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My brilliant mother (the oh-so-quotable Maxine Southerland) used to warn me, \u201cJude, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.\u201d She believed that \u201cPlans\u201d (with a capital P) were useless unless one actually acted upon them. Worse than useless \u2013 a waste of time!<\/p>\n
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American author, Henry David Thoreau, strongly agreed, although \u2013 unfortunately for him \u2013 he never met Mrs. Maxine. Thoreau wrote, \u201cIf you have built your castles in the air\u2026that is where they should be! Now, put the foundations under them!\u201d In other words, dream\u2026but then do.<\/p>\n
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The Beatles were living examples of that maxim. They were boys who dreamed big and then worked their ever-lovin\u2019 guts out to make those far-flung dreams reality. They were tireless in their pursuit of \u201cthe toppermost of the poppermost,\u201d working 10-12 hours a day without complaining to achieve their goal.<\/p>\n
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And it is the same with Mark and Carol Lapidos, the creators and directors of The Fest for Beatles Fans. Many of you have been to multiple fests without ever meeting Mark and Carol. You may have seen them handing out bracelets or fighting fires or greeting you warmly without even knowing whom you were addressing. They never make The Fest about them. In fact, they intentionally fade into the background to make sure that those three magical days in New Jersey (in March) and in Chicago (in August) are all about The Beatles.<\/p>\n
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But for 41 years now, this very happily married couple (a feat in itself in our age) and their two creative daughters, Michelle Joni and Jessica, have given their lives to the concept Mark dreamed up four decades ago. They have devoted themselves utterly to The Fest for Beatles Fans.<\/p>\n
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Forty-three years ago, Mark Lapidos had a dream. And without shying away or procrastinating or letting \u201clife happen with its other plans,\u201d Mark found a way to meet with John Lennon in New York City and ask John for his endorsement of this imagined festival celebrating the Fab Four. Mark tells this truly goose-bumpy story at the Fest for all to hear, so I won\u2019t \u201cspoil the party\u201d by divulging the details. But suffice it to say, out of that courageous visit to John Lennon, the Fest for Beatles fans was born.<\/p>\n
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To my way of thinking, getting in to see John Lennon was coup enough. I struggle to get my interviews. It is thrilling to me to even visit with people who were part of The Beatles\u2019 entourage! Give me a chauffeur, a Cavern Club doorman, a traveling journalist on one of The Beatles\u2019 tours, and I\u2019m in seventh heaven! But, Mark Lapidos took matters all the way to the top\u2026straight to the man who conceived The Beatles, hand-picked his group, and kept them together in good times and in bad. Mark went to John Winston Lennon. To me, that is remarkable.<\/p>\n
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But Mr. L(apidos) did much, much more. He began planning the Fest, partnering with his fianc\u00e9 and later, wife, to work long hours \u201ceight days a week\u201d to book hotels, schedule conference rooms, supply food and drink, check on parking conditions, secure noted speakers, book Beatles notables, haul merchandise to Fest sites, set up decorations, make certain that electrical and AV equipment was working, and hire an extensive staff of trusted, responsible, impressive Fest employees to work for months insuring that each event was a roaring success. And hey, I\u2019m only touching on the proverbial tip of the iceberg! There is soooooo much more to carrying off a mammoth event such as this. So much more.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And listen, the thing is\u2026Mark and Carol and Jessica and Michelle didn\u2019t just do this for a year or five or ten. They made it happen (extremely well) year after year after year through times when babies were born, when parents passed away, when the economy was awful, when hotels fell into disrepair and new venues had to be sought, when equipment failed, when storms rocked the area, when they were happy, and when they were sad. They endured for 41 years, no matter what.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Lapidos family has been giving Beatles fans \u201ca home away from home\u201d and a place to reunite for 41 years. Theirs isn\u2019t a story of \u201cshoulda, woulda, coulda.\u201d Theirs is the story of \u201cbeen there, DONE THAT!\u201d But they don\u2019t say that in a jaded, bored way. Nope, 41-years-in, they are still uber-excited to present the Fest to you, thrilled to say \u201ca splendid time is guaranteed for all,\u201d and \u201chappy just to dance with you.\u201d Their hearts are still 100% invested in the hands-on running of this wonderful festival. They care.<\/p>\n
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So, I want you to see their photo (below, with Joey Molland, Albert Lee, and Mark Hudson)\u2026and I\u2019m asking each of you to seek them out at the Hyatt Regency O\u2019Hare in Chicago, Aug. 11-13 and thank them. I\u2019m asking you, if you\u2019d be so kind, to simply shake their hands or give them a hug and tell them from the heart how much you appreciate what they\u2019ve given us all for lo these many years. I don\u2019t think a simple \u201cthank you\u201d is out of order, do you?<\/p>\n
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And\u2026ahem!!!!…if I were Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr, I would make it a point to show up one year and thank them as well\u2026thank them for a lifetime of \u201cputting the foundations under\u201d a long-ago dream that has kept Beatles fans united, excited, and informed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mark and Carol, the Beatles authors of your Fests salute you! We are so proud to be associated with you. To us (although you are our age and younger, in many cases, than we are) you are our parents. You make us into family, and we love you! Thank you from our Beatle-y hearts.<\/p>\n
Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series:\u00a0www.johnlennonseries.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations —\u00a0@910PubRel<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter and\u00a0910 Public Relations<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Jude Southerland Kessler A note to Mark and Carol Lapidos on the advent of the 41st annual Fest for Beatles Fans My brilliant mother (the oh-so-quotable Maxine Southerland) used to warn me, \u201cJude, the road to hell is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[98,117,30],"class_list":["post-7113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baby-boomer-beatles-blog","tag-jude-southerland-kessler","tag-the-beatles","tag-the-fest-for-beatles-fans"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7113"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7118,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113\/revisions\/7118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.thefest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/MC.jpg\")
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