10 Reasons why you should not miss out on Beatles at the Ridge this year!

September is here and that means one thing for me--it is almost time for Beatles at the Ridge in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas!       If you have been following this blog for the past few years, you will know that the 2-day Beatles festival is one that I just love to attend.    And here are 10 reasons why you should make your way down to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas yourself and see what the excitement is all about.


10.   It is FREE!   Unlike most other Beatles festivals around the globe, the Beatles at the Ridge festival is completely FREE.   It is free to park, it is free to get autographs from the guests, it is free to hear the bands.    No one can complain about the price of the tickets, because there isn't a price!   Of course you will want to bring along some money because you will want to eat something while you are there (I recommend the Dark Side for sandwiches and ice cream or the dinner that serves 'Beatles burgers and onion Ring-o's) and you will want to spend money on the Beatles goodies and other vendors.

9.   Liverpool Legends.    On Saturday night the Beatles tribute band, Liverpool Legends will perform.  I am not big on Beatles tribute bands, but I do admit that Liverpool Legends are one of the best ones I have heard.      They take you through all of the Beatles periods in music and costumes.   These are the guys that were picked by Louise Harrison herself and they have a permanent gig down in Branson, MO.      The Liverpool Legends aren't the only band.  There are 2 stages with live music being played through the day and night.     There is also a talent contest with all sorts of great talent.   If you like live music, Beatles at the Ridge has got it covered!

8.   Beatles-themed town.     Everything in Walnut Ridge is all done up for the event in Beatles theme for a contest called "Tye-dye the town."    From large cut-outs of the cartoon Beatles, to a big yellow submarine, and every store front painted in Beatles, peace and love---you will want to make sure your camera is working and ready to go!


7.   Good Ole' Freda.    I sure hope that many of you have seen the amazing Beatles documentary, "Good Ole' Freda" about Freda Kelly, the Beatles fan club secretary.    There will be a showing of the film at this festival this year.   There is nothing better than watching a Beatles film in an air conditioned building with other fans.    And afterwards Cameron Hicks will be leading a Beatles sing along!  Fun Beatles times!

6.  Aaron Krerowicz.    Aaron is a Beatles music expert and has a great amount of knowledge about the guys.  He is doing a "lunch and learn"  (bring your lunch and learn something new) about the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.    Come learn more about the music of these two British rockers!

5.  Me!    Yes, I will be at Beatles at the Ridge this year with my book "Happiness is Seeing the Beatles."    There is going to be a book release party for the book, which means that there will be cake!   I love cake!    After the party, I am going to have a presentation about what is in the book that will have audio and a short video.    I am holding a raffle for a 1966 Beatles tour book for anyone that buys the book during the festival.    

4.  Lanea Stagg.    Lanea will have McCartney tea with scones and lemon curd during her "a Day in the life of a Beatle!" presentation.   Lanea is the Beatles food gal and makes great treats that everyone always enjoys.   

3.  Jude Southerland Kessler.    You know that I just love Jude!  She has became a great friend over the years.   She is a true Beatles fans and her love of John Lennon makes me like her even more.    She gives some of the BEST presentations of anyone out there!    This year she is talking on Friday night about John Lennon's Liverpool.    She has traveled to Liverpool many times and her talks takes you right back to the streets of Penny Lane and Lime Street.   I am really excited to hear her again!

2.   Ivor Davis.  Ivor knew the Beatles.   He traveled with them during the 1964 North American tour and was with them in 1965 when they met Elvis.   Ivor wrote as "George Harrison" for a newspaper.     His memories of that time are funny, insightful and makes you want to hear more.    Ivor is speaking on Friday night and you will fall in love with this amazing man. 

