57th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship Returns Memorial Day Weekend 2026

This is a press release from Kinetic Universe:

The Neverending Glory tests their breaks
before they kick off the start of the 2025 Kinetic Grand
Championship.
Photograph by Matt Filar

Oh Glorious ones-you’ve waited all year and it’s finally time! Celebrating its 57th year, the Great Arcata to Ferndale Cross-Country, Human Powered Kinetic Grand Championship returns! Far more than a race, the original human-powered, all-terrain, art triathalon is a living tradition — a multigenerational North Coast gathering where old friendships are picked back up and new ones are forged in sand, laughter, and sheer determination.

Robert van de Walle, of Team Pineapple, current Grand Champions, says “We are especially looking forward to spending time among all the friends we’ve made in kinetics and the new friends we’re bringing to the race this year. In the spirit of our entry for this year: May the Force be with us all!”

The Kinetic Grand Championship stretches across three full days and exactly 50 miles of beaches, roadways, rivers, and rugged terrain. Held every Memorial Day Weekend,this three-day “not a parade” features abundant opportunities for people of all ages to come out and play. Starting on Saturday at the Arcata Plaza at 9 a.m., watch machines arrive, go through judging stations, and show off their pageantry until they take off for Manila at noon. At the Manila Community Center, enjoy live music, libations, and food while racers prep their machines for the sand. Spectators can watch sculptures cross the Day One Finish Line at Halvorsen Park in Eureka and revel in glory at Kinetic Fest, where spectators can get up-close-and-personal with machines while enjoying drinks, eats, and entertainment from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Watch the racers brave the waters of Humboldt Bay from the Eureka waterfront on Sunday morning, then welcome them across the Finish Line starting at 1:00 pm on Main Street in Ferndale on Monday. And don’t forget, you can support the race by buying merch or making a donation-kinetic madness is free to watch, but not free to produce. For the Spectator Guide, map, schedule and more visit: https://kineticgrandchampionship.com/

The Kinetic Grand Championship is produced by Kinetic Universe in association with Justin Hobart Brown and the Brown Family. 

Come for the race. Stay for the reunion. Become part of the legend.

Teams peddle their sculptures around the
Arcata Plaza on the first day of the Kinetic Grand
Championship in 2025.
Photograph by Matt Filar

Dolly Spartan peddles their sculptures
around the Arcata Plaza on the first day of the
Kinetic Grand Championship in 2025.
Photograph by Matt Filar