Sara's report on the Fest for Beatlefans (aka Beatlefest)
Chicago 2013
People who attend Beatle conventions do so for a variety of
reasons. None of those reasons are
better than the other; it is just a matter of personal choice. That sort of stood out to me this past
weekend at the Chicago Fest for Beatle
fans. As I saw it, there are mostly
three groups at the Fest. Obviously this
is a generalization and will not be completely true. There is one group of fans who are at the
Fest for the music. They listen to all
of the bands, all of the sound alike contests and all of the musicians. They might be a musician themselves and
brought along a guitar and joined in for some late night/early morning jam
sessions. These people are the ones
that you will hear saying things like, “We are here for the music. That is what the Beatles did—make
music!” The second group are the
“scholarly” Beatles fans. These people
attend panel discussions on the strange details of the Beatles. They enjoy the lectures and the trivia. And there is a third group of people who are
simply using the Fest as a springboard to party. They brought a huge cooler full of their
favorite alcoholic beverages and are ready to drunkenly sing “Hey Jude” with
those musician people. They have little
interest in attending any sessions or discussions. They are there just for the party.
It is no surprise that I tend to fall into the scholarly type,
and maybe more so this year than any other year. Strangely I did not hear Liverpool perform
at all and I did not attend any of the musicians’ forums or performances. I did not hear Chad and Jeremy or Joey from
Badfinger. The only music thing I did
(besides singing under the stairs) was attend the Battle of the Beatle Bands
contest. But you can’t be everywhere
at once at the Fest, and I had to choose what I wanted to hear the most.
Let me just go ahead and get the negative things out of the
way. I go into the Fest with the
attitude that I will have a good time.
I am there to celebrate my favorite subject, the Beatles, with others
who also love the Beatles as much as I do.
So it would take a lot for me to say that I didn’t enjoy the Fest. So these observations are not me in any way
complaining or trying to say that I didn’t have fun. The Fest wasn’t as well attended as it has
been in years past. The venders
selling Beatles goods in the marketplace was MUCH less than I have ever seen
it. The truth of the matter is that
the Fest is in need of making some changes if it wants to continue on. As the people in the Beatles camp continue
to pass away, it is getting harder and harder to find guest speakers with a
Beatles connection. There are a lot
of ideas I have in my mind. Ultimately I
am scared that this trend of less people and venders is the beginning of the
end and in 10-15 years there might not be a Beatles convention anymore. The idea of that makes me so sad. I hope those of us who love these type of
gatherings can work together to make sure that doesn’t occur.
On with my report:
Friday:
As usual, my mom and I took the Amtrak Train from Alton,
Illinois to Union Station in downtown Chicago.
From there we walked to the “EL” station and got on the blue line that
took us directly to Rosemont, where the hotel is located. Well, my mom sprained her ankle a week and a
half before our trip and it is still purple, so we had to move a lot slower
than usual. But we arrived and got
checked into the hotel and were all set for our first day at the Fest for Beatles
fans.
We started off the festivities by watched “A Hard Day’s
Night” up on the big screen. It is
always fun to watch with other fans and I will never get tired of watching that
amazing film. Then we traveled
downstairs to where the art exhibit, memorabilia museum and marketplace are
located. I was able to catch up with, Chuck, who has
an amazing book about the Beatles American tours (see the link at the top of
this page) coming out next year. You
heard it here first…the book “Some Fun
Tonight” will be THE book of 2014 for Beatle fans to get! I was
able see the preview of the book
and was privy to some super rare
photos! Total highlight of Friday for
me (and that wasn’t even an official Beatlefest
activity or anything).
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| This little George Harrison doll didn't win the art contest, but was my favorite piece. |
From there it was up to the room where all of the
discussions were held. I listened to
talks about Collecting Beatles Memorabilia, 100 things Beatles fans should know before
they die, Talking Beatles art (with the wonderful artist Eric Cash and Georgia
Flood), A Culinary Tribute to the Beatles (yeah I thought it was going to be
stupid, too. But it was actually a fun
presentation and the free samples were yummy).
The last thing for the evening was a discussion about 35 years of
Beatlefan magazine. What a delight that
discussion was! Being a 20 year
subscriber to the zine, I was fascinated to hear how it all began and what has
kept it going for the past 35 years.
 |
| Artists: Georgina, Eric, and Deco with moderator Wally |
Saturday:
The morning started off with breakfast away from the hotel
with some friends. When we returned we
watched Rob Shanahan, who is Ringo’s official photographer, talk about his
photographs. Next up was Bruce Spizer
talking about Vee-Jay Records followed by Larry Kane discussing his new
book. Larry Kane is a really great
guy! I love hearing him talk about his
time on tour with the Beatles.
 |
| Larry Kane: toured with the Beatles and was the man behind the Helping Hands marathon in 1975. |
After a bit more shopping, we watched a great presentation
by Jude Southerland-Kessler where she read from her upcoming book, She Loves you while showing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan
Show. Then it was finally time for the
reason why I wanted to come to Beatlefest so badly this year: The premiere of the film Good Ol Freda. As you know, I have been a Freda Kelly fan for
a long time. I donated to the campaign
to get the documentary made. This film
is one of the best Beatles documentaries I have ever seen. It was just amazing. I will be posting more about the film and
how we as fans can get the word out there about it. The stories Freda tells in the film and the
photos and everything are just so good.
