When some years ago I made the Italian site about Pat Benatar, never I could imagine to be able to organize a fan convention here in Italy.
But the extraordinary opportunities of the internet made possible a dream almost impracticable.
In the years here and there enthusiast people came out just to search for news on Pat.
Some of them, discovering my site, wrote to me thinking to be in their isolation the unique Pat Benatar’s fan till then in our country.
Then the diffusion of facebook made easier the contacts between fans so much that I discover with great surprise the Pat Benatar cover band Crazy 4 Pat from Rome.
The idea about a convention at this point began to take shape, also because I took part in the past in fan convention of other bands and the experience was really positive.
I just had to propose the initiative, hoping to convince a sufficient number of people.
This stage was the most critical. The presuppositions were disastrous.
The Pat Benatar shows in Europe dated back to 1983 and that tour didn’t touch our country.
Last time that Pat showed herself in a Italian transmission on tv was in 1988 with Discoring to publicize the album Wide Awake in Dreamland.
The crazy idea of the convention seemed a house of cards ready to collapse.
What’s more it was a matter ofputting together people who didn’t know one an other except with sporadic contacts by phone or by chat.
After many hesitations and changes of mind and above all thanks to the enthusiasm and the support of Sandrine Raspau (the webmaster of the French Pat’s site) the die was cast: all established on April, 16-17 2011 at the Hotel Rudy in Cervia.
The photos that you can see below explain better than the words how much the facts were beyond expectations.
The excitement among all the participants was magic.
Tha Crazy 4 Pat emitted a lot of energy during his valuable performance.
The presence of 10 people from France gave the right touch of internationality to the event trasforming it, together with the 22 Italians, in a Italian-French convention.
The satisfaction to share this passion during 2 days with other fans was really great.
Thank you to all of you who were in Cervia.
Luca Ansaldo
The mythical meeting between Marco D'Amore (The number one), the Crazy 4 Pat and Luca.
Sandrine and Caroline Raspau and I : the Italian-French Summit.
The French delegation.
Relax on the beach (Andrea Sandrine Marco Luca).
Dany and Luca with the T-shirt of the event.
Roberto Pesolillo and friends.
Group photo.
Marcello, the guitarist, is preparing for the show.
Before the concert.
Davide, the Italian Myron.
Fabiola and Franco.
Andrea Annaratone and Sandrine Raspau.
Fabiola.
Dany with the mythical Pesolillo.
The song list.
Anna and Giorgio, the proud owners of the Hotel Rudy ini Cervia.
Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar
The Italian Convention
