How Overland Expo Became A Must-Attend Outdoors Event
Images Via Overland
It's hard to imagine a better environment for a fan of rugged outdoor adventure than Overland Expo. (Okay, maybe a swatch of undiscovered BLM land.) At each event, hundred of vendors showcase the best and newest off-road travel and camping gear. Classes for experts and beginners are held, as are various panels and demonstrations.
Most importantly, outside of soaking up information, Overland Expo is an opportunity for the overlanding community to rub shoulders, dine on delicious meals and take in some live music. We spoke with Overland Expo's Film Festival curator Chris Bradley (yep, they even have a film fest) about how its grown, what overlanding is, and why people keep coming back.
How would you describe the evolution of Overland Expo from its first days til now?
At its core, it’s the same event it was back when it started in 2009. The idea of inspiring people to get out and overland, training them with the skills they need to do it, and equipping them with the tools to make it happen is what Overland Expo has always been about. What has changed is the number of people that are interested in overlanding. We’ve seen explosive growth in the market and everything has grown with it – more people, more classes, and more products.
How has the growth of OE tracked with the growth of overlanding in general?
We’ve seen a direct parallel with the growth of Overland Expo and the growth of overlanding generally. When we started in 2009, the term overlanding was pretty new to people and the roughly 700 attendees that showed up to that first event reflected that. As overlanding came into the public consciousness over the next few years and people became increasingly passionate about this type of travel, the event simply grew and grew. In the fifteen years since that first Overland Expo we’ve gone from those 700 initial attendees to just over 70,000 this year.
IF you look at survey stats, overlanding is a thing not too many people have done, but a lot of people are curious about. What’s a good entry-level approach to the pursuit?
Since overlanding typically involves getting into the backcountry where help is a little harder to get, we recommend people travel with another vehicle or two. If you have a friend that is a little more experienced in overlanding, that’s a great place to start or there are a lot of local overlanding groups that plan regular excursions you can join. You can find them all over social media, but Expedition Portal is a great place to start.
Besides not going it alone, it’s good to have some fundamental skills developed. Minimally, it’s good to have some basic offroad driving skills, know how to use a map and compass, and know some basic first aid. Overland Expo is a great place to pick up these skills and a whole host of other useful education along the way.
How does the team at OE define the parameters of what counts as “overlanding”?
Overlanding is a pretty broad concept that really comes down to “vehicle-dependent adventure travel”. The vehicle can take a wide range of forms from a four-wheel drive SUV or truck to a dual sport motorcycle to an AWD van or even a bicycle. Just like the definition of vehicle is broad, we see a lot of variation in what people consider adventure. For some people it’s just getting out there with their family and exploring an offroad trail a few hours from home. For others it’s a multi-year adventure through several continents.
How would you describe the social vibe at a typical OE event?
There is something special about the social dynamic at our events. It’s hard to find the right words to describe it, but “familial” is probably the closest word. A shared passion and the excitement of being at an event like this seems to bring people together. There are so many people that come back year after year because they’ve created a network of friendships through Overland Expo. In my own case, I still keep up with people I met at that first event 15 years ago. In fact, I was just catching up with the person I camped next to that first year, just a couple days ago.
Since this has been such an important part of the event, we’ve really tried to create more opportunities for social interaction. Every night we have a happy hour that is designed to bring everyone together into the central gathering space to hang out, meet new people, and talk about what they learned, saw, or were inspired by that day. Afterward, there are parties and get-togethers around the venue, a film festival on Friday night, a huge raffle put on by the Overland Expo Foundation, and of course, people hanging out back at camp with their neighbors.
What are some issues of concern within the overlanding community right now? Are people talking about public lands access or other developments in the world of the great outdoors?
The biggest issue right now relates to stewardship of our public lands. Simply put, the more popular overlanding becomes, the more wear and tear there is on our public lands that are open to vehicle travel. Beyond the additional erosion that comes from more people on a trail. Unfortunately more people generally also brings more people doing things they shouldn’t like driving off trail, leaving trash behind, disturbing wildlife, and causing trails to be closed in response.
The overlanding community needs to be focused on addressing these issues and finding ways to continue being good stewards of our lands. The Overland Expo Foundation has been largely focused on land stewardship education since its inception and other groups like Tread Lightly have been making a tremendous positive impact, but it’s something the community as a whole needs to focus on.
Your opinion: What’s the coolest thing you saw at your most recent OE event?
The most exciting thing I’ve seen recently is the number of families that are getting into overlanding together. It’s great to see young kids excited to get out there and explore the world around us.
If I’ve never been to an Overland Expo, what’s the best way to get the lay of the land?
We publish an article before every event called “The Newcomer’s Guide to Overland Expo”. It provides a great bird’s eye view of the upcoming event, describing each of the major parts of the show and then links you to more detailed articles where you can get a deeper dive into the various happenings. I’d look at the education schedule first, decide what classes and training you want to take, and then fill in the rest of the day wandering through the vendor area and doing one of the Ride and Drives. As the day winds down, head to that evening’s happy hour to unwind and meet fellow overlanders before heading to one of the evening parties or the film festival.
