Chopped Rod & Custom 2012

"Taking place an hour and a half north of Melbourne, Chopped is a unique cultural experience similar to that of being thrown back to a 1950s/60s Hop Up Carnavale. Thousands of fans from around the country partake in a mix of traditional style hot rods & custom cars alongside bobber & chopper motorcycles with entrants running head-to-head throughout the show in two-lane old-style dirt drags entertaining the crowds.

Throughout the day and into the night the crowds constantly switch their attention between the field of dirt drags and cars across to the stage where 15 bands play Rockabilly, Garage & Rock through to Blues, Country & Surf in the setting of the 'Tiki Palace' bar that drops you back into 1960s island life with Cocktails, Tikis, & Period DJ's visually drowned by palms, bamboo and a giant Easter Island Head that lights up the sky at night by popping its top and flaming into the darkness"

This will be the first year that I will be making the treck over to Newstead, Victoria, for Chopped Rod & Custom festival! Sam has gone for the last few years (every year besides the first I believe) and he and all of our friends always have an awesome time. I'm usually stuck at work doing wedding hair. Not this year! I'm a little excited to camp, be cold, get dirty and drunk with my friends, old and some new too, hopefully!

Newstead is about a 10 to 11 hour drive from Adelaide, so I'm making a big play list on my ipod to entertain us on the way, so we don't have to play too many "I Spy" games. We are planning to arrive mid-day Friday and set up camp. I have been informed by my lovely husband that "it is impossible to be hung over at Chopped"...I think I will be testing this theory out, hopefully he is right!

Besides the cars and dirt drags as entertainment, as mentioned there will be live bands playing too. Yes, this is a hot rod and custom festival, but no, not all the bands that are playing are rockabilly bands. I love rockabilly but I also find this refreshing! In Australia, as I'm sure is probably the case around the world, not all hot rodding types are into rockabilly music, so there is a variety of acts playing. One band that I am looking forward to seeing is La Mancha Negra. Dirty, garage blues with a little surf influnce...sounds good to me.

Chopped is all about traditional style cars, booze, mud and music...no shiny billet wheels and rock and rollers in their matching poodle skirts and shirts here! It's about having fun, talking shit and getting your cars (and maybe yourself) dirty. I can't wait to show you all what we get up to!
Hell yeah, bring on October 5th, 6th and 7th!

x Molly