Biker Lawyer Norman Gregory Fernandez at Love Ride with Steppenwolf on stage.
The single largest one day motorcycle event in the country, the Love Ride has been cancelled this year due to lack of funds.
This year would have been the 26th consecutive year that the Love Ride was held. The organizers of the event state that the event raised money for over a dozen charities including the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Special Olympics of Southern California, and Children’s Hospitals of Los Angeles.
The founder of the event Oliver Shokouh, the owner of Glendale Harley Davidson stated that it was a gut wrenching decision for him. He stated that this has absolutely nothing to do with the Love Ride staff, volunteers or organizers. He stated that everyone has worked hard for the past 25 years. He stated that their problem boiled down to the economy, and that the Love Ride is a victim of the recession. He stated that after a careful analysis over the past few months, they realized that ticket sales were not enough to offset costs; there was no money left over to help with the kids, the reason for the Love Ride.
As I found at about this cancellation on Wednesday evening, October 7, 2009, the first thing I thought about was that the Love Ride had grown too big for its britches, meaning, that the ticket prices were to much, and the event lost its luster.
In past years the event was held in December during the Christmas season. Tens of thousands of bikers would meet in Glendale in the morning, in front of Glendale Harley Davidson, listen to a concert, and then ride to Castaic where all of the vendors were camped out. There would be food and a good concert. The even raised a million dollars for charity.
Last year they changed the event to be in October from December; probably a bad move. Reno Street Vibrations was just a few weeks ago, Las Vegas Bikerfest was just last week, the Palm Springs Biker Rally is just around the corner, and well you get the picture. Secondly, instead of riding from Glendale to Castaic, they changed the event to the Los Angeles County fairgrounds. Basically the Love Ride went from a grass roots event to raise money for charity, to a huge monster at the Los Angeles County fairgrounds.
In my opinion, the Love Ride can and should come back, and it will, if they go back to their roots. Bring back the event in December; don’t pay big name performers to appear, hell garage bands will do, lower the price of tickets back to a reasonable level, let’s say $35.00 or $40.00 for couples, $25.00 or $30.00 for singles, and people will come back.
This is the way I see it.
Above you will see a picture of me at Love Ride 17, right in the front of the stage listening to Steppenwolf. It was a great day.
By Biker Lawyer and California Motorcycle Accident Attorney Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2009
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There have been a lot of things canceled because of the economy. Most folks do not have disposable income. Ticket prices need to be dropped.
Ive always wondered about the ratio of charity vs overhead cost that occurs in these events. how much of that 60 bucks ends up helping causes, and how much of it is just to pay the expense of the event.
You’re right about the music too, at our events we try to get local bands that need the exposure as much as we need entertainment.
Yea this event was expensive even in good times. At 60 bucks a pop many people chose not to go. Hell you could do the entire Las Vegas Bikerfest 4 days for 65 bucks.
This event needs to get back to its roots.