Fire Truck.

Saturday will be full of riding with guided options for ALL from 3 miles of gravel to 50+ miles of epic MTB adventure and everything in between, demo bikes from some of the best in the business and riding for the whole family from 16" training bike to enduro stud.  We will also have tons of other fun including trail runs, hikes, climbing, paddling, and more for those looking for something other than a sweet MTB ride.  We will cap Saturday evening with an awesome LIVE concert in the CampO Grotto by the Rat Rod Kings an amazing rockabilly honkytonk band.

Sunday morning we will kick off the third annual O’Face Adventure Race just after breakfast.  An awesome way to cap off the weekend; every FTF participant gets a free entry into this FUN, challenging and exciting adventure race held on the CampO grounds.

Camp Ondessonk, in the heart of the Shawnee National Forrest, will once again play host to the Fat Tire Fest.  Fall colors will be in full swing in the Shawnee and the weather that time of year is perfect for riding in the woods.  We will again have the rustic one star luxury of the CampO tree houses for our overnight accommodations. These kick ass tree houses give you the outdoor experience without the hassles of packing all your camping gear. Think open air sleeping with a roof over your head, no doors or screens to interrupt your enjoyment of all things outdoors.  A sleeping bag, some clothes, your bike and riding gear are all you need to bring. If you still want to drag along the tent and sleep on the ground we can accommodate you too, and this year there are a very limited number of RV sites for self-supported rigs, just hit us up on email to get the details and/or reserve a spot for your RV.

Each FTF registrant receives:

• Lodging for Friday and Saturday nights
• Exclusive access to the CampO trail network with over 35 miles of trail right out your treehouses front door
• ALL meals for the weekend (7 total meals), Starting with lunch on Friday and ending with lunch on Sunday, Great food too, hot breakfasts and kick-butt BBQ on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, over 1,400lbs of meat were served in 2015!
• FREE drinks from New Belgium (for those of age, drink till you are no longer thirsty kind of free drinks), RedBull, Ski and other Excel Bottling sodas
• Friday and Saturday, will both include multiple guided trail rides ranging from the tame to the extreme
• A super sweet FTF 16 commemorative tee shirt
• Zip Lining, Rock Climbing, Boating, Hiking, Trail Runs, and tons of other CampO fun all included FREE!
• The opportunity to ride top of the line Specialized demo bikes
• A vendor expo put on by our top brands
• Each participant will have multiple chances to win thousands of dollars in giveaways, over $15,000 in giveaways in 2015, more for 2016!
• Entry into the O'Face Adventure Race, a super FUN adventure race for everyone on Sunday morning.
• ALL of the mountain biking and fun you can cram into 3 days! 

The FTF includes riding options for ALL SKILL LEVELS, from the gnarliest mountain biking anywhere with slick rock and creek crossings to gently rolling fire roads; you’ll have a great weekend of riding and FUN no matter your skill level. And if you want to tune up your skills we will have Roots Mountain Biking on hand teaching skills courses.  Both Level 1 and Level 2 will be available this weekend, and class sizes are limited so make sure to register when you sign up for FTF now. 

More Information

Register for Event

Festival and Race Location

This festival and race is being held at Camp Ondessonk, Ozark, Illinois

Tentative Schedule

Friday, October 21st

• 10:00AM  Registration Opens
• 10-5:30PM Specialized Demo Truck Open
• 11-3:00PM Guided Group Rides leaving the Expo area
• 10-9:00PM Expo area, grab yourself some deals, meet new friends, find out about the cool stuff
• 12:00PM Lunch is served
• 1:00PM Awesome Onsite MTB Clinic by Roots MTB!
• 4:00PM Beer gets tapped
• 6-8:00PM Local fresh brats and burgers on the grill for all
• 9-11:30PM FTF Challenge brought to you by RedBull

Saturday, October 22nd

• 8:30AM Breakfast at Dining Hall
• 9:15AM Announcements, FTF and CampO Guidelines
• 10:00AM-6:00PM FTF Fun! Pick an activity or six and have a rocking good time.
  • Riding and tons of it OR: Hiking, Running, Zip Lining, Climbing, Boating, Gravel Grinding, Chilling
• 10:00AM-3:00PM Guided Group Rides for all levels, from 5-50+ miles and Mild to Wild!
• 10AM and 1:30PM Awesome Onsite MTB Clinics by Roots MTB! Entry and Intermediate
• 4:00PM Expo area is open and beer is flowin’
• 6:30PM BBQ Dinner is served at Expo area
• 7:15PM FTF Prize Drawing
• 8:15-11:15PM Live Concert in the CampO Grotto

Sunday, October 23rd

• 8:45AM Breakfast at Dining Hall, come ready for the O’Face Race
• 9:30AM-12:00PM O’Face Adventure Race, Get Your O’Face On, includes Climbing, Boating, Running, Riding, Accuracy and a few more challenges just for fun
• 12:15PM Closing Lunch, O’Face Awards ceremony and FTF Grand Prize giveaways
• 3:00PM The End

2016 Off-Road Race Schedule

Visit United In Dirt for additional race information.
Visit our forum for a complete and up-to-date race calender managed by Karen (msmodo).