David Lorrison and Erling Jensen re-creating Rumble Fish (Credit: Michael Donahue)f
With apologies to Leonard Bernstein and West Side Story, food lovers need to get ready to rumble. Rumble Fish — the restaurant — is returning August 20th at Erling Jensen: The Restaurant.
David Lorrison, owner of the little Midtown restaurant that adjoined Hi Tone Cafe, which he also owned at that time, is doing a pop-up dinner with help from Jensen at the restaurant at 1044 South Yates Road.
Rumble Fish, which only lasted 18 months at 1909 Poplar Avenue, is still remembered fondly.
During the time people in Jelly shoes and low-rise jeans were listening to hits by Eminem, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake, Lorrison was in the kitchen preparing his French bistro-inspired cuisine.
Rumble Fish fans will experience traces of some of Lorrison’s signature dishes in the menu. “They’re just going to be kicked up a notch,” Lorrison says, with a laugh.
For his Rumble Fish six-course comeback dinner, Lorrison is preparing:
• Potato, leek, and saffron bisque with salmon roe
• A salad of celery root and prosciutto with pickled beets
• Sweetbreads piccata
• John Dory with red pepper essence
• Veal medallions with wild mushroom and lobster valois
And, for dessert, chocolate almond tarts with berries and Grand Marnier.
The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. Cost is $85 for the dinner, and an additional $35 for those who want the wine pairing. Seating is limited. Call the restaurant for reservations: (901) 763-3700.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is mobilizing members of the Tennessee National Guard to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Photo: Tenn. Air Guard Master Sgt. Kendra Owenby)
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is mobilizing the National Guard to help federal agents with President Donald Trump’s mass deportations.
Responding to questions from the Tennessee Lookout, the Governor’s Office restated Tuesday what Lee has said several times, “Tennessee stands ready to support President Trump’s efforts to secure our nation’s borders and remove the most violent criminals from our streets.”
Acting on a request for assistance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the governor authorized National Guard troops to assist with administrative and clerical duties at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing facilities in Tennessee. Guard members, working under the governor’s orders but being paid by the federal government, will help ICE with data entry, case management and logistical support, according to the governor’s spokesperson, Elizabeth Johnson.
The mission is in the planning stage, and the Guard will work with state and federal agencies to decide how to respond to the request, according to Johnson.
Key Republican leaders in state government have supported the president’s deportation moves from the outset, including Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally of Oak Ridge.
“I absolutely agree with the use of National Guard personnel for the purpose of providing administrative and logistical support for ICE as they enforce immigration law. Our laws have been ignored and our border has been overrun for too long. Tennessee stands ready to support President Trump’s efforts to restore order to the border in any way it can,” McNally said in a statement to the Lookout.
Lee has made no secret of his plans to use state personnel to back Trump’s deportation of millions of immigrants. But while the governor mentioned aiding with the removal of violent criminals, Trump hasn’t limited deportation to those accused of serious crimes.
The governor asked state agencies to start preparing for deportation efforts on the first day of Trump’s second presidential term in January.
Tennessee is reported to be one of 20 states whose Republican governors agreed to assist ICE with deportation tasks such as paperwork. But National Public Radio reported the Department of Homeland Security is considering using National Guard troops for detention and transportation of immigrants as well as finding “fugitives.”
Democratic Representative John Ray Clemmons of Nashville criticized the move Tuesday, saying Congress set aside nearly $170 billion for immigration enforcement and border security, including $75 million for ICE. He questioned why Tennessee taxpayers should help with deployment.
“Also, if Governor Lee wants to ‘play Army’ and mobilize the National Guard, he should have it deliver food and aid packages to the children across Tennessee who he intentionally refused to feed this summer,” Clemmons said.
Lee declined to include the state in a federally funded summer food program, turning down an estimated $75 million that affected about 700,000 children and opting for a $3 million state-run program for fewer kids.
201 Poplar (Photo:Thomas R Machnitzki | Wikimedia Commons)
A coalition of community groups are demanding changes at the Shelby County Jail following a yet-unexplained death there of a man advocates say was detained for too long on a bail that was too high.
Rockez McDaniel was booked into 201 Poplar on July 20. He was arrested for evading arrest and escape, according to criminal justice reform group Just City, and given “an outlandishly high” bond of $1,000, for which he could not pay. The group said McDaniel sat in jail for days without being taken to court or given an attorney.
