One of my favorite fall festivals, the Cooper-Young Festival, is this Saturday. Here are a few notes to help you maximize your enjoyment:
Wear comfortable shoes. If you loop around the entire length of the festival, you will be walking an entire mile. This is not the place to sacrifice comfort for the sake of stylish footwear.
If you want to buy tickets to the October 9 Cooper-Young Regional Beerfest, you’ll be able to do so at Saturday’s Cooper-Young Fest. (I’ll be buying my ticket that day!)
There’s usually one vendor who sells 24 oz. tallboy cans of PBR. This is the best beer value sold inside the festival. They usually have a booth somewhere in the vicinity of Soul Fish on Cooper.
When I drive to the fest (which I WON’T be doing this year), I like to park my car either north of Central or west of Barksdale, with the car pointed away from the festival. That makes my escape route super-simple when I leave, avoiding traffic jams.
Keep in mind that the Tigers have a home football game vs. Middle Tennessee State at 6 PM, so if you’re heading east from the festival late in the afternoon, best to avoid Central and Southern.
Better yet, avoid driving altogether. Call 323-3333 or 577-7777 to get a taxi. This is what I plan on doing.
Here’s a link to the festival schedule so you can figure out which bands you want to see, and when.
There’s also an additional, unofficial music stage: Celtic Crossing has bands on their back patio area, so be sure to stop by there for more music options. Their bands usually play well past the festival end time of 7 PM.
If the hot sun (or the beer) dehydrates you, the fresh-squeezed lemonade is a really good way to revive yourself.
The Memphis Flyer usually has a booth where they hand out maps of the festival. They also usually publish a festival map in the Wednesday issue preceding the fest.
Since it’s an election year, there will be plenty of politicians and political campaigns out talking to the voters. If there’s anyone you strongly support, grab a sticker from their campaign workers. If not, just try to avoid them.
Be sure to get a full charge on your mobile device if you plan on checking football scores throughout the day as you wander the festival.
They don’t allow pets at the festival. They post this all over their website and all advertising, yet there’s always that one person who tries to bring their damn dog anyway.
You can follow me at @paulryburn on Twitter, and I’ll try to tweet more C-Y tips throughout the day as I’m there. Of course, you’ll probably have to put up with tweets from me trash-talking Tennessee and Ole Miss, and commenting on any tube top action at the festival.
Speaking of which… I’ll have the camera with me. Ladies, if you want your pic on the blog, wear a tube top and come find me. This is one of the last festivals of the year when it’s still tube top weather outside.
Hope to see you there. There are 8760 hours in a year, and sadly only 10 of them are devoted to Cooper-Young Fest. I plan to take full advantage of them.