Brisbane is about to host the BMX World Championships and the whole city will feel it

Brisbane is about to get very loud, very dusty and very into BMX for over a week straight.

The UCI BMX Racing World Championships land at the Brisbane SX International BMX Centre, part of the Sleeman Sports Complex in Chandler, from 17 to 25 July. More than 3,000 riders from across the world are competing across elite, under 23 and junior categories, making this one of the biggest single sporting events Brisbane hosts all year.

The schedule runs in two distinct blocks. Elite, under 23 and junior categories get an official practice day on Friday 17 July, followed by two days of racing on the 18th and 19th. Then things reset with two more practice days on the 20th and 21st, before four straight days of racing from Wednesday 22 July through to the closing weekend on Saturday 25 July.

The last time Brisbane hosted this event was 1989. That is 37 years between visits, which gives you a sense of how big a deal it is for the city to have it back, and why local BMX clubs have reportedly been counting down for years rather than months.

If you have never watched elite BMX racing in person, the appeal is fairly instant. Eight riders launch off a start hill simultaneously, hit jumps and berms at speeds that look genuinely unsafe, and the whole race is over inside 40 seconds. It rewards zero patience and delivers maximum chaos, which makes it one of the more spectator friendly sports going around, even if you could not previously have named a single professional BMX rider.

For Brisbane, an event like this is about more than the racing itself. Nine days of international riders, support crews and travelling fans filling hotels, restaurants and bars in the city's east is a genuine economic moment, not just a sporting one. Expect Chandler and the surrounding suburbs to feel considerably busier than usual for the back half of July.

Tickets are available through the official championships site, with single day and multi day options depending on how deep into the BMX rabbit hole you want to go. If nothing else, it is a solid excuse for a Sunday out east that does not involve another brunch queue.