McDaniel died in jail on Tuesday. The details of the situation have not been released by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. The case is under review by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
McDaniel was 33 at the time of his death and left behind a 3-year-old son, according to Just City.
For this and more, Just City, the Justice & Safety Alliance, the Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope, Stand for Children Tennessee, ACLU of Tennessee, the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, and Decarcerate Memphis issued a list of demands to Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner (who is in charge of the jail) on Friday.
Here’s the list:
“We demand Sheriff Bonner take the following immediate, measurable steps to prevent future tragedies:
1. Release a plan to redirect employees; commit all necessary resources; and train and strengthen the departments responsible for jail intake and jail release.
Goal: reduce booking time by 50 percent to 36 hours by September 1 and another 25 percent to 25 hours by the end of the year.
2. Release a plan to redirect employees and commit all necessary resources monitoring the daily jail roster for people who are not being transported to court or haven’t been appointed counsel within 48 hours of booking.
Goal: 100 percent of people have been to court within 72 hours of booking.
3. Release a plan to identify and divert people with diagnosed mental health conditions to available community resources like Alliance Health Services within 24 hours of arrival at the jail.
Goal: avoid booking people experiencing active mental health episodes into the jail at all by January 1, 2026.”
Jail officials have not yet commented on the McDaniel situation or the list of demands. But it defended recent criticisms of poor conditions on the jail’s website, citing staffing shortages and a very old building as reasons for those conditions.
“The jail is not overcrowded,” reads the statement. “It is not unclean. It does not have a practice of holding detainees in their rooms 23 hours a day.
“The Sheriff’s Office is short-staffed, like every other law enforcement/correctional agency in the U.S. and the Sheriff’s Office is actively recruiting for more personnel.
“Likewise, the jail is a very old structure and Sheriff Bonner welcomes every effort by Shelby County Government and the County Commission to build a new facility.”
Just City also announced on Friday the creation of the Rockez McDaniel Bailout. The emergency fund will draw down as much as $50,000 from the Memphis Community Bail Fund to pay for the release of people “who are trapped in the same conditions as Mr. McDaniel,” Just City said in a statement. Those condition include “inexplicably high bond amounts for minor, non-violent charges and deprived of their ability to get legal counsel for days or weeks.”
“Mr. McDaniel’s death is not an isolated tragedy — it is a symptom of a collapsing jail system that continues to endanger hundreds of people,” says Laramie Wheeler, bail fund and advocacy coordinator for Just City. “Even when people in the jail are given court dates, weeks may pass before they’re allowed to see a judge — the only person who can assign them an attorney — or before they’re arraigned. The incompetence is staggering and increasingly deadly.”
A second location of Marshall Steakhouse is planned for Oxford, Mississippi (Credit: Michael Donahue)
A second location of Marshall Steakhouse is slated to open in January or February, 2026, in Oxford, Mississippi.
The new location, which will be called “Marshall Steakhouse Oxford,” is owned by Randall Swaney and his wife, Lori, who are the owners of the original Marshall Steakhouse on Hwy. 178 West between Red Banks and Holly Springs, Mississippi.
Ground-breaking has already been done for the new 18,000 square-foot building, which will be “right across the street from Trade Park, off College Hill Road and Sardis Road,” Randall says. “It will be on the new West Oxford loop, which is a bypass that goes around Oxford.”
The Oxford location, like the Holly Springs location, will seat 320 people. It will feature steaks and other fare during the week, and Italian cuisine from chef Judd Grisanti on Wednesdays and Thursdays. (Grisanti cooks on Mondays and Tuesdays at the original location.)
Judd Grisanti and Randall Swaney at Marshall Steakhouse. (Credit: Michael Donahue)Elfo Special is featured on Italian night at Marshall Steakhouse. (Credit: MIchael Donahue)
The Oxford location will feature heavy timber flooring and rafters and white oak tables, similar to the decor at the original Marshall.
Randall opened the original restaurant eight years ago. It was originally going to be a sawmill. Then Randall considered making it a feed store, then a combination gun store and feed store. He built the tables before he thought about opening a restaurant. “I was making all those tables to sell, basically, and hadn’t sold any.”
