photograph by Brian Groppe
The 2017 Beale Street Music Festival.
Speaking of “tensions and conflicts,” one cannot tell the story of Tom Lee Park without mentioning the annual Memphis in May International Festival (MIM), which has long been held there. And while the immediate reaction to the reopening of the revamped Tom Lee Park has been generally enthusiastic and upbeat, the impact on MIM remains unresolved.
The wide-open park was where MIM staged the Beale Street Music Festival and the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest soon after those signature events began in the late 1970s. And for many years, until 2015, MIM presented the Sunset Symphony in the park in late May with a pop concert by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and fireworks typically following a performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.
Tom Lee Park was inextricably linked to those events through the years. As plans for reconfiguring the park were being made, it was determined that the MIM events planned for 2020 would have to be held elsewhere due to construction of the park. Then the pandemic happened and the festival — along with most of the world — went into hibernation.
The music festival would not return until 2022, when it was held at the Fairgrounds in Liberty Park due to construction at Tom Lee Park. The 2023 event was held at Tom Lee Park, which was not finished but was able to accommodate the festival. The 2021 barbecue contest was held at Tom Lee Park and the 2022 event at the Fairgrounds. This year’s iteration was back at Tom Lee Park, but smaller than before. Jim Holt, MIM president and CEO, says there were some 148 teams at this year’s barbecue contest, compared to around 230 in past years, resulting in fewer competitors and a loss in revenue.
Holt wouldn’t discuss specific plans for 2024 but did speak with Memphis Magazine about the rocky developments since the plans for redoing the park were announced. He was joined in a Zoom conversation with MIM board members Ron Coleman and Howard Robertson. Coleman is CEO of Driven Racing Oil and Robertson is president and CEO of Trust Marketing & Communications.
The organization has commented occasionally but not extensively on the issues with the Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP). Our interview in September was the first where the leadership has addressed what’s been going on and what it sees as the future of Memphis in May. Their comments have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Jim Holt, CEO and president of Memphis in May.
Memphis Magazine: How does Memphis in May feel about how the changes in Tom Lee Park have been handled?
Ron Coleman: I’m one of the people who believes that we should do some development in the park. In the first plans I saw, it was obvious that whoever made them didn’t have an idea what they were dealing with. The thought of putting $60 million in that small park and doing nothing to Mud Island, I thought, was way overdone. I thought they were going to end up having to over-program a park to the extent that we’re going to have the same problem with this park as we currently have with Mud Island, which is basically abandoned.
And the reason is that the maintenance is just too expensive. We’re going to run out of money to take care of it, and it’s going to go the way of every project that we have that we don’t watch out for continuing maintenance, and it’s going to go downhill. They do have some kind of arrangement with the contractor to take care of it for the first two years, and that’s good. But when that same burden falls on the group that is left, I don’t think they’re going to have the money to do it.
The first time I went to a meeting with [the MRPP], they showed me the plan. It showed a 16-foot cut in the bank in one spot of the park and an eight-foot cut in the other for drainage. I said, ‘Have you guys ever talked to the Corps of Engineers? They’re not going to let you cut that bank.’ The park is actually there as a stabilization project for the billions of dollars of commerce and traffic that goes by it. Interestingly enough, two years later, the Corps of Engineers told them not only can they not touch the bank, they can’t touch anything within a hundred feet of the bank. It was ill-planned to begin with.
We had a mediation with them to get minimum standards and as far as I can tell, they probably were met, but they didn’t carry it all through. The best example is we had to have mountable curbs to get to the stages and get trucks on and off. But that’s where they put sprinkler heads and sprinkler systems. Well, that’s where the trucks are going to come across. It’s either poorly designed or intentionally designed for damage.
Howard Robertson: Memphis in May for many years has taken Memphis around the world and has brought the world to Memphis. It is an international festival. There are so many distinguishing characteristics and achievements for Memphis in May over these many years that no other city, no other festival, no other place, anywhere else can begin to claim. And I’m very proud of that. I’m not alone, because the board, the supporters, the volunteers, the attendees, the fans — everybody that is and has been associated with Memphis in May I would submit to you would feel the same way.
But I think I can speak on behalf of the board and the staff of Memphis in May that, in a word, we feel disrespected. We would think that for an organization that has been in that space for all of these years and has done so much on behalf of the spirit and character and economic development of this city, I would’ve expected to be treated with a lot more regard during the whole process. I think it has not been transparent. I think it’s been misleading in that we were told that Tom Lee Park is being customized to the specs of Memphis in May.
We were told that the space would be finished and ready to host our event. The space was unfinished and not ready. As a matter of fact, according to some of the things that they’re claiming, apparently it was in such a fragile state that it could not stand very much of anything, and certainly not the number of people that we had coming to the space.
These [visitors] are Memphians, these are our fellow citizens. These are not destructive people who came into this space looking to damage it in any way. They came into this space looking to enjoy it, and they did. We had some tremendously positive response and they liked what they saw, but according to the damage reported by MRPP, they were highly destructive. We just don’t believe that that’s transparent or truthful. And now there’s a lawsuit as if we were going to not honor whatever our bill is or whatever our expenses end up being. We could not have thrived, not just survived, but thrived these many years if we ducked out on our obligations. That’s disrespectful and insulting to me personally as well.
panoramic photograph by Brian Groppe
MEDIATION
MM: Mayor Jim Strickland had both MIM and MRPP participate in mediation and announced at the end of 2019 that the effort was successful. But problems persisted. Why is that?
