In the early 1990s, Václav Havel became the first president of the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution toppled the Communist system. Soon after, Havel invited Lou Reed to visit the newly formed country—Reed visited, but was hesitant to perform there. Havel convinced him to do so, explaining that he wouldn’t have become democratically-elected president without him or his music. The Velvet Underground and its noncomformist ideology inspired Czech bands like Plastic People, who were jailed for playing the same music Reed freely performed in the US. In this celebration of that moment, Ivan Bierhanzl and Paul Wilson will talk about the risks and pleasures playing for the Plastic People at different stages of the band’s more than 50-year long career. They will shed light on this amazing story of how the self-confessed non-musical Václav Havel became the rock’n’roll president of his country and friends with Lou Reed, Frank Zappa, Joan Baez, the Rolling Stones and others. The panelists will be joined by Sylvia Reed who traveled with Lou to Prague and witnessed his encounters with Vaclav Havel. Rare archive footage from the 1970s and 1990s will also be shown.