That’s when he got the idea to put a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in a screened porch in front of the store and cook hamburgers at lunch on a Weber grill. Then an employee told him, “You might as well have steaks one night.“
At that point, Randall scrapped all the other plans and opened Marshall Steakhouse. He has plans to open more Marshall Steakhouses, including one in Lebanon, Tennessee, near Nashville. Marshall says the Lebanon location will include 100 RV sites and 50 overnight cabins. “That will be ‘Marshall Steakhouse Resort,” he says.
Supporters of Planned Parenthood in the gallery of the Tennessee House of Representatives during a 2021 debate about abortion. (Photo: Ray Di Pietro)
State attorneys are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit over Tennessee’s near-total abortion ban after a new law adding limited exceptions for medical emergencies went into effect earlier this year.
Jenna Adamson, assistant solicitor general in Tennessee’s Office of the Attorney General, told a three-judge panel Tuesday that the new law “made significant changes” to Tennessee’s abortion ban and “makes this a different case.” She argued the lawsuit is now moot.
But attorneys with the Center for Reproductive Rights countered the new legislation, effective April 29, is written in vague and ambiguous language that still leaves doctors uncertain if they are following or breaking the law when providing an emergency abortion. Doctors found to have violated Tennessee’s abortion law face the revocation of their licenses and lengthy prison sentences.
“This really leaves us in no different place than we were before,” said Nicolas Kabat, a staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The fear Tennessee physicians have that they will be prosecuted for providing life-saving abortions, and the fear patients have that they will be denied them “have not changed one bit,” as a result of the new law, Kabat said.
The lawsuit, originally filed in 2023, represents seven Tennessee women denied emergency abortions and two physicians who say they fear criminal prosecution for providing lifesaving care. The American Medical Association joined the challenge in March.
Tennessee’s abortion ban went into effect in 2022.
A year later, lawmakers amended the legislation to include a “medical condition exception.”
The 2023 exception says a doctor may perform an abortion “using reasonable medical judgement, based upon the facts known to the physician at the time” if the abortion is necessary to prevent a pregnant woman’s death or to “prevent serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” The legislation also added molar and ectopic pregnancies as exceptions to the state’s abortion ban. It was this 2023 legislation the lawsuit initially challenged as overly vague.
In 2024, the three-judge panel presiding over the case temporarily blocked the state’s medical board from disciplining doctors for providing emergency abortions.
Their ruling also outlined four specific pregnancy-related conditions that qualify as “medical necessity” exceptions to the state’s abortion ban, noting the “confusion and lack of consensus within the Tennessee medical community on the circumstances requiring necessary health- and life-saving abortion care.”
This year lawmakers further amended the state’s abortion ban to say doctors “may” provide an abortion for certain conditions that mirror those outlined in the panel’s temporary injunction.
Those exceptions include: previable pre-term premature rupture of membranes (the rupture of the amniotic sac before a fetus is viable); inevitable abortion; severe preeclampsia; mirror syndrome associated with fetal hydrops (a life threatening build up of fluid); and an infection that can result in uterine rupture or loss of fertility. The 2025 legislation also specifically says mental health diagnoses may not be used as an exception to the state’s abortion ban.
The three-judge panel hearing arguments Tuesday were Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal, Judge Sandra Donaghy and Chancellor Kasey Cullbreath. The judges gave no timeline on when they will issue a decision about whether the case will move forward or be dismissed.
Moskal said they would “issue our ruling as soon as we are able to do so.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
Tennessee is poised to become the first, and only, Southern state to codify protections for IVF and birth control into law. (Credit: Alicia Peters from Unsplash)
In a legislative session dominated by the GOP supermajority’s conservative agenda, Tennessee lawmakers this spring took the unusual, bipartisan step of protecting certain reproductive rights.
Beginning July 1, Tennessee will become the first — and only — state in the South to have codified the right to access fertility treatments and birth control into state law.
Introduced by two Republican women and signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee, the legislation protects Tennesseans’ access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and a range of birth control methods — reproductive health options that have not, in modern times, been restricted in the state but now have safeguards into the future.
Backers of the bill, among them progressive groups and conservative Republicans who have expanded their families through the use of IVF, called the legislation a needed win for preserving access to care.
“The law provides critical stability and peace of mind in an otherwise volatile political environment for women and families,” said Natalie Schilling of AWAKE Tennessee, which advocates for the rights of children and women.
