'Blues Stage on Beale': The story behind Memphis in May's big change and what to expect

On May 5, the Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival will launch a new stage in its history.

Literally.

The “Memphis Tourism Blues Stage on Beale” relocates the festival’s popular Blues Tent theme from Tom Lee Park to the gently sloped lawn and built-in outdoor performance space at Handy Park, in the center of the Beale Street Entertainment District, about three blocks east of the Mississippi River park where the other three music festival stages will operate, as usual.

The new blues stage is free, making it an open-to-all complement to the music festival as well as a component of the paid-admission main event.

Some musicfest patrons will miss having the blues stage in Tom Lee Park. But festival organizers, tourism officials and others say the relocation — necessitated by the reduced space available inside the redesigned Tom Lee — will boost Beale Street and energize Downtown.

"Anything that brings people to our part of Downtown, we're excited about," said John Mahar, operations manager of B.B. King's Blues Club on Beale.

"We think the show is at the blue stage," said Mark Caldwell, vice president of the Memphis Blues Society, an organization of blues enthusiasts and musicians. "Many of us are really pumped about it.

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"The overall lineup is kind of weak, to be frank, but the lineup at the blues stage is incredible," he said, citing such stage headliners as East L.A. legends Los Lobos to local jam band-adjacent crowd-pleasers, the North Mississippi All Stars. He said many blues fans likely will ignore Tom Lee and spend all their time at Handy Park.

Sponsored by Memphis Tourism, the official marketing organization for the city and Shelby County, the blues stage may be essentially a subplot to the overall Memphis in May story. Nevertheless, its success will be watched closely as officials gauge the response to this year's International Festival, which returns its main events — the music festival and the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest — to a reimagined Tom Lee, after three years of interruption.

In 2020, the music festival and the barbecue contest were canceled, due to the COVID-19 pandemic; in 2021, the barbecue contest returned, in truncated form, while musicfest remained canceled. Both events returned last year, but the events were held in the former Fairgrounds area of Liberty Park because of construction at Tom Lee.

Reaction was mixed. Some festivalgoers enjoyed the closer-to-Midtown location, but most agreed that the parking lot surfaces and football stadium backdrop lacked the romance of being on the bank of the Mississippi River, with its polychrome sunsets and passing paddlewheels.

Blues stage returns to historic Beale Street home

This year, Memphis in May is back on the Mississippi, working — in sometimes tense coordination — with the Memphis River Parks Partnership, which manages Tom Lee. The $60 million redesign at Tom Lee Park is not yet complete (the park won't be opened to the public until Labor Day weekend), but officials are adjusting to accommodate Memphis in May, to present the music festival and barbecue contest in their traditional home.

So why has the blues stage — like so many of the genre's most storied practitioners — migrated? Because that traditional home is not quite what it used to be. According to Memphis in May officials, the redesign of Tom Lee Park has reduced the space available to the festival by close to 40%.

If necessity is the mother of invention, it’s also the midwife of reinvention. A smaller Tom Lee Park required a compression of the traditional music festival layout, with one result being the return of the blues stage to its historic Beale home. Memphis in May president Jim Holt came up with the idea and also decided to make admission to Handy Park free.

Because the change would increase festival expenses, in terms of security and other logistical challenges, the blues stage needed a sponsor. Memphis Tourism was enlisted. "First of all, we didn't want to lose blues out of the festival," said Memphis Tourism President Kevin Kane. "And I've always wanted for Memphis in May to spill down Beale Street, anyway."

Obviously, Handy Park is a logical place to present 18 blues/roots acts over three days, May 5-7. Beale Street is world-renowned as the “Home of the Blues,” and its centerpiece park is named for W.C. Handy, the composer whose popularization of traditional Black folk music earned him the sobriquet “Father of the Blues."

But, on a more Memphis in May-specific level, the new stage returns at least a portion of the so-called Beale Street Music Festival to its original hub and namesake locale.

In 1977, the inaugural year of the Memphis in May International Festival, the first Beale Street Music Festival was literally a Beale Street music festival, held in Handy Park at Beale and Third with a two-day lineup that included B.B. King, Furry Lewis, Rufus Thomas and Phineas Newborn Jr., among others. The festival — which expanded to fill several outdoor and club stages — remained centered on Beale until the move to Tom Lee Park in 1984.

What to expect at the Blues Stage on Beale

This year's blues stage lineup includes such noteworthy performers as singer-songwriter-guitarist Keb' Mo', Serbian stalwart Ana Popović, and recent Grammy-winning hill-country scion Cedric Burnside. As usual, the acts were booked by Mike Glenn, former longtime manager of the New Daisy on Beale, who has been involved with the blues stage for 30 years, and his son, Oscar "Mikey" Glenn. "Believe it or not, we had our first conversations about Los Lobos back in July," said the elder Glenn. "People think Memphis in May is something you spend a month doing, but it's a year-round job."

Caldwell, who as a blues fan and Blues Society officer keeps in touch with blues aficionados from all over the country, said some people have expressed misgivings abut the Beale Street location, in the wake of national news stories about both crime and police violence in Memphis.

"I really hate to say this, but we get calls and queries about all the bad things people hear about Memphis," he said. But he said most people he's talked to are enthusiastic about a blues stage on the street famous for its blues.

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Pointing out that some festivalgoers essentially camp out at the blues stage all weekend, Mahar said the free stage likely will boost Beale Street revenue. beyond what Memphis in May has done for the street in recent years, after Memphis in May changed its readmittance-to-Tom Lee Park ticket policy.

"In the beginning, it was a boon for us, because they allowed people to leave and then re-enter," Mahar said. "People would come to the street to eat and drink, and then go back to the park."

That's no longer the case. "VIP" passholders ($995 for a three-day pass) and 3-day passholders ($205) can go in and out of Tom Lee Park twice a day, but single-day ticketholders won't be readmitted to Tom Lee, if they leave the riverside park. This means that many musicfest ticketholders won't patronize the blues stage, unless they are on their way into or out of Tom Lee for the day.

Either way, they will pass through a security gauntlet at each location: Festgoers will be "wanded" and have their bags checked at both the entrance to Tom Lee and entrance to Handy Park (access to Handy will be restricted to a single entryway, on Beale Street).

In addition, the regular Beale Street security protocols will be in effect. After 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, "guests" under 21 will not be admitted into the Beale entertainment district unless accompanied by a parent or guardian, and those entering the district will be "wanded."

Randy Blevins, Memphis in May vice president of marketing and programming, said the fact that the blues stage can be separated from Tom Lee Park and remain a viable attraction is evidence that "each of the four stages in the Beale Street Music Festival has enough entertainment and talent to be its own festival, in and of itself."

"Being on the river is great," he said. "But also being on Beale Street is an attraction. That's where it all began."

"We are super-excited that the blues stage has been moved to Handy Park," said Jon Shivers, director of the management team that oversees the Beale Street Historic District, which represents more than 30 clubs, restaurants and shops.

"It's a great way to showcase Beale," he sad, "that hopefully will last many years into the future."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: How Beale Street blues stage is striking a new note for Memphis in May