A boy looks at the book "The Beatles on the Road" in Mexico City, where fans of the legendary band can view all kinds of memorabilia at the 20th Beatles Festival. EFE/File
Mexico City, Dec 22 (EFE).- The Beatles never had a concert in Mexico, but "Beatlemania" cast a spell on the country that lives on at the 2014 Beatles Festival.
Fans of the "Fab Four" from Liverpool will be able to enjoy concerts, movies, conferences and an exhibition at the Futurama Cultural Center in Mexico City until next Sunday.
The 20th edition of the festival features special guest Freda Kelly, who was The Beatles' secretary and will attend the daily screenings of "Good ol' Freda," a 2013 documentary about her work with the band.
Kelly will hold Q&A sessions with
the audience.
"The best part is to be with her, to talk with her and share her feelings as a Beatles fan that shine in her eyes," Ricardo Calderon, president of the All Together Now fan club, told Efe.
The club organized the festival along with the Mexico City Tourism Administration.
"She just climbed down those 18 steps and had a first impression of those handsome young men, with energetic music so different from everything heard before and dressed in clothes nobody else wore," Calderon, who got hooked on The Beatles when he first listened to "I Saw Her Standing There," said.
One of the festival's main attractions are the concerts, which include 43 Mexican bands and their tributes to The Beatles, Futurama musical coordinator Jose Luis Sanchez told Efe, adding that this edition of Beatlefest was "the strongest so far."
An exhibition of Beatles souvenirs, magazines, books, autographed photos, posters, wigs and even "Christmas trees" will run until January.
Mexico "is more a Beatles country than a Rolling Stones country," Sanchez said, referring to the rivalries among fans of the two legendary rock bands.
"Mexico now tops Google searches for the name of the group or their members," Calderon said, adding that 200,000 people attended Paul McCartney's 2012 concert in the Zocalo, Mexico City's largest plaza.
