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FORTY years after the legendary Beatles sent Adelaide into a frenzy during their first and only visit, Beatle mania is about to hit the State once again.
Adelaide will host the inaugural Australian Beatles Festival from June 11 to 14.
Tourism Minister Jane Lomax~Smith said: "Adelaide gave the Beatles their biggest public reception anywhere in the world when they visited in June 1964, when some 300,000 people crammed the centre of Adelaide to see them. They turned our city upside down and inside out with excitement.
"It was the experience of a lifetime for many people. For those who lived it, the experience will forever be etched in their memories," the Minister said.
The staging of this unique festival gives people the chance to relive the passion and hysteria the Beatles evoked. The inaugural Australian Beatles Festival will offer Fab Four fans an 'Octopus's Garden' of events and music to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Beatles tour of Australia.
Special guests will include Pete Best, the Beatles' original drummer from 1959 to 1962 and John Lennon's sister, Julia Baird. Both will share some of their personal memories.
There will be plenty of music from local and international Beatles tribute bands, movies, cartoons, memorabilia, speakers, photographs and rare footage of the band.
Adelaide had a later special link to the Fab Four with the late George Harrison a regular visitor to the Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Adelaide.