Author: Susan Ellis

You hear? Memphis turned 200 this year (doesn’t look a day over 129), and it’s time to celebrate.

Enter Memphis in May’s Celebrate Memphis, a day-long event, doing just that with fireworks, plenty of live music with local acts, cornhole, a drone show, and an attempt at a Guinness World Record.

Firat Gürbüzer | Dreamstime.com

They are looking to blow up the previous record for the World’s Longest Picnic Table. Robert Griffin, director of marketing for Memphis in May, notes that the table will use some 18,000-plus yards of wood and 53 pounds of nuts, bolts, and washers.
We recently asked Griffin for more deets on the picnic.

How did the picnic idea come about?
We wanted something big, unique, and symbolic for a 200th birthday celebration, and the idea of everyone being invited to Tom Lee Park for this community picnic piqued the curiosity of our Vice President of Programming, Susan Elliott, and she researched the requirements for building the World’s Longest Picnic Table that will allow all the communities of Memphis to come together around one table to share a meal. We loved the symbolism of that, and apparently so has the city because the response to it has been tremendous!

How is the table going to be set up? Will it circle around, double back?
Originally, we wanted a U or J shape so if you were on one side and your friends were on the other, you wouldn’t have to walk all the way to the end to get to the other side! Unfortunately, Guinness regulations require that it be in a straight line, modeled after a commercially-available design, so it looks like a standard table with bench seating — only four football fields long!

What will the food situation be?
Guests are invited to bring their own sack lunches, coolers or picnic baskets (subject to security check, of course), or purchase food from local concessionaires in the park. One of the Guinness requirements is that people must be picnicking at the same time at the table for it to qualify, so we’ll be making an announcement around 5:15 to get everyone to the table by 5:30 so our record-setting table will fulfill the people requirements for certification.

What makes the perfect Memphis picnic?
That’s very subjective, but if it’s mine, it has pulled pork (with slaw for the sandwiches), baked beans, potato salad, deviled eggs, and either a lemon icebox pie or simply sliced strawberries and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

“It’s really much, much more intricate than it was before,” says Dave Maness of modern laser shows. Maness is Sharpe Planetarium Supervisor at the Pink Palace Museum and as such is in charge of the museum’s laser shows.

This week, the planetarium will host its Fab Friday show featuring a Laser Tribute, Laser Genesis, and Laser Led Zeppelin.

“Back in the ’70s and early ’80s, they used a lot of incandescent effects and psychedelic-like liquid lights,” he says. Since then, technology has advanced. The motors are faster, smaller, and lighter, and the laser power is greater, with sharper colors and more intricate designs.

Dark Side of the Planetarium

Maness says back when he started at the Pink Palace in 2006, there was a large water-cooled laser. He was shown the Elvis laser show, and then that laser went kaput, never to laze again.

Laser shows are now computer programmed, though Maness notes there’s always an operator there to give the show a little extra flash.

Along with the improvements in laser technology, the music has been upgraded as well, with shows dedicated to Beyonce and shows that include music from Miley Cyrus, John Legend, Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga, and the like. They still dust off the old Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, from time to time, of course. “Pink Floyd has to be involved,” Maness says. “It’s the quintessential group for lasers.”

For Maness, laser shows are like a more intense fireworks display. “It’s hard to put into words if you haven’t seen it,” he says.