Freda and the film’s producers took some questions after the
showing. I could not stay for the
entire thing because I was needed upstairs for the panel I was on.
 |
| Freda Kelly and Ryan White talking about "Good Ol Freda" |
I got to hear the end of Jim Berkenstadt and Chas Newby
talking about the Jimmie Nichol book that Jim wrote. And then it was time for me and the rest of
the ladies of the “We’re Talking about Girls now” panel. It was such an honor to be on a panel with
such well-known female Beatles historians.
Honestly I don’t know if I fit in there, but it was good fun to talk a
little about this blog and why I do what I do. Once the panel was over with there was a
fun discussion about Liverpool and its humor with Billy J. Kramer, Freda Kelly,
Joey Molland and Chas Newby. Great fun
and a lot of laughs.
From there, there really wasn’t a whole lot left to do. I am not a Martin Lewis fan, so I didn’t
want to hear him speak. So we ended up
going into the video room and watching the Beatles in 1964 videos until they
kicked me out. That Around the
Beatles Special is just so funny. It
has been awhile since I last saw it.
 |
| We're Talking about Girls panel |
Sunday
The last day of the Fest for 2013. I am not sure if I can go back next August
because the Fest is a week later than it was this year and most likely school
will be starting back up. Having a “real
job” is a true drag at times. As much
as I like being a teacher, sometimes I just wish I could be a Beatleologist
full time.
We started our day with the early bird puppet show by Mr. Puppet,
Bob Abdou. I used to think his puppet
shows were a little lame and just goofy.
However, in the past 3-4 years
they have really improved. His
Beatle puppets are adorable and his jokes have gotten better. Ten years ago I would have said to skip the
puppet show, but now I try to see it ever y Sunday of the Fest.
Next up was Jude S. Kessler again. This time she did an outstanding presentation
on John Lennon’s Liverpool. Wow! It was extremely moving and especially
interesting to my mom and I since we were just there in Liverpool last
month. Jude is a sweetheart of a John
fan and am so glad to have gotten to know her through the Fest.
I went to the Beatles auction. There were quite a few autographs that did
not sell at all. I bid and won the
Gobel Yellow Submarine figurines.
 |
| With my winning item in the hotel room. |
Robert Rodriguez has a new book (so many books!) about the
Beatles Solo in the 70’s, and I didn’t want to miss his talk about it (since I
missed it due to the Freda Kelly film on Saturday). There
was a very good discussion about the Beatles in the 1970’s, and I could have
participated in that for many hours if they would have allowed it. Next up was Al Sussman previewing HIS new
book about the time in history between Kennedy’s assassination and the Beatles arrival
in New York. I left his talk a bit early to get Freda
Kelly’s photograph and talk to her people about my blog. Then Martin Lewis did a short interview
with Freda. The interview was better
than last year’s interview with her, although I still think he asks some
questions that are strange. Even Freda
said something along the lines of “what an odd question…”
My mom really wanted to hear Bruce Spizer and Al Sussman’s
talk about country music and its influence on the Beatles’ music. I am not a country music fan at all, but I
figure my mom sat through some topics that should didn’t like (such as the solo
Beatles in the 1970’s), so I went to that with her. It was interesting enough.
Then there was door prizes given away and I won for the
first time in 15 years! I won a Paul
McCartney poster from the 1989 world tour.
Art contest winners were announced and the it was the battle of the
Beatle bands. Sadly there were only 8
bands competing this year. I remember
when there were over 20 bands. The bands
were good, but most of them used the same drummers and guitarists. The winning band was “Ringer’s All Star
Band” who sang “Never Without You.” The lead singer really does resemble Ringo
Starr and he had his mannerisms down.
 |
| Ringer with his All Star band |
We were going to listen to Liverpool perform, but decided to
go under the stairs and sing. And so
that is where I was from 9:30p.m. – 2:00a.m.,
under the stairs singing my heart out to Beatles and solo Beatles
songs.
 |
| Singing under the stairs: have some fun tonight! |
I had a great time!
It was wonderful to see so many of you who are readers of this
blog. I am a bit shy and I hope I didn’t
come across as rude to anyone. I hope
some of you have found this blog from picking up one of my cards that I had lying
around. If so, then welcome to
MTBRF!!
