The Magical Mystery Tour is coming (to Southeast Queens) to take you away!
For real. The Fest for Beatles Fans is at TWA Hotel at John F. Kennedy Airport from Friday, Feb. 9, to Sunday, Feb. 11.
Attendees can expect plenty of Fab Four music (naturally) along with Beatles-themed clothing, games, haircuts, karaoke, poetry, trivia, transcendental meditation, vintage items, and yoga. Plus, a star-studded roster — spearheaded by Micky Dolenz of The Monkees — will be on hand to meet, mix, and match.
Planned activities include an art gallery, auction, marketplace, museum, name-that-tune contest, and a Fan Jam. (Actually, many Fan Jams will probably occur spontaneously.)
At other times, authors who have written about the group will share their thoughts. So will musicians who played with them. (Laurence Juber and Steve Holley from Paul McCartney and Wings and Mark Rivera and Gregg Bissonette from Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band have confirmed their participation.)
DJ Ken Dashow from the NYC-based Rock station Q104.3 will be the master of ceremonies with help from Tom Frangione from The Beatles Channel on SiriusXM.
There’s a tremendous range of admission prices and times, click here for the full list. And click here for area hotels.
The Fest for Beatles Fans is an annual party – in fact this is its 50th anniversary — but a special excitement will fill the air this year as it’s also the 60th anniversary of the Beatles landing at JFK Airport on Feb. 7, 1964. The Lads from Liverpool were already popular, but their performance on The Ed Sullivan Show two days later shot them into the stratosphere.
As mentioned, this is the Golden Anniversary of The Fest for Beatles Fans. The idea came from Mark Lapidos, a Sam Goody record store manager who had never organized an event. After getting John Lennon’s approval that Spring, he booked Manhattan’s Commodore Hotel for Sept. 14 and Sept. 15 in 1974.
Entitled “Beatlefest ’74” at the time, it was a rip-roaring success with more than 8,000 attendees. This led to similar events around the United States and annual ones in big cities, such as NYC and Chicago. (The Windy City fest is usually in August.)
Images: The Fest for Beatles Fans