Photograph by Stephanie Norwood.
This May marks the first time in the history of Memphis in May (MIM) that the annual festival will set aside the custom of celebrating another country to salute the Bluff City, in honor of the city’s bicentennial. It’s also the last time MIM will look like it used to.
There will be many more MIM festivals at Tom Lee Park downtown in future years, but the park will have changed. The Memphis River Parks Partnership has planned an extensive remodel of Tom Lee Park, the long swath of riverside floodplain that hosts the Beale Street Music Fest, the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, and the new Celebrate Memphis festival endcap event. They hope to add trails and trees, a basketball court, and a performance area. The exact plans will doubtless evolve as the project advances, but changes, at least, are certain.
But if the festival grounds look somewhat different, much of what makes MIM a celebration Memphians look forward to all year long will remain the same. And I’ve decided to meet both the old and the new with an open mind, celebrating both the changes and the constants. In that spirit, here are just a few of my favorite MIM moments.
Some of my most cherished memories are tied to our festival and the river that acts as its backdrop.
My first memory of Memphis in May is from 1997, when the festival was honoring Brazil. I remember my dad explaining that the colors of the flowers in the “M” on East Parkway were picked to match the flag of the country being honored during MIM. That year, Bob Dylan, ZZ Top, and R.L. Burnside played Beale Street Music Festival. At the time, I wouldn’t have cared. I was 11, and my mania for music, now fully realized, was still latent. What a lineup, though. Looking back now, Sunday would have been my day that year, with the Grifters, the Box Tops, and the Wallflowers performing. If only I had a time machine.
More recently, I remember bringing some of my new-to-Memphis friends to one of the final Sunset Symphony performances, before the MIM festival endcap event transformed to become 901 Fest, which has again changed this year to Celebrate Memphis. I loved the Sunday-evening vibe of the affair, after the revelry of the MIM festival had played itself out. I loved the symphony, the soul music, fireworks, and blankets.
After the slurping sauce of Barbecue Fest and the churning mud and blaring bass of Music Fest, the family-friendly Sunset Symphony felt like Memphis’ biggest neighborhood party, with picnic blankets dotting the park lawn like toadstools after a heavy spring rain. My friends — grad students and law students from the middle of the state — sipped wine, grooved to the Bar-Kays’ “Soul Finger,” and watched the fireworks with rapt attention.
For the 40th anniversary of the festival, in 2016, MIM honored Canada, and I had the privilege of watching Canadian auteur David Cronenberg’s 1983 science-fiction masterpiece, Videodrome, on the big screen for the first time at Studio on the Square. After the screening, Memphis Flyer film editor Chris McCoy spoke as part of a panel with University of Memphis film professor Marina Levina, Black Lodge video store owner Matt Martin, and John Beifuss of The Commercial Appeal. I would like to extend my thanks to MIM for bringing together four of Memphis’ brightest film experts to discuss one of my favorite sci-fi films. Well done, MIM.
That same year, my first working the Flyer’s tent at the festival, a close friend and I saw Australian garage-rock phenom Courtney Barnett make her Telecaster sing on a BSMF stage. If you’re not familiar with Barnett, the Pixies’ Kim Deal called her this generation’s Tom Petty. Whether or not that comparison is accurate, I’ll leave for others to debate. All I know is that I stood in ankle-deep mud, mesmerized by the jangly sounds coming from her Fender amp. The night before, our band had performed one of her songs in a smoky Midtown dive.
I suppose what I’m saying is that some of my most cherished memories are tied to our festival and the river that acts as its backdrop. Sometimes we Memphians can forget how special a thing we have with MIM, but it has left its mark on me, so much so that I’ve bent my life to be able to write about the festival that has given me so many memorable moments and the city I’m proud to call home.
And though Memphis in May likely won’t be at Tom Lee Park next year, though the park grounds will look different once the festival returns, I’m not worried. From the saucy revelry of ’Cue Fest to the neighborhood festival vibe of Celebrate Memphis, Memphis in May has always been a reflection of Memphis. And as the city has grown and changed — and continues to grow — so should the festival that shares its name. So no, I’m not worried. I’m eager to see what comes next.
