Beatles fans can come together at fest in Louisville
by Sheldon S. Shafer
The Courier-Journal

Louisville is the new home of the largest Beatles festival in America.

The city will play host to a three-day Memorial Day weekend tribute May 27-29 to John, George, Paul and Ringo that is expected to draw more than 40 bands and up to 20,000 followers of the Fab Four from around the world.

The event has been held the past three years in Cleveland.

Tourism spending from the fourth annual "Abbey Road on the River" is expected to pump about $3million into the local economy, and the event is expected to draw national media, Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson said yesterday at The Kentucky Center.

The weekend will include a Beatles film festival, lectures on the rock group and the sale of memorabilia, including paintings by well-known artists.

Neither of the surviving Beatles — Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — is expected to attend.

About half of the bands expected to appear will dress like the Beatles and imitate their music, said Gary Jacob, the show's organizer. The others, he said, will do interpretations of Beatles music in styles that include classical, reggae and blues.

Smithereens will be the featured band, but others will come from throughout the United States, England, Greece, Sweden, Japan, Australia, Canada, Brazil and the Czech Republic, Abramson said.

Activities will be at The Kentucky Center, on the Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere and the Galt House.

"Residents and visitors alike will converge on downtown Louisville to celebrate one of the world's greatest rock-and-roll bands," Abramson said, adding that he had been looking for what he termed a signature event, or a Memorial Day weekend "happening."

Fifth Third Bank has agreed to be the title sponsor for 2005 and will consider sponsorship for subsequent years, said Phil McHugh, bank executive vice president. He declined to say how much the bank is putting up.

Jacob said it will cost about a half-million dollars to stage the event, which he hopes finds Louisville as its permanent home.

Starting in 2002, the event has been centered at an amphitheater on the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland.

The first three drew a total of about 50,000 people and poured about $10million into Cleveland's economy.

Jacob said he patterned the event after a weeklong Beatles festival held annually for the past two decades in Liverpool, the Beatles' home base.

But officials said yesterday that interest in the event in Cleveland apparently had leveled off.

Jacob said it was up against considerable competition from other entertainment, including professional sports.

Two Louisville promoters, David Dean and Eric Wiegel, who run Midnight Productions LLC, visited Cleveland's event last year and approached Jacob about moving it to Louisville.

After talks with the Greater Louisville Convention Bureau, the bank and Abramson, a deal recently was struck.

Abbey Road, Jacob said, "can be the premier festival in Louisville's Memorial Day weekend."

Jacob said he is trying to line up charities that might benefit from proceeds of the event, including McCartney's pet cause, Adopt-A-Minefield.

Ticket prices for the festival will range from $15 for a one-day general admission ticket to all activities to $99 for a two-day reserved-seat package.

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