El Grito is an annual Milwaukee car show with a history on South 5th Street. Its 2026 edition is listed for Catrina Cantina on September 19.
El Grito has been held on South 5th Street for roughly seven or eight years, according to TMJ4, which reports that shows like it now draw hundreds of vehicles and have helped knit together a lowrider community spanning multiple generations. The event's roots stretch back further still: TMJ4 notes that Los Bajitos was Milwaukee's first lowriding club, established in the 1980s, laying the groundwork for the scene that fills the street today.
Organizers behind the modern iteration of El Grito include Ranflitas, a Milwaukee car club whose member Eric Ramos helped form the chapter in October 2019, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The club hosts cruises and permitted car shows, the newspaper reports, and its annual El Grito Car Show and Festival — which started in 2019 and takes place every third Saturday in September — has grown alongside a broader push toward youth programming and toy drives.
A Show That Keeps Getting Bigger
The scale of Ranflitas' event has expanded in recent years. The Journal Sentinel's reporting on the club describes an annual show that welcomed 200 car exhibitors and hundreds of spectators to Walker's Point, a sign of how far the gathering has come since its early days. A 2026 event listing on allevents.in placed the eighth edition of the Ranflitas CC Milwaukeros El Grito Car Show Fest at Catrina Cantina, 606 S. 5th Street, on September 19, describing a lineup of classic, custom and collector vehicles, per a companion listing on garagecherries.com.
The annual event has been held in Walker's Point.
Changing Perceptions, One Cruise at a Time
Beyond the spectacle, organizers say the shows serve a bigger purpose. Ranflitas has worked to shift how lowrider clubs are seen in Milwaukee, moving the public perception away from gang affiliation and toward community leadership, the Journal Sentinel reports. That shift has come with tangible changes on the ground: TMJ4 quotes one community member describing newfound cooperation from the city, saying, “They're closing down the streets for us,” a nod to the street closures now granted for permitted lowrider gatherings.
The Smithsonian's own Hispanic Heritage Month resources include an online exhibition dedicated specifically to lowriding culture.
El Grito is an annual September event with a history on Milwaukee's South 5th Street.
