The list of alternative sites for 2020 Memphis in May Beale Street Music Fest has been released, and Memphis in May has some concerns. I don’t blame them. Let’s go through the list.
- Beale Street and Church Park – Music Fest when sold out gets about 55,000 attendees a day. How in the world are you going to fit 55,000 people into this space? This worked in 1977 but Music Fest has grown since then.
- Greenbelt Park on Mud Island – Right across the street from people’s homes? Oh boy, I bet the residents would love that! Drunks tromping through their neighborhood at 1:30 in the morning going “WOOOOOOOO!” Their lovely park would be torn to pieces by the end of the weekend. Also, this park floods a lot more quickly than Tom Lee. What do you do if half the park is under water in May 2020?
- Mud Island, the portion south of the new dog park, and Mud Island River Park. Might work and you’ve got one stage built in. But again, you don’t know how much green space you’re going to have, because you can’t predict how much of the island will be under water 13 months from now.
- Martin Luther King Riverside Park – This is the park west of I-55 between South Parkway and Mallory. It’s big enough but would be inconvenient to get to and in no way can be called “keeping the festival Downtown.” Also, where would people park? I sure as hell wouldn’t want to park on the streets east of I-55 and walk over. That area is one of the biggest gang-infested ‘hoods in the city.
- The area south of I-40 on Riverside Drive – Would this be the area where RiverArtsFest was held in 2018, and where Southern Hot Wing Fest used to be held? Might work. Seems like kind of a tight fit though. In my opinion the best site of the ones on the list, not that that’s saying much.
- 9.05 acres on the river south of I-40 – This is called Crump Park I believe. Pull it up on Google Maps and compare its size to that of Tom Lee Park. I can’t see how this would handle the typical Music Fest capacity.
- Georgia Avenue Elementary – This is a school that has been closed for several years, at 690 Mississippi between the intersections of Lauderdale and Crump. I applaud the idea of re-purposing closed schools for community benefit; however, this area is NOT SAFE. Even if I’m wrong, the perception of “not safe” is so strong that it would hurt festival attendance.
This is really a case of the unstoppable force vs. the immovable object. Memphis River Parks Partnership’s long-term plan for Tom Lee Park needs to happen. On the other hand, it’s unfair to expect Memphis in May to lose tens in thousands of revenue for one year, and for the hotel, restaurant, and related industries in the city to sacrifice millions in revenue for one year. I really don’t know what the solution is here. I want so badly to see a win-win come out of this, but as of yet it doesn’t seem possible.
I’d be curious why Tiger Lane was not among the alternative sites. BBQ Fest was moved there in 2011 due to river flooding, and while I certainly prefer Tom Lee Park, Tiger Lane was not bad. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work equally well for Music Fest, and parking out there is ample. True, it’s not Downtown, but come on, MLK Riverside Park isn’t either and that’s being considered.
In other riverfront news, the historic cobblestones are going to get a $6.3 million renovation. That is great news. No other city in America has a cobblestone embankment like the one here in Memphis. We should take pride in that. The river’s got a story to tell, and the cobblestones are a part of that story.
Grandpas in makeup come to FedExForum tonight for the KISS End of the Road tour. Just looked it up on Wikipedia… Gene will be 70 on August 25 of this year.
Don’t forget that there are crawfish boils at both Max’s Sports Bar and Loflin Yard this afternoon. Both boils are rain or shine.
I don’t do Fireball anymore but this recipe for grilled Fireball pineapple is pretty amazing. BBQ Fest?
Several of us gathered at the Silly Goose yesterday afternoon and reminisced about our BBQ teammate Danny C. who passed away this week. Danny was the kind of person who was always there with a helpful comment. However, understanding that unsolicited advice can sometimes not be welcomed, he’d often temper his remarks with the sweetest intro: “Look, you fucking asshole, this is how you do it.”
A party is being planned to celebrate Danny’s life, and we’d like to encourage those who were active on the Ques Brothers to be a part of it. The Ques Brothers (2007-2011) were the predecessor team to both Squeal Street BBQ and 2018 top 10 shoulder team the Moody Ques. I will spread the word around once I get more details. I’ve already heard we’ll have people coming down from Chicago.
That’s it for now. Back to my project I’m working on, installing Portable Linux on a laptop. Got it up and running, now I’ve got to get the wireless adapter running so it can get an Internet connection. Fun fun. Back tomorrow with more news.