Downtown Hollister was relatively quiet on July 4, which fell on a Wednesday this year. It’s also a year without a sanctioned Hollister Independence Rally after last year’s promoter backed out earlier this year. Dozens of motorcycles were along San Benito Street at midday, mostly near Johnny’s Bar & Grill, while events are planned at Corbin Motors and establishments such as Johnny’s Bar & Grill. Hollister is known as the Birthplace of the American Biker, in honor of the 1947 biker “invasion” in the town retold in the classic biker film “The Wild One”. The city has held on-again, off-again motorcycle rallies since the 1997 50th anniversary of the invasion, but the council canceled any sanctioning of the event after promoter Roadshows declined to do it again.
