Monteverde to Host Beatles Tribute Concert

Ann Antkiw December 14, 2007

Yes, you will find beetles in the Monteverde Cloud Forest, but on New Year’s Eve you can also hear the music of The Beatles reverberating in this misty mountain community in north-central Costa Rica.

The second New Year’s Beatles Tribute Concert will take place Dec. 31 in Monteverde’s Bromelias Amphitheater. Last year’s event was so successful that well-known birder Robert Dean, “with a little help from his friends” – in reality, a lot of help from Annie Wenz and many friends – will stage the event again this year.

“I hope this will become an annual Monteverde tradition in the same vein as the Monteverde Music Festival,” Dean said.

Dean is the illustrator and co-author with Richard Garrigues of the recently published “The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide” (TT, June 22). However, before he became a birding fanatic, Dean was an original member and electrical guitarist of the British rock group Japan, and later played with Irish singer Sinead O’Connor.

The New Year’s Eve concert will feature more than 30 Beatles songs, with Dean on guitar and singing along, as well as popular local rock band Chanchos del Monte, several guest vocalists and a string trio.

“Everybody is from the area,” said Dean, who lives in the small town of Santa Elena.

“We’re having a lot of fun putting the show together and hope to get the same enthusiastic support we did last year, when the local community and visitors turned out en masse.”

The concert will start at 5:30 p.m. and is scheduled to finish by 8 p.m. Admission costs ¢1,000 ($2) for residents and ¢2,000 ($4) for visitors. The Bromelias Café will be holding a special New Year’s event upstairs after the concert, with Chanchos del Monte performing a full rock set.

For more information, call 645-6272.