Today’s the first day of the Memphis Music & Heritage Festival. It’s on Main Street Mall between Union and Gayoso and is free. Nearly 50 bands will perform on five stages, two of which are inside the air-conditioned Center for Southern Folklore. The music schedule is here.
There are cooking demonstrations as well, with samples at the end of the demos. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up. They still have not posted the cooking demo schedule yet, so I can’t link to it. Tell ya what I’ll do… when I get down there, if I see the schedule I’ll snap a pic and post it to Twitter. Follow me on Twitter at @paulryburn. I have one of the best Twitter accounts in the city. Well, not really, but the Memphis Flyer thinks I do.
With the temps headed to the upper 90s, I will pretty much make the Blind Bear my headquarters this weekend, stopping in there to cool off throughout the day. They will be open at noon. If you rarely get Downtown and aren’t familiar with the Bear but will be down here today for the festival, stop in and try their pepper jack mac & cheese. It’s really good. I hate to give away info from a future Paul’s PBR Review, but the pepper jack mac & cheese pairs really well with PBR.
One other food recommendation: Ella Kizzie’s hot water cornbread and greens. It should be for sale at the Folklore Hall to the left of the stage.
I hate to make music recommendations because all the bands are good… but here are a few. If you’re down there in the afternoon, check out the interview with Joyce Cobb in the Folklore Hall at 2:15, then go outside to see MouseRocket at 3. If you’re down there at night, Hope Clayburn & Soul Scrimmage performs at 9:15 in the Folklore Hall, and then reggae band Exodus performs outside at 10:15.
What if the music festival isn’t the main event of the weekend for you? What if today is all about college football and you’re looking for a place to watch? I have an answer for you: MAX’S SPORTS BAR. It’s in the South Main district, same building as the Arcade, all the way to the east on G.E. Patterson. It’s small and it tends to get loud on game day, but they have all the games on and there are a lot of good people there.
The Majestic Grille has announced a new start time for their Sunday brunch: 10:30 AM, half an hour earlier than before. I certainly don’t blame them for making this move. There was always a line waiting at the door when they opened at 11. This lets people get a half hour more patio time in before the Orpheum or whatever their plans for the day are.
That’ll do it for now. Going to kick it off at Panda’s bar at Bardog as usual at 11 then head to the festival. Hope to see you there!