1.  Beatle friends!   This will always be my #1 reason to any Beatles event!   Nothing is better than Beatle friends!   I am excited to get together with the friends I met last year and at the Paul McCartney concert in Little Rock.   I am anxious to talk Beatles with others who love the Fab 4 and are just as excited about the new Beatles CD as I am.    If you have never been to a Beatles event and are shy, it is alright.   You automatically have friends when you come to Beatles at the Ridge.   Beatle fans are amazing and we aren't the type of group that doesn't welcome new people.   The more the merrier!    So even if you don't want to buy a book, don't be scared to come up and chat with one of the authors.   We all are just Beatle fans like you and want to talk about John, Paul, George and Ringo because that is the reason we are there!


I hope to see you at Beatles at the Ridge on September 16-17, 2016.  For more information, go to www.beatlesattheridge.com

The Carl Perkins' fan club

This is something that part of the "Guitar Walk" in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.   I did not recall seeing that particular photo before and I had not read the story of the Beatles being in the Carl Perkin's fan club.  

Beatles at the Ridge -- Festival Review

On September 19-20, 2014 my  mom and I drove down to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas for a Beatles festival called "Beatles at the Ridge."    Those of you who follow this blog and know the history of the Beatles 1964 are familiar with the reason why Walnut Ridge, Arkansas is part of Beatles history as it was the Walnut Ridge airport that the Beatles stopped at in 1964 on their way to and from Reed Pigman's ranch.   It is really just a blip in Beatles history, but the town of Walnut Ridge has decided to make the most of their small Beatles connection for the sake of improving tourism to the region.  A large metal sculpture of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road can be found in the town as well as a cute shop called "Imagine" that sells Beatles items.   There is a 115-ft-long by 40-ft-wide guitar on the ground that is a replica of John Lennon's guitar in an area called the "Guitar Walk."    All of this is well worth seeing if you are in the area.   Once a year the town throws a big city-wide festival called "Beatles at the Ridge."

Beatles at the Ridge is not completely a Beatles convention.   It is very Beatles centered and there are a lot of Beatles activities and things going on, but it is also a carnival-type fest for the town.  There are booths and tents from area groups and organizations as well as activities that have nothing at all to do with the Fab 4 (such as a duck calling contest).

But if you are a Beatles fan (and I know that you are), there is plenty of Beatles fun.   My wonderful author-friend, Jude Southerland Kessler was the chair of the first ever Beatles author symposium at this festival.   She put together some of the BEST authors and speakers to talk about their books.   There also was a Beatles photo display that was extremely good, an art display by Enoch Doyle Jeeter who drew pictures for each of the songs on the Meet the Beatles album and a display called "Meet the Covers" which showed album covers that were parodies of Beatles album.   It was really fun to see!

When I arrived on Friday afternoon, the first thing I noticed was that the entire town of decked out in 1960's and Beatles theme.   Every store-front window had things like peace signs or cartoon Beatles in the windows.   There was a large cut out of the Yellow Submarine and the Cartoon Beatles and it made for a fun photo opportunity.   It was really festive and put us in the mood for the weekend!

My mom with the cartoon Beatles cut outs

After looking around for a bit and getting our bearings, we made our way into the author's room and found our friends.   Even though I had just seen everyone just a month earlier, it was great to see Chuck Gunderson, Lanea Staggs, Kit O'Tool, Jude and Rande Kessler and  Anthony Robustelli again!

My mom and I with Jude Southerland Kessler (I know I look terrible here!  I had been driving all day and just blah!)

On Friday night we heard a GREAT talk about the events of 1964 by Jude and Chuck.   This multi-media presentation was just amazing.   Both of these two authors are amazing speakers and they know their Beatles stuff!  We stuck around and listened to a band perform for awhile, but we were super tired and decided to try to get some sleep.

The Beatles statue looked REALLY cool at night!

On Saturday, we were up bright and early for a full day of Beatles fun.   At first we walked around outside and looked at the booths and venders.    We saw that Danny Donuts, who we recognize from all of our years going to the Chicago Fest for Beatle Fans (even though he doesn't know us) was running a fun children's section.   He had a bubble machine going and kids were jumping around to Beatles music.   He had a parade later in the day, but we missed that.   It looked like fun for the kids.