Despite bipartisan support, however, the legislation was nearly derailed during its last debate on the House floor, a potential signal for future legislative fights that still loom over efforts to restrict access to IVF some Republicans have already indicated they intend to bring next year.
After the bill passed narrowly in the House, 11 Republicans called the legislation a “Trojan horse that could potentially undermine Tennessee’s strong and righteous stance on the protection of innocent human life” in a letter that unsuccessfully sought Lee’s veto of the bill.
Rep. Iris Rudder, R-Winchester,left, sponsor of a bill to protect IVF and birth control with Rep. Esther Helton Haynes, R-East Ridge. (Photo: John Partipilo)
The 11th hour pushback caught Rep. Iris Rudder by surprise. Rudder, a Republican from Winchester, cosponsored the legislation with Republican Sen. Becky Massey of Knoxville.
“I thought it was such a simple bill that said we just want to codify access to contraceptives and IVF,” she said in an interview with the Lookout. “I had no idea it would mushroom the way it did. It opened my eyes. It really did,” she said.
The legislation had sailed through legislative committees and earned a unanimous vote from the state Senate. Yet by the time it reached a vote on the House floor in early April, many of its Republican supporters sat silent during debate.
“I was looking out at the House floor and I was thinking, I am standing here as a woman and this is such an important issue for women,” Rudder said. “Most of those men are married. They have wives. They have daughters. They should be able to understand how important all these conversations are to women.”
The Fertility Treatment and Contraceptive Protection Act runs just five sentences long:
“The law of this state clearly and unambiguously acknowledges the right of a healthcare provider to perform, and the right of a person to receive or use, fertility treatment and contraceptives in this state,” it says in part.
The legislation was introduced in the aftermath of a first-of-its kind Alabama Supreme Court decision that jeopardized access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) in that state – and broader concerns that efforts to restrict abortion access could extend to birth control.
Rudder said she brought the legislation after women and families across the state implored her to protect their access to IVF and birth control.
The measure is similar to unsuccessful legislation brought last year by Democrats Rep. Harold Love, Jr. of Nashville and Sen. Raumesh Akbari of Memphis, both Democrats. That bill would have made explicit that Tennessee’s near total abortion ban does not endanger fertility treatments or access to contraceptive care.
I was looking out at the House floor and I was thinking, I am standing here as a woman and this is such an important issue for women. Most of those men are married. They have wives. They have daughters. They should be able to understand how important all these conversations are to women.
Rudder supports Tennessee’s near-total abortion ban and considers her legislation a wholly separate issue.
During House debate over the bill, however, some Republicans argued the issues are intertwined.
Rep. Gino Bulso, a Brentwood Republican, unsuccessfully sought to amend the bill to regulate the disposal of unused embryos in IVF treatment to “reaffirm that an embryo is a child.” The legislation, he argued, would create a “right to create and destroy human embryos without qualification, limitation or restriction,” contrary to the state’s recent anti-abortion history.
Republican Rep. Jody Barrett of Dickson said he opposed the bill because it would make it difficult for lawmakers to introduce subsequent legislation protecting embryos.
Rep Chris Todd, a Republican representing Madison county, called the bill “absolutely unnecessary.” He argued the bill would allow for “genetic testing to weed out embryos with undesirable genetic traits.”
And Rep. Timothy Hill, a Blountville Republican, noted that the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and other groups that support abortion rights supported the legislation, giving him pause.
“The bottom line is today you cast your vote not with a friend, not with a colleague, but with an organization that stands against life,” he warned colleagues on the House floor ahead of a vote on the legislation.
Rep. Chris Todd, a Jackson Republican, called Rudder’s bill “absolutely unnecessary.” (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
“Let’s get something the ACLU has a problem with and let’s come back here next year and get it right,” he said.
Rudder, who stood for nearly 45 minutes in the well of the House defending the bill at times, emotionally, pushed back. She noted that President Donald Trump has signaled his support to protect IVF access.
“Yes, I am your friend,” she told Republican colleagues. “But I don’t stand here as your friend. I stand here as a woman who believes this is important to families in Tennessee.
“I stand with women in this state and families in this state that want the ability to have these precious babies they may not have the opportunity to have otherwise.”
Later, she said in an interview with the Lookout, she had been “naive” in thinking the legislation would easily pass muster with all of her Republican colleagues. She said she was grateful that Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes, an East Ridge Republican, stood beside her in the well. “She was the only woman legislator that did,” she said.
