By Karl Greenberg, MediaPost.com

(June 1, 2010) For those who aren't Ducati fans, it might be news that next week is World Ducati Week, or WDW, a Ducati-sponsored confab, music festival, test-track event, race extravaganza and excuse to take a vacation in Tuscany.

The event -- the largest international gathering of Ducatisti -- is held at the Misano World Circuit of the Adriatic Coast of Italy from June 10 to 13, and is intended as a sort of (apologies to both Ducati and Harley fans) Sturgis for Ducatisti. People who aren't owners of Ducati bikes, however, are welcome. The actual cost of attending, per Michael Lock, Ducati's CEO, is only about €40 for owners.

This year's event -- the sixth in a series that began in 1998 -- has a "Return of the Red Planet" theme, referring to Ducati's red brand color scheme. The festival features parties, entertainment and motorcycling, including track and test rides, MotoGP and Superbike celebrities, tours of the factory, a seminar series on design and engineering called Ducati University, music and a rather large number of bikes.

The focus this year will be on the motorcycle maker's Multistrada 1200 and Monster 796. While the official company word is that the 2010 event will be the largest to date, Lock says the economy makes that questionable.

"The last WDW brought somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 visitors, mostly from Europe," he says. "More and more people are coming from Asia, Latin America and North America. But we anticipate this time may not be bigger than 2007 because the economy was in much better shape (then).

"The last one I went to was interesting; walking around the parking lot, there were Japanese bikes, other European bikes -- so while you don't have to be a Ducati owner, you get entrance for half price if you are."

In 2007, between 300 and 400 U.S. Ducatisti went to the event, but this year only about 225 Americans are signed up, at least on the WDW site. "That's who we know about, but they can also go in through other sign-ups, so they aren't totally visible," says Lock.

Often, visitors make the trip into a Tuscan vacation. "Typically, customers fly to Milan and rent a motorcycle or car for a week and use the WDW as a hub," he says. "They take the week to explore the Italian countryside. It's Tuscany, so it has some of the best motorcycle riding roads in Europe. It's really a catalyst for a European vacation."