McCartney Times

JERSEY CITY – Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr couldn’t make it, but the 43rd Fest for Beatles Fans got by with a little help from their friends Saturday as a starry lineup of Beatles friends, collaborators and fans came together for the world’s longest-running Beatles fan celebration.This year’s festival, held at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Jersey City after four years in New York, marked the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four’s seminal “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album and, as always, indulged in three days of Beatlemania.“They were only a band for seven and a half years, but there was something so magical that happened there that it’s why we’re doing this in 2017,” said Mark Lapidos, the event’s founder and organizer. “The Beatles are the only ones who deserve this.”Some 4,000 fans from 28 states are expected to view rare Beatles art, listen to live cover bands, sing karaoke, trade memorabilia, watch films, participate in contests, raise money for charity, attend panel discussions and meet Beatles associates by the festival’s end on Sunday.The biggest draw of the weekend is longtime Beatles friend and bassist Klaus Voormann, who discovered the band playing in a seedy club in Hamburg in 1960 and went on to design the Grammy Award-winning “Revolver” album cover.“I heard that music coming from the basement and said, ‘This, I really have to witness,’ ” he told attendees. “It was just incredible.”

Source: Fans love, love their Beatles at Jersey City festival