Tag: FedEx St. Jude Championship

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Spring Fairs & Festivals 2025

Art in the Loop (Photo: Courtesy Art in the Loop)

April showers bring April festivals, and then there are May festivals, and June ones, and July and August. And we don’t even have time to get to September. That’s right, friends (may we call you that?): It’s time for the Spring Fairs & Festivals Guide. 

April

Month of Jazz at Crosstown Arts
A monthlong celebration of jazz. 
Crosstown Arts, various dates through April 30 

Memphis Tattoo Festival (Photo: Courtesy Memphis Tattoo Festival)

Memphis Tattoo Festival
If you can dream it, you can tat it. 
Renasant Convention Center, April 4-6

TrollFest
Don’t be a troll; instead, learn how to take better care of the environment at this festival. 
Memphis Botanic Garden, April 5

Wine, Food and Music Spring Festival
Wine all you want. Notice I said “wine,” not “whine.” 
Beale Street Landing, April 5

Foodees Food and Culture Festival
Does it bother me that it’s not spelled “Foodies”? A little. Do I care? Not when the festival is bringing 70 food trucks and 100 crafters and makers. 
Riverside Drive, April 11-13

TrollFest (Photo: Abigail Morici)

Brewfest
You’re cruising for a brewski. 
Mississippi Ale House, Olive Branch, MS, April 12

Cooper-Young Porchfest
Get out of my head and onto my lawn (for free porch concerts, obviously). 
Cooper-Young Historic District, April 12

Juke Joint Festival
No need to be a juke box hero when you can go to the Juke Joint Festival. 
Clarksdale, MS, April 12

Orbit Fest
You’ll want this fest in your orbit: seltzers, vendors, music. It’ll be a blast.
Crosstown Brewing Company, April 12

Cooper-Young Porch Fest (Photo: Brandon Dill)

Shelby Forest Spring Fest
A Mardi Gras-themed fest with wildlife and cultural exhibits, plus music, food, arts and crafts, and more.
Meeman Shelby Forest State Park, April 12

Shop Black Fest
Black businesses for the win.
Bass Pro Drive + Riverside Drive, April 12

Taco & Tequila Fest
Taco ’bout tequila. 
Butterific Bakery & Cafe, April 12

The Mid-South Korean BBQ Festival
A backyard cooking competition of traditional American barbecue and Korean barbecue.
Grind City Brewing Company, April 12

Juke Joint Festival (Photo: Courtesy Juke Joint Festival)

Black Arts & Wine Festival
Shop visual art by Black creatives and sample wines and liquors from Black brands.
Pink Palace Museum & Mansion, April 13

Concerts in the Grove
Enjoy an outdoor concert or two.
Germantown Performing Arts Center, select Thursdays, April 17-June 26

Africa in April
Salute the Republic of South Africa.
Robert R. Church Park, April 18-20

Good Vibes Comedy Festival
LOL IRL.
Hi Tone, April 18-20

Earth Day Festival (Photo: Courtesy Shelby Farms Park)

Earth Day Festival 
Where fun meets sustainability, and sustainability meets you.
Shelby Farms Park, April 19

Shell Daze
Dazed and confused, more like dazed and I don’t know where I was going with this … so I guess I am confused. But this festival is not confusing! It’s all about music: Lettuce, Daniel Dato’s Cosmic Country, Grace Bowers & the Hodge Podge, and The Velvet Dog.
Overton Park Shell, April 19

Art in the Loop
Let me loop you in: It’s the art festival in East Memphis.
Ridgeway Loop Road, April 25-27

Double Decker Arts Festival
A two-day (a double-day?) celebration of food, music, and the arts.
Oxford Courthouse Square, Oxford, MS, April 25-26

Trolley Night
Explore galleries, restaurants, bars, and shops open late with activities on the street every month. 
South Main, last Friday of the month

23rd Annual World Championship Hot Wing Contest and Festival
Wing, wing, wing, this festival is calling for you. 
River Garden Park on Riverside Drive, April 26

Spring Craft Fair
Find crafts and one-of-a-kind treasures.
Meddlesome Brewery, April 26

Taste the Rarity
Get weird with beer.
Wiseacre Brewing Company, April 26

Mimosa Festival (Photo: Courtesy Mimosa Festival)

