Fest!
LIGHT!Fest East Coast '01 RESULTS
The best ELO fan get-together in North America again happened August 18th and 19th, 2001 in Baltimore, Maryland. So much fun there, and lots to see and do.
Here’s what some of the attendees had to say:
From Jan Berkeley, of California:
I traveled 2636 miles (according to mapquest.com) to attend Steve's fest in Baltimore this past weekend. Why? Well, as Jeff once responded in a radio interview "why not?" It's not like I had a CONCERT to go to...
I was destined to have a good weekend. The last song I heard on the radio was "I got my mind set on you". And on page 2 of my newest Midnight Louie book (to be read as I waited to board the plane) appeared a paraphrased set of September Song lyrics.
Destiny. Fulfulled when I walked through the door and heard Ordinary Dream playing.
Tons of memorabilia. Anyone remember the flyer that came with Discovery that had the three tshirts and the satin jacket for sale? That was on display. Songbooks and ticketstubs and tshirts, oh my. And record store displays and keychains and photos and advertisments and posters and so on and so on. Really cool.
Tons of music. Finally heard Juliana Raye, Ace Frehley's Do Ya, Spinal Tap's answer to Roy Wood, an odd mix of DBMD/LTTL/I'm Alive and Xanadu, Helen Reddy, and the longer Indian Queen, among others. There's something oddly surreal about hearing Telephone Line and Horace Wimp at the same time.
Tons of videos. I'd never seen Lift Me Up, which was part 2 of Every Little Thing. Neither had I seen So Serious or Calling America. I also saw a pretty funny interview of Jeff given by Tom Petty, in which only Tom's legs were shown til the very end. Jeff was sitting in the big AT armchair on a patio by a pool. At the very end of the interview, Jeff says with a very straight face "Aren't you Tom Petty?" I also finally saw the PBS taping, and the opening is great. [NOTE: And, if you’ve never seen The Move and Roy Wood perform live, this is a great place to view those videos.]
Tons of FOOD! (so just pop on by if you're hungry tonight. :)
Tons of talk. Fortunately, no one was so depressed about the (last year’s U.S. ELO) concert (tour) cancellation that we had to restrain them from jumping off a balcony or running into traffic (there were no balconies and traffic was light). We told stories about past fests, concerts. Five of us had attended the PBS taping, and one had attended Storytellers. I'll guess there were about 30 people over the two days at the fest.
The highlight was Saturday night's singalong, even if now I have the theme to Mary Tyler Moore stuck in my head, instead of Last Train to London. The live version of Summer and Lightning was great, too.
And the worst part was saying goodbye.
Thanks again, Steve!
And from Tim Ross of Florida:
Hey Steve,
Thanks for another really cool fest. It was great to see everyone again and I met some very nice people. Can't wait until next year's.
Keep the Light on. To all who didn't attend: You miss an ELO fest, You miss a lot !:)
LIGHT!Fest is sponsored by LIGHT!, the North American ELO Fan Club, but you do not have to be a member to attend. It is open to all fans of ELO and related artists.
Steve Rifkin, Coordinator of LIGHT!, The North American ELO Fan Club.
Last Updated March 20, 2002, by Steve Rifkin.