The Five Ball “H3LLRAISER” invitational was a show that was put together in a rush due to crazy circumstances.
My friend’s father owns a warehouse In Boyle Heights that’s in the middle of being re-leased and currently vacant. He told me I had a month to pull something off before… We reached out to Carrie from Choppers Mag and started the uphill battle of planning everything.
Cary Brobeck from Choppers Magazine backed me 100 percent of the way and we pooled our resources to make the H3LLRAISER BIKE SHOW as cool and fun as possible within our budget (pretty much 5k) and limited time–three weeks.
“Yeah,” Cary said, “it was way bigger than we anticipated. Frankie did such a good job.”
We invited 20 builders, 20 artist, 20 photographers, 4 bands and 17 venders. It was all love and friends who helped pull it together and everyone had a good time. No drama. No bullshit.
We were expecting 300 people, maybe 500 max. I think about 1000 came and went through out the galvanized tin doors. The Chopper Gods were on our side that day and everyone came to pay homage to the Great Keith “Bandit” Ball and Five Ball Racing leathers.
“Frankie had a good turn out,” Zack, a Long Beach rider said. “I got there early and stayed a couple of hours. It was a black jeans, purple-haired crowd.”
From the overall consensus, we put on the coolest show in Los Angeles this year and people are already asking about the next one. The melting pot of Southern California sub culture was all in one spot and the energy was undeniable. If you didn’t know about the Ball Brigade before Sunday, you sure do now.
–Frank Ball Jr.
