The Fest started in 1974 as the brainchild of a New York-born, New Jersey-raised Beatles fan – Mark Lapidos. In 1974 he was a 26-year-old manager of a Sam Goody record store in NYC. He was a Beatles devotee and he simply wanted to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the year in which the Beatles first came to America. So he decided to create a weekend convention in Manhattan for fellow Beatles fans.
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