You can’t tell from the quote, but that was obviously a tough choice for Kyle, one of three primary organisers of the massive Chopped Rod & Custom 2012 festival. Now in its fifth year, what began as 130 cars on a football field has transformed into a three day behemoth that takes over a horse race track in Newstead, Victoria (about 90 minutes outside of the heart of Melbourne). From the seedling of two brothers and a long-time friend with a few ideas has become Australia’s largest tribute to the golden age of hot rods – big cars, jumped-up tunes and big hair that has had several dalliances with the mainstream over the last 50 to 60 years, yet always retained a sense of evergreen underground cool. So asking for Kyle’s favourite part is like asking to pick your favourite kid – not that you can’t do it, you’ve just got to be a little more calculating.
“It takes me just as long setting that up as it does the rest of the show. I always wanted to open a Tiki Bar, but now I can handle doing it just three days a year. It’s this huge 14 metre square structure with a giant Easter Island Tiki head that opens up and lights the whole place up. By about 11 at night it’s basically shoulder to shoulder, and everyone has such a good time.”
I offer that it might be easier to just leave it there and run it like a bar for the rest of the year. As ideas go, it sits somewhere on the stupid spectrum between 3D home theatres and a Selena Gomez tattoo. “Yeah, it could be just be in the middle of nowhere with no one showing up,” Kyle responds coolly. Okay, moving on.
Over the course of half a decade, Kyle estimates that Chopped Rod & Custom has doubled in size each time, incorporating dirt drag racing, music, food, trade stalls and of course, scores of pre-1965 hot rods and custom vehicles. With an audience ranging from your casual day trippers to the die-hards living and breathing the rockabilly culture (that camp onsite for the three days), it’s for anyone that has ever slowed down on the footpath as a slick black Pontiac rumbles down the street.
“If you saw pictures from the first show – I was actually looking at them today for this article – looking at what it was in 2008 to what it is now, it’s like creating a monster,” says Kyle proudly.
“Every year we’ve been stepping it up. We don’t want people coming back year after year for the same show. Every year, we’ve been investing more money into it, trying out different things. This year we really want to push the bands and music side of it – we’ve got 18 bands over the three nights, so it’s like a music festival built into a hot rod festival that’s built into a huge camping festival. I guess we’ve figured that we’ve already got the car lovers section of the population coming along, now we want to lock in the music lovers and more.”
Putting the 2012 event on has been an eight month slog for the organising trio, but Kyle is planning Chopped Rod & Custom 2013 following a one month break. With such a continued bump in attendance each year comes a whole new set of rules to learn when October rolls around. Based on two unavoidable obstacles in 2011 – one natural, one manmade – the motto this year is “three days of all action guaranteed rain, hail or shine”.
“Last year pretty much put us on the international market,” says Kyle. Special guests this year include famed hot rod kings Keith Weesner and Piero De Luca, both travelling from North America. “There are probably about five different shows around the world that your really hardcore people will want to go to, and last year put us into that group. Australia didn’t have anything like that previously.
“Also, it was a real test for us because it rained all weekend and we lost some attendees. Plus, pretty much for the last 100 years – there’s been songs about it – the AFL Grand Final is meant to be on the last weekend of September. And last year, they pushed it into the first weekend of October, which is our weekend! And you can’t compete with the AFL in Victoria. It’s a lawless town for two and a half hours. So we had a big challenge with all of that, but we proved our worth with that one.”
The Australian Football League has got it right this year and kept with history, leaving the weekend free for sweet rides and sweeter tunes. Kyle Ford is ready for the 2012 challenge, and sounds like he’s ready to throw one out to the audience as well.
“Everybody that turned up last year had the best time. They were dragging in the mud, it was a blast. Anybody that didn’t turn up because of the weather regretted it. We’ve had lots of people say they won’t let rain stop them this year, and we’re definitely ready for anything.”
BY MITCHELL ALEXANDER
