memphisinmay.org

Memphis in May hosts the city’s largest events like the Beale Street Music Festival, the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest and the Sunset Symphony. Memphis in May also produces extensive education, international, and economic programs for the city.

Tickets for the Beale Street Music Festival may be purchased by clicking on the link to Ticketmaster or by calling Ticketmaster at (901)525-1515.

World champs rule Springfest

The Red Hot Smokers, grand champions of last year’s Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, continued their winning ways in DeSoto County over the weekend.

For a moment, just before he finished the Great Wine Race on Beale Street Sunday, Chris Cook looked like he might blow it all.

Don Van de Vuurst of Germantown is perplexed. Radio big mouth Don Imus lost his job for denigrating a women’s basketball team, but the popular and profane Three 6 Mafia will “perpetuate the denigration of women, particularly black women” at Memphis in May’s Beale Street Music Festival next weekend?

How do you like your ribs? Wet, dry or broken? During the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, there’s a chance for all three to be on display.

The poster for the 2007 Memphis in May International Festival honoring Spain, created by local artist Elizabeth Alley, pays tribute to the history and culture of the diverse peninsula.

The grand champs of Olive Branch go total hog

The Red Hot Smokers are this year’s Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest Grand Champions, cooking in the shoulder division at this three-day event, which ended Saturday.

When competitors begin Sunday’s Memphis in May Triathlon, spectators should have no trouble spotting Reed Walters of Eads, Tenn., among the field of 1,600 participants.

It’s the world’s biggest pork barbecue contest, but it’s not all about swine at the three-day Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest at Tom Lee Park.

The Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest goes by a bunch of nicknames — the Super Bowl of Swine, the Granddaddy of the Grills, Smoke on the Water. Organizers of this three-day event might consider adding The United States of Barbecue to that mix

Playing first at a major outdoor music festival like Memphis in May’s Beale Street Music Festival is supposed to be a thankless job — all beating sun and no crowds. But at the Blues Tent, Memphian Billy Gibson played to a full house.

Marion is getting a little racy with its barbecue this week in the town’s complement to Memphis in May festivities.

In 1972, the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce, headed by Allen Morgan Sr., founded the Memphis in May International Society Festival in an attempt to promote Memphis and events already established here in the month of May.

It’s about the fabulous future Memphis in May International Festival holds for this community as we travel deeper into the 21st century. Education has been and will continue to be the focus. Introducing a new part of the world to our schoolchildren every year deepens their awareness of the global community at-large.

In 1976, I was invited to become a member of a newly formed board of directors for the Memphis in May International Festival, Inc. Because of my extensive travel throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and South America researching and studying international educational systems, majoring in modern foreign languages (Spanish and French) and teaching French, Spanish and Latin at Douglass and Central high schools, among other things, the organizers of the MIM board under the leadership of Lyman Aldrich gave me the charge to develop a strategic plan to implement the international educational component of the Memphis In May International Festival.

As I reflected on Memphis in May and its beginnings, I read an article and saw a picture of Kerr Tigrett, Rick Brenneman and Darrell Cobbins — businessmen with a bent toward entrepreneurship.

Three 6 Mafia was becoming one of the hottest hip-hop acts in the country even before the 78th installment of the Academy Awards, but when the band walked away with an Oscar for best song, it morphed into an American version of royalty that makes this year’s appearance at the Beale Street Music Festival even sweeter.

There must be a supportive environment to accomplish long-term positive change. The early years of Memphis in May provided such support.

The Memphis In May International Festival opens gently with art and museum exhibits before dissolving into the rock and roll, blues and soul of the Beale Street Music Festival and the Miss Piggy antics of the world’s biggest barbecue.

1977. What a year to be slated to become president of the Memphis in May International Festival (Society). The Chamber of Commerce had started a Memphis in May in the early 1970s and in 1974 the MIM Society had chosen me as treasurer, which would lead to president in 1977.

Memphis in May International Festival’s Beale Street Music Festival takes place May 5-7 in Tom Lee Park. More than 60 acts representing more than a half-century of pop-rock-soul- funk-blues history will perform on four stages.

A bright and rhythmic design by local artist Nancy Cheairs highlights the fine art poster for the Memphis in May International Festival 2006 honoring Costa Rica.