The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released on June 1, 1967.
Padraic Gilligan, for one, is getting ready to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the album. "It always has had that very iconic position within the Beatles' canon overall as being the best," Gilligan says.

Gilligan, who lives in Dublin, Ireland, is a musician, events professional and lifelong Beatles fan. He and his friends have been gathering at intervals over the past several years to celebrate the 50th anniversary of each of the Beatles' releases (we last spoke to him in 2015 when he described his group's celebration of Rubber Soul). The parties are well organized and very involved: groups of participants take turns performing covers of each track on the album. For Sgt. Pepper, "My musical partners Andrew and Eugene and I have assigned ourselves the track 'A Day in the Life' as the track to try to reproduce with piano and two guitars and three voices," Gilligan explains, "so, 'Good luck with that!' as they might say here locally."

Although Gilligan and his friends set the bar very high when it comes to Beatles celebrations, as an events professional, Gilligan can suggest ideas for all kinds of people — regardless of musical ability — to celebrate this landmark Beatles album. Here are Gilligan's tips:

1. Dress up in Sgt. Pepper costumes

"That certainly makes it a very fun and immersive experience," Gilligan says. "Obviously, when we dress up, we're given permission to do lots of things that we wouldn't normally have the permission to do at all. It allows us to color outside our normal comfort zone, so that's a lot of fun."

And, he advises, guests need not limit themselves to the bandleader outfits worn by John, Paul, George and Ringo. "Encourage people to dress in the clothes not just of the band members but also obviously of June 1967 — what an exciting time to be replicating at your party. I think there's lots of scope there, particularly around the whole costume side of things and dressing up."

2. Re-create the image on the album cover

This tip takes the costume tip to another level. "I think it would be an amazing album cover to try to re-create in tableau form, where you would plan it in advance and ask people to come dressed in certain ways to try to re-create it," Gilligan says.

"In terms of the whole history of graphic design and the link between graphic design and music, Sgt. Pepper is regarded very much as an iconic album cover," he continues. "It broke down a lot of the previous conventions around how album covers should be designed, and opened up the whole concept of the art of the album cover."

Gillian notes the weather can help make an album-cover re-creation easier. "In Minnesota in June, you obviously get glorious weather," he says. "The album cover is kind of taken in a garden … so it might work very well in a Minnesotan garden.

3. Create a game around the album cover who's who

"Researching all of the people who are represented on the cover of Sgt. Pepper is in itself very interesting," Gilligan says. "It would be a good game to play: What would be the modern equivalent or the contemporary equivalent of the Sgt. Pepper cover if it were to be done now? Who would be the people that would surround them in that picture? Who would be the cultural influencers, the politicians, the artists, the icons?

"Obviously there's a statement being made on the cover, and I think that would be a great discussion to have at an event about Sgt Pepper."

4. Have a sing-along

"Just put the album on and play it, and sing along to it," Gilligan says. "Some of the songs are so eminently sing-able; they're songs we all know: "With a Little Help from My Friends," "She's Leaving Home," "When I'm 64" — they're songs that people almost already know the words to.

"But you could do a great sing-along party just by simply printing out the lyrics, putting on the album and singing along to it. I think that would be a great way to celebrate."

Resources

The Beatles - official site

Padraicino - Padraic Gilligan's blog

Gilligan's band, Factor One - Facebook

Related

• 'Rubber Soul' at 50: how one group of friends reinvent a Beatles classic