It was over 50 years ago now that 60,000 lucky fans got to witness the fab four themselves, The Beatles, play a legendary gig at the now-demolished Shea Stadium in New York City. Today, you can live that experience for yourself.
A new exhibition dedicated to the legendary pop group, named The Beatlemania Experience, has just launched ticket sales for a run in São Paulo, Brazil, according to UOL. You can expect to see rare memorabilia from the band’s historic career, replicas of the clothes and instruments that John, Paul, George and Ringo used, and even a 4D movie based on Yellow Submarine. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the show, though, is a virtual reality experience that brings that Shea Stadium gig to life once more.
Details about this piece are sketchy right now, but from the sounds of it you’ll be able to sit in one of the best seats in the house and experience at least some of the storied show. Taking place on August 15th 1965, the memorable night saw the group perform hits like A Hard Day’s Night and Help!. Exactly how the event is being recreated in VR is unclear, though we’d imagine some CGI magic has been employed seeing as it would have taken a heck of a lot of foresight to capture footage that could have been stitched together to make a VR video 51 years ago.
The Beatlemania Experience is set to run from August 24th – November 8th, at which point we’ll hopefully see it move elsewhere so we can try it for ourselves. In the meantime, you can already get a taste of The Beatles in VR. Surviving member Paul McCartney was one of the first musicians to record a performance in 360 degrees in partnership with cinematic VR company, Jaunt, and is now also starring in a six part VR documentary from the same group. It’s not quite the same as seeing the iconic group live, but it’s a start.
If the VR experience is a hit then we can see this being a brilliant way to bring back other legendary concerts in VR; imagine getting to watch Elvis like you were really at one of his shows, or seeing The Rolling Stones in their heyday. This piece may have just struck on a major new application of VR tech.