We had a full day of listening to the authors in the symposium because---well that is what I like to do.  But before that, we went back into the Imagine shop and talked to Carrie Mae Snapp, who as you might recall was the girl who's father took the photos of the Beatles at the Walnut Ridge airport and she touched George's elbow.   Well, she said to us, "do you want to see the pictures?" and she proceeded to pull out all of her photos from that day and tell the story to just my mom and I with more details than what I have heard before.   It was so great!  

Lanea Stagg did a brunch based on some of the recipes in her Recipe Records Cookbook that were really tasty.  I recommend "Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey bread."  Then we heard Kit O'Tool give two talks--one about the Abbey Road medley and another about the top Beatles sounds.   Both of these were really fascinating and help me listen to Beatles music that I  have heard forever in a new way.   We also heard Anthony Robustelli's presentation where he stripped down Beatles music so that you just heard the harmonies or just the guitar.   It was really some amazing stuff.  If you like that sort of thing, I highly recommend listening to Anthony's radio program on Beatles a rama radio online on Sunday nights.

Then for something silly---we needed to eat, right?  So mom and I went to a local diner that was serving Beatle burgers and Onion Ring-o's.    We were laughing about that through the entire meal.

We came back to the site and got ready for the concert by Liverpool Legends (Louise Harrison's Beatles tribute band from Branson).   But before that we had to listen to this country band that was really boring.   I think they were called Rockabilly.   I do not like country music.  At all.    I especially do not like country music about food.   Yeah...these guys were tolerable for the first 20 minutes but then they went on and on.  And they didn't even sing one single Beatles song or even Carl Perkins or someone like that.   I was so bored!

Finally Liverpool Legends came on.  They sounded great.   As I have said before on this blog, I am not a big fan of Beatles tribute bands who like to act like they are really the Beatles.   The whole dressing up in costumes  with wigs and saying things like "this is a song from our first movie...."  it just irritates me.   So I disliked these guys trying to look and act like them, because let's face it---none of these tribute bands are guys in their 20's.  They are not the Beatles.   But I really enjoyed the music.  They sounded really good and I was there to have a good time and enjoy some Beatles music.  I do have to admit, the last costume the "George" guy wore was great!  

Check this out!  George totally wore an outfit just like that!

Next year is set to be even better than this years festival and there is hope for more Beatle fans to travel to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas  for this event.    So make plans now to be there!   Here are some tips for you if you plan to go---

1.  This is a FREE event.   People were asking how much it cost and the answer is nothing! 

2.   Bring a lawn chair with you if you plan on staying for the concerts.  

3.   Walnut Ridge is located in a dry county.   Yeah....that is a real thing in the United States in 2014.  There are places were you cannot buy alcohol and this is one of them.   So plan accordingly (whatever that means to you).

4.  There are not really any hotels in Walnut Ridge.  The closest town with hotels is Jonesboro, Arkansas.  I stayed at a place called the Fairview inn and suits.   It was cheap and clean, but old and little run down.  

Beatles stop at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas

After the one day of relaxation at Reed Pigman's Ranch in Alton, Missouri, the Beatles flew in the small airport in a town that only had a population  of 5,000 people---  Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.     It is said that about 40% of the town turned out at the airport to see the Beatles depart for New York City. 

I posted a story of one of the girls who was there on this blog a few years ago and you can find it here.
http://www.meetthebeatlesforreal.com/2011/12/my-brush-with-beatles.html

I was fortunate this weekend to hear hear Carrie Mae (the girl in the story) tell her story in person and see her photos.   You can listen to her story on Jude Southerland Kessler's radio podcast, The John Lennon Hour.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thejohnlennonhour/2014/09/17/whats-beatles-at-the-ridge


The Beatles were only at Walnut Ridge for a few short minutes, but their time there made a lasting impression on the people of the town.

Photos from Carrie Mae Snapp