Fat Tire Fest 2025
October 17 - October 19
Southern Illinois Fat Tire Festival (FTF) happening again for the 21st year, one of the best MTB events in the entire MidWest! This year’s event goes down October 17-19, 2025, at the one and only Camp Ondessonk located in Ozark, Illinois right in the middle of the beautiful Shawnee National Forest. We have miles and miles of great riding for all levels of riders from mellow flow to rugged all mountain boulder strewn rowdiness. The Midwest’s all-inclusive mountain bike weekend with tons of fun riding; both professionally guided and self-led, amazing food and drink, awesome tree-house accommodations, and tons of outdoor adventures Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Click HERE to register NOW!!
FTF has something for everyone, from those wanting to ride every minute of the day to those tagging along to enjoy some time in the great outdoors. The list of fun evolves each year and is part of what makes Fat Tire Fest such a fun event for EVERYONE. This year the list includes 30+ miles of onsite trails to explore at any time, including the 10+ miles of fun and flowy trails handcrafted specifically for MTB riding that weave thru the 800+ acres of CampO property.
At Fat Tire Fest there’s always a ton of riding and a bunch of “other fun” too.
- The Fat Tire Challenge will be back on Friday night with the “huffy toss”, the “big kids on little bikes” races, the CampO tug of war and other FTF Challenge tomfoolery.
- Saturday afternoon includes the first “race” of the weekend with the “Kids Race” at the expo area followed by the Off-Road Crit race on a super fun one-mile course, ~30 minutes of racing for bragging rights all weekend long.
- “The Hunt” scavenger challenge goes on all weekend long.
- A Tunnel Hill Rail Trail ride happens Saturday mid-morning
- Guided family MTB rides happen both Friday and Saturday
- On-site bike demo’s from Santa Cruz, Cannondale and Cervelo all day Friday and Saturday and a number of other brands on site with cool gear to check out.
- Fat Tire wouldn’t be Fat Tire without great food, cold drinks, treehouse accommodations and amazing prizes, last year was over $10,000 worth.
- We cap the weekend off right with the O-Face MTB Bracket race on Sunday, a predicted time bracket race on a “less than” 10-mile course.
Join us for the 21st Fat Tire Fest and have more fun, more adventure and embrace the outdoors while enjoying your best weekend of the year.