Mimosa Festival
Mimosa is a fun word to say, and this festival is even funner (and that’s a fun word).
Autozone Park, April 27

32nd Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival
Heads, you suck. Tails, you pinch.
Riverside Drive, April 27

May

Experience Memphis Gardens
Roses are red; violets are blue. I’d love to walk Memphis’ gardens with you. 
Various locations, May 1-June 15

Memphis in May International Festival
Salute South Korea at this festival.  
Memphis, May 1-31

Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Festival
Go wild with food, art, games, expos, contests, crawfish, and more. 
Downtown Leland, May 2-3

RiverBeat Music Festival
This year’s headliners are Missy Elliot, The Killers, and Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals.
Tom Lee Park, May 2-4

Cigar & Whiskey BBQ Festival 
Cigars, whiskeys, barbecue — it’s in the name. 
Agricenter International, May 3

Bookstock
This fest is for the books. Literally. 
Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, May 3

Café du Memphis
Beign-yay! (And shrimp and grits and café au lait. Yay for all!)
Overton Park Shell, May 3

Overton Square Crawfish Festival
Go cray for the crayfish. 
Overton Square, May 3

The Big Squeeze Food Truck Festival
When life gives you lemonade, wash it down with food truck fare and music.  
Germantown Performing Arts Center, May 3

Memphis Greek Festival
Say: Opa! And bring three cans of nonperishable food for free admission. 

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, May 9-10

World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest 
Mind your Ps and ’cues — mostly your ’cues because I’m not sure how helpful those Ps will be.
Liberty Park, May 14-17

SmokeSlam
Talk about a smoke show.
Tom Lee Park, May 15-17

DreamFest Weekend
Sweet dreams are made of this: a weekend of Memphis music.
Overton Park Shell, May 16-18

Ruby Bridges Reading Festival
Enjoy book giveaways, children’s activities, and storytelling.
National Civil Rights Museum, May 17

Trans-Fest
A celebration of the trans community. 
Wiseacre Brewery, May 17

Uptown Arts Festival
Expect art, music, beer, and a good time. 
Grind City Brewing Company, May 17

Bluff City Fair
This fair isn’t bluffing when it comes to fair foods, carnival rides, and attractions.
Tiger Lane at Liberty Park, May 23-June 1

Memphis Dragon Boat Festival
Dragons will race. Well, dragon boats. 
Hyde Lake at Shelby Farms Park, May 31

Memphis Italian Festival
Where everyone’s Italian.
Marquette Park, May 29-31

Memphis Margarita Festival
Some people claim there’s a festival to blame, and it’s this one. Wastin’ away again at the Memphis Margarita Festival … 
Overton Square, May 31

Memphis Vegan Festival 
No animals were harmed in the making of this festival.
Fourth Bluff Park, May 31

June

Juneteenth Shop Black Festival
Shop from 100 Black businesses.
Fourth Bluff Park, June 1

Tupelo Elvis Festival
Get ready to rock and roll. 
Downtown Tupelo, June 4-7

Memphis Pride Fest Weekend (Photo: Courtesy Mid-South Pride)

Memphis Pride Fest Weekend
A four-day celebration embodying the spirit of the LGBTQ community.
Various locations, June 5-8

Memphis Crafts & Drafts Festival Summer Market
This event is no rough draft. It was perfectly crafted to fit all your summer market needs. It’s also put on by the Memphis Flyer, which I’ve heard is pretty awesome. 
Crosstown Concourse, June 7

Fried Chicken Fest
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the Fried Chicken Fest? That doesn’t sound right. The fest is fun for humans though! It’s got fried chicken (with apologies to the chickens that crossed the road), music, and lawn games.
Germantown Performing Arts Center, June 7

Craft Food & Wine Festival
Delicious food, exquisite wines, and live music, all while supporting Church Health.
The Columns, June 8

Betonia Blues Festival
With a lineup with the likes of Nick Wade, Jimmy Duck Holmes, Chris Gill & Sole Shakers, and Bobby Rush featuring Mizz Loew, you know you’re in for a good time.
Blue Front Cafe, Bentonia, MS 

