Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro (also known as Festival de Avándaro) was a rock concert

Rock concert

The term rock concert refers to a musical performance in the style of any one of many genres inspired by "rock and roll" music. While a variety of vocal and instrumental styles can constitute a rock concert, this phenomenon is typically characterized by bands playing at least one electric guitar,...

 that took place on the night of Saturday, September 11, 1971 and became known as a milestone in the history of Mexican rock music. On that night, several major rock groups performed at an outdoor festival in front of an audience of over 200,000 people.

The event was named Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro (Festival of Rock and Wheels) because the event was originally supposed to be a sponsored car race with rock bands. Somebody advised the car racer Eduardo Lopez Negrete to include ambient music. The organizers decided to consult Armando Molina for further advice. Molina suggested including twelve bands and helped organize the event.

The concert occurred in the Valle de Bravo, a lakeside resort in Avándaro, near the city of Toluca

Toluca

Toluca, formally known as Toluca de Lerdo, is the state capital of Mexico State as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. It is the center of a rapidly growing urban area, now the fifth largest in Mexico. It is located west-southwest of Mexico City and only about 40 minutes by car to the...

, Estado de Mexico, two-hours from Mexico City. The concert brought thousands of young people together in peace to share and enjoy the music. The Festival took place in the aftermath of the 1968 massacre of Tlatelolco

Tlatelolco massacre

The Tlatelolco massacre, also known as The Night of Tlatelolco , was a government massacre of student and civilian protesters and bystanders that took place during the afternoon and night of October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City...

, and was under the threat of government repression. At the end of what became known as the "Mexican Woodstock", the government helped evacuate stranded attendees en masse. As a result of the festival, rock music

Mexican rock

Mexican rock music, often referred to in Mexico as rock nacional , originated in the 1950s with covers of standards by Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers, among others, bands such as Los Rebeldes del Rock, Los Locos del Ritmo, Los Crazy Boys, Los Nómadas, and Javier Bátiz soon arose...

 was suppressed in Mexico for several decades.

The sons of then State of Mexico Governor Carlos Hank Gonzalez

Carlos Hank González

Carlos Hank González , nicknamed El Profesor , was a Mexican politician and influential businessman. Originally a teacher, he was an entrepreneur who built political contacts along with a business empire, leading to various government and political positions at the state and national level...

, from the PRI, attended and fostered the Festival.

Some events were filmed by Telesistema Mexicano

Telesistema Mexicano

Telesistema Mexicano is the predecessor of Televisa. Telesistema Mexicano was a television alliance made up of the independently owned television flagship stations XEW Canal 2, XHTV Canal 4, and XHGC Canal 5 in Mexico, Distrito Federal.-History:...

 (today Televisa

Televisa

Televisa is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world. It is a major international entertainment business, with much of its programming airing in the United States on Univision, with which it has an exclusive contract...

) but the footage remains missing. Some of it has surfaced in the film "La verdadera vocacion de Magdalena" by Angelica Maria

Angélica María

Angélica María Hartman Ortiz is an Mexican-American actress and a Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter. She is a legendary entertainer and is known as La Novia de Mexico .-Early life:...

.Some actual film footage of the concert can be found on you tube.

Performers

• Los Dug Dug's
  Los Dug Dug's
  Los Dug Dug's are a Mexican rock group which started off in the early sixties as a high school band called Xippos Rock, with members [ROBERTO MIRANDA] and [MOISES MUNOZ]]...
  
  
• Zafiro
• Soul Masters
• Sociedad Anónima
• La Ley de Heródes
• Fachada de Piedra
• Los Tequila
• El Epilogo
• La División del Norte
• Peace & Love
• El Ritual
• Bandido
• Three Souls In My Mind (El Tri
  El Tri
  El Tri is a Mexican rock band from Mexico City fronted by Alex Lora. Founded in 1968 as Three Souls in My Mind, the group is regarded as influential in the development of Mexican rock music....
  
  )
• Mayita Campos y los Yaki
• Tinta Blanca
• El Amor

External links

• http://raybrazen.webng.com/avandaro
• http://raybrazen.webng.com/dugdugs
• http://robquero.tripod.com/Avandaro2.
• http://www.uaem.mx/ufm/especiales04/img_2001/2001/avandaro/index.htm
• http://www.maph49.galeon.com/avandaro/avandaroa.html
• http://www.appalachiangetaways.com/Avandaro%20Mexican%20Woodstock.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3UJL7FKc_Q&feature=related