Twenty-five years after a group of mountain bikers first looked over the cliffs of southwest Utah and imagined what could be ridden, Red Bull Rampage is going home.
And starting Wednesday, fans can buy their way onto the mountain to watch it happen.
Tickets for the 2026 Red Bull Rampage go on sale Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 10 a.m. Mountain Time, opening spectator access for a landmark edition of freeride mountain biking's most recognizable event. Women's competition is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 8, followed by the men's event Saturday, Oct. 10.
Organizers are offering two-day packages along with single-day general admission options, but there is an important distinction this year: tickets will not be sold at the venue, and organizers warn that availability may disappear quickly.
The ticket announcement comes as Rampage prepares for something considerably bigger than another October in the desert.
For its 25th anniversary, the event is returning to the public lands near Virgin that hosted the original Red Bull Rampage competitions from 2001 through 2004. The Bureau of Land Management completed its environmental review and approved the event's return to the original area in July.
That makes 2026 a genuine homecoming.
Since the inaugural competition in 2001, Rampage has staged 19 editions and produced 11 different winners. This year's event will be the 20th running across that 25-year history.
The numbers only tell part of it.
Rampage has spent a quarter-century changing the definition of what can be done on a mountain bike.
Back to the Beginning
The terrain near Virgin isn't simply another venue selected for an anniversary celebration.
It's where Rampage's identity was created.
The original events were staged on BLM-administered public lands from 2001 through 2004 before Rampage went on a three-year hiatus. When the competition returned in 2008, it moved to nearby Utah Trust Lands, where subsequent editions have been held.
For 2026, organizers specifically proposed returning to the original area to commemorate the 25 years since that first competition.
And there are good reasons this particular patch of Utah produced Rampage in the first place.
The BLM describes the area as heavily eroded badlands filled with steep slopes, cliffs and layers of sandstone and mudstone. Those natural formations allow competitors to construct individualized routes down the mountain without relying on a conventional, permanent racecourse.
That's fundamental to what separates Rampage from almost everything else in mountain biking.
There isn't one line.
Riders and their small dig crews study the mountain, choose a route and then spend days shaping it by hand. Some prioritize enormous drops. Others build technical ridgelines, trickable features or high-speed sections.
Eventually those separate ideas become competition runs.
Twenty-five years of that process have transformed both the event and freeride itself.
What seemed barely conceivable during Wade Simmons' victory at the inaugural Rampage in 2001 has given way to massive backflips, exposed technical lines and combinations that continue pushing the boundaries between freeride and slopestyle.
This October, those two eras meet on the same ground.
Women's Rampage Enters Its Third Year
The anniversary also arrives during another important period in Rampage history.
Women's competition will return for its third edition on Oct. 8 with a 12-rider field, the largest collection of women yet invited to compete at Rampage.
Two-time defending champion Robin Goomes leads the field after winning each of the first two women's Rampage competitions.
She'll have plenty of company.
Georgia Astle, Hannah Bergemann and Cami Nogueira earned pre-qualified positions, while Casey Brown, Chelsea Kimball, Harriet Burbidge-Smith, Janelle Soukup, Kirsten Van Horne, Mikayla Parton, Vaea Verbeeck and Vinny Armstrong received wildcard invitations.
Parton will make her Rampage debut.
Bergemann may have some unfinished business.
She finished just 0.16 points behind Goomes in 2025, leaving almost nothing between the two at the end of the competition.
The progression of women's freeride has become one of Rampage's most significant developments over the past several years. What grew through projects such as Red Bull Formation eventually became a full Rampage competition, and 2026 brings another expanded field back to the terrain where the event itself began.
The men's competition follows two days later on Oct. 10. Red Bull has also released the men's lineup for the anniversary edition.
The two-day structure gives each competition its own day rather than compressing the entire event into a single program.
Watching Rampage in Person Takes Some Work
Rampage has never been a typical spectator event, and this year's ticket structure makes that pretty clear.
Fans aren't walking through a stadium gate and finding Row 12.
The most basic General Admission Hike + Bike ticket requires spectators to hike or bicycle approximately 1.5 miles along a dirt road to reach the venue. There is no shuttle service with that package, and motorized vehicles aren't permitted.
A General Admission Shuttle package provides transportation closer to the venue, but spectators still face roughly a half-mile walk across varied terrain before reaching the general viewing area.
The Premium Parking package puts spectators closer to the site, although it also requires approximately a half-mile walk.
Then there's the Experience VIP option.
That package covers both competition days, shuttle transportation, premium viewing for the women's and men's events and a private venue tour Friday, Oct. 9. A catered lunch and exclusive Rampage merchandise are also included with the Friday experience.
Single-day Hike + Bike tickets are available separately for the women's competition Thursday and men's competition Saturday.
There will be no on-site ticket sales.
That's worth emphasizing for anyone thinking they can simply drive toward Virgin in October and figure things out when they arrive.
They can't.
Official Red Bull Rampage tickets and spectator information
More Than an Anniversary
Calling 2026 the 25th anniversary of Rampage is technically accurate.
But it undersells what's happening.
This isn't simply an old event celebrating a birthday.
Rampage has survived long enough to watch the sport it helped create evolve around it.
Bikes have changed. Tricks have changed. Line building has changed. Athlete preparation has changed dramatically. Women's freeride has progressed from projects designed to create opportunities on big-mountain terrain to its own fully established Rampage competition.
Even the athletes arriving in Utah are different.
Some weren't born when Simmons won the first event.
Yet the central challenge remains remarkably familiar: stand on top of an enormous piece of Utah desert, find a way down that nobody else sees and then ride it when everything counts.
Red Bull calls Rampage the ultimate proving ground for freeride mountain biking.
After 25 years, that's one piece of promotional language that's difficult to argue with.
This October, the proving ground is going back to where it started.
Women's Competition: Thursday, Oct. 8
Men's Competition: Saturday, Oct. 10
Location: Near Virgin, Utah
Tickets On Sale: Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 10 a.m. MT
On-Site Ticket Sales: None