Rock, Weed and Wheels

How did an event devoted to promoting car races end up becoming a Mexican Woodstock? Perhaps you ought to ask its organisers – two young entrepreneurs who, with more heart than head, and amongst psychoactive puffs of smoke, made accidental history.

Rock, Weed and Wheels celebrates an important milestone in Mexican musical history: the Avándaro Festival that took place in September 1971. Initially conceived as a series of car races with a musical interlude, the event was expected to attract a moderate audience. But it ended up becoming a sort of Mexican Woodstock – at which hundreds of thousands of attendees congregated – and a symbol of hedonism and subversion that then raised the alarm of the conservative Mexican government.

Rock, Weed and Wheels satirises musicians, press, entrepreneurs and, above all, the two young organisers of the event – Justino and el Negro. Filmmaker J. M. Cravioto uses a mockumentary approach, mixing archival footage with free-spirited recreations, conjuring a stoner comedy in the style of Christopher Guest, and participants are often unsure if the camera is rolling or not – with revealing results. Cravioto hilariously chronicles how a series of small accidents and questionable choices end up building a ball of pure chaos that defies all expectations. And it’s all bathed in the spirit of excess, rock, pot and irreverence.

– Cristina Álvarez López

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