Nothing screams America like $6 beers and funnel cake. Like a delicious musical Oreo, Mississippi is sandwiched between two of the nation’s more popular music fests: Beale Street Music Festival and Jazz Fest.
Memphis in May takes place, obviously, over the entire month of May. However, the Beale Street Music Festival is what draws the biggest crowds.
Taking place Friday through Sunday, the Beale Street Music Fest will be held, as usual, at the downtown Tom Lee Park, a 33-acre spot on the Mississippi River. Spanning four stages, the event is a melting pot of all musical genres.
The first night starts at 5 p.m., so it’s shorter than the other days. However, the night will pack a punch with performances by Robert Randolph, Jason Mraz, Train and a headlining set by blues legend B.B. King.
The following day, Tom Lee Park will open at 1 p.m. Expect to see familiar names like Cake, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Clinton & the P. Funk and Bruce Hornsby.
Sunday won’t be a slouch either. Shinedown and Staind will sate any hard rockers out there, while Government Mule, Galactic and Blues Traveler will please the jam-banders. Appropriately enough for a day of worship, Sunday will be headlined by the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown.
Tickets for the Beale Street Music Festival can be purchased via Ticketmaster online or by phone. Prices for the single day passes are $20 in advance and $25 at the gate, while the three-day pass is $49.50 in advance and $60 at the gate.
But Memphis in May isn’t just about the music. To promote education and cultural diversity, the city picks a country to celebrate each year. This year it’s Costa Rica. Memphis imports artists, speakers and educators from this sister country, and throughout the month, various events occur at museums, schools and parks.
Then there’s the world famous barbecue competition. A festival within a festival, the competition takes place May 18-20 and draws roughly 90,000 visitors from Australia to Thailand.
In addition to the judging of the swine, there is musical entertainment from the likes of Clarence Carter, and there’s even the Ms. Piggy pageant, which consists of grown men donning tutus and pig snouts in the name of good, clean fun.
If, for some reason, Memphis and barbecue aren’t your things, then feel free to take a jaunt south to New Orleans for what remains of Jazz Fest!
Started by the founder of the famous Newport music fests, Jazz Fest started in 1970 and spans two separate weekends, one of them already past.
Taking place primarily in the infield of a horse track at the New Orleans Fair Grounds, the festival packs a line-up across 10 stages and tents that reads like a who’s-who of jazz, country and rock music. There are too many artists to list, but some highlights include Keith Urban, Astral Project, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band and Fats Domino. This past weekend even saw a surprise guest appearance by U2’s guitarist The Edge, who’s been in New Orleans recently promoting the Music Rising program, which seeks to put instruments back into the hands of musicians who lost theirs during Hurricane Katrina.
Like Memphis in May, food plays an integral part of the Jazz Fest, so much so that it even has its own “stages.” The Zatarain’s Food Heritage Stage and Cajun Cabin Stage offer up different cuisines and dishes throughout the day, and there are numerous other food vendors scattered throughout the venue.
And since it’s technically the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival, the Grandstand at the fairgrounds will contain numerous educational exhibits and events such as The Backstreet Cultural Museum, which houses jazz funeral photos and memorabilia, among other things.
Tickets are $30 per day, but if you have some expendable income, you could pony up for the Big Chief VIP package. For $500, you get entry and re-entry privileges as well as access to special VIP viewing stands at the three biggest stages. You also have access to a private VIP lounge, complete with air conditioning and actual usable restrooms. For an extra $100, you can even get reserved parking.
If you can’t make it down to Jazz Fest, you can check it out live online at music.msn.com/music/neworleansjazz. Or if you want to relive previous Jazz Fests, head on over to www.nojazzfest.com, where they have live sets from the past two years available for sale.