September 14-15, 1974: The First Fest for Beatles Fans

Come together, right now! This week, Emily and V head back to the extremely seventies 1970s to look at a fandom currently having a resurgence on Tumblr: The Beatles. V has actually been to "The Fest," as groovy kids call it, and wrote a paper on Beatlemania that got published a zillion years ago to boot, so she chimes in about what this fandom is like from ground level while Emily marvels at the guts of The Fest's founder, Mark Lapidos, and how very accessible people were in 1974. Then we end with a tangent on the importance of internet safety? It's a thing. Be safe on the internet, kids, and remember that she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah! Sources Fanlore V's article republished at AO3 The Fest: History Beatlemania: The "Screamers" And Other Tales of Fandom by Dorian Lynskey Diagnosing Beatlemania by John McMillian Beatlemania: A Sexually Defiant Subculture? by Barbara Ehrenreich, et al. This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history! Follow This Week in Fandom History on Tumblr at @thisweekinfandomhistory You can support the show via our Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/thisweekinfandomhistory.  If you have a fannish company, event, or service and would like to sponsor or partner with TWIFH, please contact us via the Tumblr link above. Please remember to rate the show 5 stars on your listening platform of choice!