“When I walked in there (the House floor), I had 61 votes,” she said. “When I walked out, I had 54.
“The conversation just went in such a different direction,” Rudder said. “When I went into the debate, I just wanted them to know that for women in this state, it’s so important. I was very emotional saying, ‘here I am asking you guys to get on board and understand what this bill actually does.’ I think they missed the point.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
The Dickinson brothers, Luther and Cody, are back with new music.
The sons of legendary producer Jim Dickinson just released their latest music video in support of their new album “Still Shakin’.” Produced by Katie Keller, Jeff DeLia, and Boo Mitchell, the new album shows an evolution of the Allstars’ bluesy sound into a more atmospheric mode.
The video for “My Mind is Ramblin'” was shot by the Allstars and friends on smartphones on tour and in Memphis. Memphis filmmaker Chad Allen Barton pulled the pieces together in a elegant edit that reflects the songs’ mood. Take a look:
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
FedEx, based in Memphis, scored the maximum $10,000 rebate for each of its 13 subsidiaries. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Some of the world’s largest companies and the governor’s family business received Tennessee’s biggest new business tax rebate, according to a listing released by the Department of Revenue.
Lee Company, a mechanical engineering and HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services company owned by Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s family, joined Amazon, FedEx, Nissan, Hankook Tire, 84 Lumber, AT&T, and utilities such as Atmos Energy and Alabama Power in netting franchise and excise tax rebates of more than $10,000 each created by a 2024 state law. Memphis-based FedEx, with 13 subsidiaries, landed the maximum rebate for each one, and Japanese-owned Nissan filed for six subsidiaries that each received the rebate.
A governor’s spokesperson did not respond to questions Monday, but his office consistently says he put his interest in Lee Company into a blind trust during his governorship, though he could benefit when he leaves the post late in 2026.
Other notable companies among the 16,000 receiving the state’s maximum break in its business property tax include Bridgestone, Ingram Partners, Aegis Sciences, Ajax Turner, Ascension Care, BNSF Railway Co., Carhartt Inc., Ford Motor Co, Volkswagen, Coca-Cola Bottling, Denso Manufacturing, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Gannett Co., Frito-Lay Inc., Pilot and Pilot Travel Centers, and Brown-Forman, the owner of Jack Daniel’s.
In all, about 60,000 companies received three-year refunds ranging from less than $750 to between $750 and $10,000.
FedEx, based in Memphis, scored the maximum $10,000 rebate for each of its 13 subsidiaries. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
The estimated $1.5 billion in refunds and tax cuts, a large number of them made to out-of-state companies, appears to be having an immediate impact on the state budget. Tennessee’s business tax collections on property and earnings are $335 million short of projections through the first four months of the year — 11 percent off the mark — according to the Department of Finance and Administration. The tax cut amounts to more than $400 million annually.
Tennessee lawmakers approved the refunds and franchise tax break in 2024 when Department of Revenue officials said the state faced legal threats over its business taxes.
Despite the shortfall, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) said in a Monday statement: “I believe now, as I did at the time, that the rebates were the most responsible course due to the strong probability that the state would be in a worse fiscal position after impending litigation. Based on the advice of the attorney general, we were simply not willing to take that kind of risk with Tennessee’s financial future on the line and I stand by that decision.”
Other lawmakers such as House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) said last year they supported Gov. Bill Lee’s legislation because it was good policy, not because of legal threats. Some 80 companies reportedly sent letters to the state requesting rebates.
“Conservative budgeting and fiscal responsibility over the past decade have placed our state in a strong financial position,” Lamberth said in a statement Monday. “The significant tax cut we approved last year reinvested dollars right back into the businesses, communities and workers that fuel the Volunteer State’s economy.”
The state’s lists, which will be on the Department of Revenue website for only 30 days, don’t detail the exact amount of rebates, but the largest amount could run from $10,000 to $75,000.
State Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Nashville Democrat, blasted the move as a “corporate tax refund scheme” and encouraged people to check the list to see which companies are benefiting. Campbell said lawmakers approved the measure without a lawsuit or court ruling,
“Just a letter from corporate attorneys and a political class eager to please.” Campbell added the state is dealing with its biggest budget deficit of the year as a result.
