Hyatt Regency O'Hare - Chicago
8 August - 11 August, 2008
The last Fest I posted about was the 2nd annual Las Vegas Fest For Beatles Fans (event #42), the newest attempt to celebrate the Fab Four by Mark Lapidos Productions. Excelsior! The second oldest of the Fests is the Chicago show. This year's Chicago Fest marked the shows 32nd anniversary in the windy city. The line-up of special guests was similar to the Vegas show save for Donovan who wasn't able to make the trip. I started working on Wednesday morning. Two and a half days later, the marketplace was set up, the guests had all arrived, the video room was one push of a button away from entertaining the masses, the sound checks were done, and the band was primed. Friday 5:00pm: it was time for the show to begin. Working at the Fest means getting up in the early part of the morning, having your only sit-down meal of the day, working until past midnight, staying up drinking until the wee hours of the morning, and passing out with just enough time to sleep it off before the next day. Lather, rinse, repeat. At the end of the show, the staff is punchy, exhausted, hung over, and all out of sexual innuendos, inappropriate jokes, and Beatles' humor.
On the final evening of the show comes the worst part of it all, breakdown. Everything that it took two and a half days to set up has to be taken apart, repacked, and shipped back to a warehouse in New Jersey. Once the show ends around midnight, the break down begins. This year, aside from a quick trip to the Chicago staple Steak-N-Shake, break down lasted until 6:00am. The host and owner of the Fest, Mark Lapidos, has the tradition of finding one of the remaining groups that is playing music in the lobby of the hotel and sings Here Comes the Sun, which was completely appropriate this year since the sun was indeed peaking its fat ass over the horizon as we were heading to bed.
I always ask some of my co-workers why they don't bring their spouses along to the shows. We have a great time, so why wouldn't they, right? Then I realize how it must sound to suggest the Fest to someone who hasn't been doing it for a long time. We work 16 hour days, drink too much, sleep too little, are generally malnourished, spend the entire weekend in the hotel without so much as venturing outside, use up precious vacation time from our "real" jobs and usually go home as mere shells of our former selves until we can get a few days to recover. Sure...sign me up. One of the highlights of this show was having a few of our flights inevitably delayed or canceled completely, so a few of us headed back to the hotel for one more night of laughing, swapping stories, and drinking. Although the idea of finally going home to sleep in my own bed, eat a decent meal, and actually resting for a night sounded wonderful, I have never been so happy to have an issue at the airport keep me from leaving someplace. See everyone in March.
Here Comes the Sun
pet rooster
1 comment:
You really nailed the spirit of the Fest!
Love ya!
V
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