Beatlemore Skidmania 2016

Brian Allan '17 is the 2016 - 2017 student blogger in the office of Communications and Marketing. A double major in English and Spanish with a minor in meida and film studies, he has provided a unique student insight to life at Skidmore. 

It’s a Saturday night, and the wide, wood-paneled stage of Skidmore’s Arthur Zankel Music Center is flooded with blue light. On it rest a variety of purposefully-angled microphones, two large amps, and, at the very center, a shimmering drum kit. From the 600 seats that face the front of the stage, a crowd of Skidmore students, faculty, and staff talk anxiously among themselves. Suddenly the lights dim, and one of Skidmore’s most highly anticipated and best known annual traditions, Beatlemore Skidmania, comes to life.

The two-day, three-show event has become a kind of Skidmore phenomenon; for weeks before opening night, the hype across campus is unreal. Students and faculty alike discuss, in fervent anticipation, what this year’s iteration will entail: everything down to the poster, the theme, the songs, and the performers. As far as institutional traditions go, few share Beatlemore’s capacity to unite the entire campus for a single cause—in this case, the love of a bygone era of music.

This year the event was thematically focused on the album Revolver, which the Beatles released in the late summer of 1966. Though I’d call myself a fan, I’m by no means an expert on the band, its history, or its discography. That is to say that going into the event, I only knew a few songs off of the album: “Eleanor Rigby,” “Yellow Submarine” (duh), and “Good Day Sunshine.” Despite my limited knowledge of the show’s specific thematic interests, I had no qualms about whether or not I was going to enjoy the performances. The general consensus among anyone who’s ever been to Beatlemore is that you get your money’s worth and more, so I went in with little to no concern and expectations high.

The show did not disappoint. From the contributions of Skidmore bands, such as Funkin’ Donuts’ rendition of “Got to Get You into My Life” and Tim Lok Chan’s “For No One,” to the solo acts, including sophomore Lena Schwartz’s performance of “All My Loving,” each element of the show was finely rehearsed and charmingly original. There were even several performances by some well-established campus a cappella groups, including the Sonneteers, the Bandersnatchers, and the Drastic Measures. I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer diversity of the performances and their stylings; the show wasn’t just one thing, but rather a celebration of the different voices and sounds that populate our campus collective. It was honestly a treat to get to watch—and hear—all of these things come together and create such a uniquely captivating whole. By the time that all the performers joined the stage for the final song, a rendition of “Yellow Submarine,” it was hard not to get lost in the charm of it all.

Leaving the show, I got to thinking about why it is that everyone loves this event so much. In the end, I decided that what makes Beatlemore so popular in the Skidmore community, at least in my opinion, is that it appeals to most everyone. For some of the faculty and staff, as well as members of the Saratoga community, it appeals to a very real sense of nostalgia for a lived period of time and music. For others, like me, that nostalgia is rooted in childhood—this is the music that we were raised on, that our parents played when we were growing up. And for those who don’t have a direct relationship to the Beatles, the event is still so many things: a chance to catch a glimpse of the talent that thrives on this campus; an opportunity to learn about and appreciate a musical era; or simply a means of understanding what makes Skidmore so great, which is that here, creative thought matters.

Beatlemore is all these things, and more.