Ron Coleman: The mediation was an attempt to find at least minimum standards. MRPP has always acted as if they were doing us some kind of big favor when all we were trying to do is arrange a minimum. Originally, they had planned the stages so close together, there was a lot of sound bleed. We had to do sound studies to show that it wouldn’t work. We did a number of things to help them. They went in that direction because they were forced to, and that’s kind of been the way this whole thing’s worked.
Jim Holt: MRPP officials have often repeated that the park was built to our specifications. That is not true. That is not true at all. We had extensive meetings, provided a tremendous amount of resources. They had an opportunity to design and build the park to our specifications so that the festival would work well there. They took certain elements and said it was more than what we’d asked for, but in doing so, if you look back at their preliminary design elements, they built the park they wanted to build, whether or not it was suitable for large-scale public events. And based on the damage bill we got this year, it looks like it isn’t.
MM: What do you see as the future of Memphis in May?
Jim Holt: Memphis in May is going to be a much smaller festival, as I’ve been saying for years. When the mayor appointed the Riverfront Task Force, which I served on in 2016 and 2017, the design was to improve the overall riverfront and it very quickly moved to Tom Lee Park, which I suspected it might. We knew that we’d have a loss of space as a result of any development. I had told Carol Coletta back in 2017 before she took over the Riverfront Development Corporation, that we could probably withstand a 15 percent space loss. Anything beyond that could very likely undermine the financial viability of the festival. We estimated this year that we suffered about a 40 percent space loss in the park. So, whether or not the park really is a viable park for large-scale public events is a question. You can play basketball there. You can slide down a Danish otter or go to a playground and climb through hills and trees and bushes and plants, and it’s very pretty.
We made it clear to City Hall as well that festivals operate in a very, very narrow margin, which is subject to weather conditions and economic conditions, and too much of a space loss would severely impact the organization. And there’s been a lot of civic festivals that have gone under throughout the country. It’s a very delicate balance, and it’s tough.
Memphis in May has done well. In fact, in 2019 before the pandemic hit, we had one of our largest festivals ever. I think our economic impact was close to $149 million. We had Facebook in one of the rare times that they’ve come in and sponsored events. It came in and sponsored the Beale Street Music Festival and the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest and launched a national media campaign, and two years later we’re pushed out of the park for the landscape redesign.
Howard Robertson: My business is 32 years old this year. For 31 of those 32 years, we have been in Downtown Memphis. There were years that Downtown was a wasteland. It looked like Beirut on a good day. And Memphis in May was the first and only festival at that time to believe in Downtown enough to host an event down here. And the funniest thing happened. It grew and it grew and it grew. Memphis’s self-esteem grew and grew and grew. We had very, very little back then. We were still dealing with what happened on April 4, 1968, and we didn’t think much of ourselves at all.
Now, Downtown is all the rage and all the people living Downtown and the young people walking their dogs and the events and the concerts and all of the things. It began with Memphis in May hosting its event and growing its event in Downtown Memphis. There’s something awfully wrong if the city leadership does not recognize and appreciate that.
The reason we are where we are now is because it was a journey. And Memphis in May was a major, major part of that journey and driver of that journey. But it is like the organization did something wrong.
We’re Memphis in May, not Michigan in May, not Minnesota in May, not Mississippi in May. We’re Memphis in May. And part of our DNA, as you well know, is grit and grind. Nothing is ever easy for us. Add this to the list. So, we’re going to be all right. We’re going to be fine. And we’re going to keep going. We’re going to keep it rolling.
Ron Coleman: It doesn’t have to be that way. We’re in the top 10 music festivals. We have all these accolades. We’ve always been a good mark on the city of Memphis. And to be treated like a stepchild, it kind of does hurt your feelings. And what they’ve done is they’ve basically foreclosed the ability of Memphis in May to function in that park.
I don’t see any possible way to be able to continue to function in the park with the climate and the way we’re being handled and what they’ve done with the park. I mean, there were certainly ways to get this accomplished and make everybody happy. But the choice has been from the very start, that we were in their way. They’d accommodate what they had to, but otherwise they really didn’t want us there. That’s the feeling we’ve all had.
Howard Robertson: I want Memphis in May, volunteers, attendees, fans, anybody that’s ever been to a Memphis in May event and all supporters to know clearly, whatever we do, we cannot do it successfully without your ongoing support. We need Memphians more than ever.
To a certain degree, we might have to reinvent ourselves a bit differently from our footprint and what we have been in the past. But I assure you it will continue to be an event that will make Memphis proud and something that people will want to attend and continue the experience that they have had. We don’t need people to think that we are going away. So stay tuned.
Understand that we probably have the most vulnerable event, subject to either almost abject failure or literally blue skies and sunshine and a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if the weather holds out. And that we have been able to not just survive, but to thrive for lo these many years is due in no small part to Jim Holt’s knowledge and his ability and his commitment and dedication. That’s why he’s going into the Hall of Fame and it is very well deserved. [Holt will be inducted into the International Festivals & Events Association Hall of Fame this month.]
This is a tremendous event and I’m totally proud to be associated and affiliated with it for these many years and was proud to lead it back in 2007.
CORRECTION: The original version of the Tom Lee Park story, which appeared in the October issue of Memphis Magazine, misquoted Memphis in May International Festival president and CEO Jim Holt. MIM never wanted the park to be redesigned.
Part One: Carol Coletta and the Memphis River Parks Partnership.
Part Two: The Studio Gang unveils its vision for the riverfront.
