Fixing a Hole

“The intent was good—to promote the
Liverpool area and create some tourism action,” Davie says. “In order
to do that, the vision that I had is that the festival needed to be
along Onondaga Lake. And with Longbranch Park continually sold out I
had to move it to Onondaga Lake Park. Unfortunately, in doing that,
there were a lot of restrictions on what I could or could not do. The
largest stipulation was that the festival had to be free at that
location.” 

So the bottom line was the actual bottom
line, and, without a major sponsor, Davie couldn’t make enough money to
cover projected expenses. “I could have done it as a ticketed event,
but free, it wasn’t going to work,” he says.

What may work, Davie adds, is a 2009
Beatles festival he is discussing with the Syracuse Convention and
Visitors Bureau. “This vision is not dead in the water,” he says, “it’s
in the planning stages right now and it would mean quite a bit of
tourism next summer—people from all over the world. I can guarantee
that Beatles fans from England, Germany, Greece, will come to Syracuse
for a festival of this magnitude.” So, it is not “The End.”

{mospagebreak} 

While his Aug. 2 dream has faded, Davie
announces a Sept. 16 visit and performance by Best, who is using his
life-after-non-retirement to test what could have been had one Richard
Starkey never come to the attention of John, Paul and George. “Pete has
a cameo as himself in the upcoming movie The Rocker, starring Rainn Wilson {and slated for an Aug. 20 release}, and he is releasing a new CD, Haymans Green,
his first recording project in 46 years. So he’s found a second wind,”
Davie explains. “It took him three years to do the CD and he will tour
in September. So as a makeup to all the people who supported the All
You Need is Liverpool concept, who asked me when I was bringing Pete
back, here you go.”

The show, slated for Meaghan MacMurphy’s,
7990 Oswego Road—“Where else, but Liverpool?” Davie says—starts at 8
p.m. with an opening set by the Fab Five before Best takes the stage.
Ticket prices have yet to be set, but the show is a fund-raiser for the
Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund and the Liverpool Chamber
of Commerce. “I guess you could say I’m turning the lemon into
lemonade,” Davie says. For more information, call 382-7285 or visit
thefab-five.com.