The legislature refused to take action this year on grocery sales tax reductions, one sponsored by Democrats accompanied by an effort to go after offshore accounts used to hide income and one backed by Republicans that offered no way to offset the revenue loss.
“This is the real cost of trickle-down economics: corporate handouts while working families get left behind. It’s fiscally irresponsible and morally indefensible,” Campbell said.
The advocacy group Tennessee For All, which supports elimination of the grocery tax, criticized the state’s refunds, saying companies are exploiting the program.
“Instead of closing loopholes so families can get a break on groceries, the majority of legislators chose more corporate giveaways,” said Angela Wynn, a Rutherford County parent and member of Public School Strong, a partner in the Tennessee For All coalition.
The group pointed toward reports by two Democratic lawmakers using state information from 2022 and 2025 that show more than 60 percent of corporations operating in Tennessee pay nothing in excise taxes on income.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
The Kosten Foundation's Kick It Pickleball Tournament
The Kosten Foundation and the Kick It Pickleball Tournament kicked it during the three-day event, held May 16th, 17th, and 18th at Shadowlawn Park in Arlington, Tennessee.
According to a news release, close to $50,000 was raised “to help fund pancreatic cancer research, thanks to the local pickleball community, tournament participants, generous sponsors, silent auction, and giveaway donors, volunteers, and supporters.”
And, it says, “The Kick It Pickleball Tournament accommodates players across various divisions, including men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles, all structured in a round-robin format. The tournament welcomes participants of varying skill levels, ensuring an exclusive and engaging experience for all attendees.”
The release says since 2023, the Kosten Foundation “has donated more than $3 million to pancreatic cancer research. The Foundation’s latest round of research grants helped fund research teams in Dallas, New York City, and Edinburg, Texas. In an add-on to its research efforts, the Kosten Foundation hosts the only free, in-person, and virtual pancreatic cancer support group in the Mid-South.”
Tupelo, Mississippi — the city where Elvis Presley took his first breath and dreamed his biggest dreams — is once again ready to celebrate its most iconic son. The Tupelo Elvis Festival returns June 4th through 7th, bringing four days of music, art, and memories to Downtown Tupelo, with events that highlight both the legacy of Elvis and the vibrant creative spirit of his hometown.
This year, the festival takes on a more intimate and historic tone, with the centerpiece of the celebration moving to the Lyric Theatre — the very place where a young Elvis once watched movies and was inspired by the magic of performance. It’s a fitting venue for a festival dedicated to the life and legacy of the King of Rock-and-Roll.
A highlight of the week is the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest, a thrilling competition sanctioned by Elvis Presley Enterprises. Some of the world’s best tribute artists will grace the Lyric Theatre stage, channeling the charisma, voice, and energy that made Elvis a legend.
In addition to the competition, the Lyric will feature two signature evening concerts: That ’70s Show on Friday night, a dazzling tribute to Elvis’ iconic Las Vegas era, complete with jumpsuits, big vocals, and all the glitz fans love; and the Pure Elvison Saturday night, a powerful musical journey through the life and music of Elvis Presley, performed by some of the best tribute artists in the business.
Beyond the music, this year’s festival features a Pop-Up Art Show at the GumTree Museum of Art, showcasing original artwork from past Tupelo Elvis Festival posters. It’s a visual tribute to the evolution of the festival and the artistic inspiration Elvis continues to spark.
Car enthusiasts will love Ride Like the King, a classic and custom car show taking place in the Cadence Bank Arena parking lot on Saturday. While the Running with the King 5K returns for those looking to combine fun and fitness. This annual favorite invites runners and walkers of all ages to hit the pavement in a spirited salute to Elvis — costumes encouraged!
A new and exciting addition this year is TCB at The Depot, a two-night series of free live music at The Depot, Downtown Tupelo’s newest venue. Friday night features the soulful rock of Drunken Prayer, while Saturday, June 7th, brings a high-energy performance from The Kudzu Kings.
While you’re in town, don’t miss a visit to the Elvis Presley Birthplace, where you can step inside the modest two-room house where Elvis was born, explore the museum, and visit the church where he first sang gospel.
From tribute performances to fine art, classic cars to rock-and-roll nights under the stars, the Tupelo Elvis Festival continues to evolve while staying true to its roots. Celebrate the legacy of Elvis in the town where it all began — June 4th through 7th in Downtown Tupelo.