Memphis Brewfest
Just brew it. 
Shelby Farms Park, June 21 

Record Fair
Girl, put your records on. Tell me your favorite songs from Goner Records, River City Records, and Shangri-La Records ’cause this is the place to buy all your music.  
Soul & Spirits, June 21

July

Delta Soule Picnic Festival
Expect R&B and Southern soul music.
Warfield Point Park, Greenville, MS, July 5

Memphis Summer Cocktail Festival
Get your drink on.
The Kent, July 12

August

Planted Rock Vegan Festival
We will … we will … rock you (as long as you’re a plant). This fest promotes vegan foods and will give healthy living tips. 
Collage Dance Center, August 5

FedEx St. Jude Championship
Here’s where I’d insert a golf pun, if I knew any. If you know about golf, I assume you know about this championship. 
TPC Southwind, August 6-10

Elvis Week (Photo: Courtesy Elvis Presley’s Graceland)

Elvis Week
The Elvii are coming! The Elvii are coming! And they’re showing up for music, panels, contests, movies, fan meet-ups, tours, and more. 
Graceland, August 8-16

Skol-astic Book Fair
Ah, book it. Book it real good. 
Soul & Spirits, August 9

Memphis Chicken & Beer Festival
People like chicken; people like beer. 
Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium Field, August 16 

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

Game Recap ’24

Seth Henigan (Photo: Wes Hale)

If the Bluff City had an Athlete of the Year for 2024, it was University of Memphis quarterback Seth Henigan. The senior piled up records like a greedy 5-year-old under the Christmas tree. Henigan became the first Tiger signal-caller to toss 100 touchdown passes (104) and climbed to 13th on the FBS career passing-yardage chart (14,266). Best of all, he led Memphis to an 11-2 record, a third straight postseason victory (over West Virginia in the Frisco Bowl), and finished his career with 34 wins, a mark no future Tiger quarterback is likely to match. Add the heroics of running back Mario Anderson Jr. — 1,362 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns — and Memphis is all but certain to finish in the AP Top 25 for only the fourth time in program history.

The Tigers’ gridiron success made for some late-year balance to an otherwise disappointing 12 months in Memphis sports. Ravaged by injuries (and a lengthy suspension for star guard Ja Morant), the Memphis Grizzlies missed the NBA playoffs for the first time in three years. The only silver lining: A miserable record (27-55) earned the Grizz the ninth selection in the draft, a pick they used to acquire towering center Zach Edey, the two-time national college player of the year at Purdue. As 2025 approaches, Memphis is near the top of the Western Conference standings. Let’s call 2024 a hibernation year in Grizzlies history.

College basketball was no less disappointing. Coach Penny Hardaway’s Tigers roared to a 15-2 start, climbing to a ranking of 10th in the country … only to bumble their way through their American Athletic Conference schedule, finishing with a mark of 22-10 and missing out on the NCAA tournament. David Jones won the AAC scoring title in his only season in blue and gray, but an 11-7 record in that league doesn’t impress come March.

On the diamond, slugging first baseman Luken Baker starred for the Redbirds, leading the International League in home runs a second straight season despite a late-summer promotion to the St. Louis Cardinals. Baseball America’s Pitcher of the Year, Quinn Mathews, finished his season with Memphis, tossing his 200th strikeout of the season — a minor-league rarity — in a Redbirds uniform. Look for Mathews to anchor the 2025 rotation (until the Cardinals decide he’s needed in St. Louis).

Memphis said goodbye to our USL Championship soccer club, 901 FC. Without a soccer-only stadium in the plans, the franchise is moving to Santa Barbara, California, after six up-and-down seasons at AutoZone Park. For the sports historians, 901 FC put up an overall record of 76 wins, 62 losses, and 45 draws.

Hideki Matsuyama won the 2024 FedEx St. Jude Championship (FESJC) at TPC Southwind, this being the third year Memphis has hosted the opening tournament of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Along with the Southern Heritage Classic and the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the FESJC is an annual reminder that Memphis can put on a show like few other cities in the world of sports. Let the 2025 games begin. 

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We Recommend We Saw You

WE SAW YOU: Party on the Green

Marsha and Mark Anthony (Photos: Michael Donahue)

Guests arrived in shorts and FedEx caps to “Party on the Green,” the fourth-annual bash thrown by Alex and Rick Gardner during the FedEx St. Jude Championship at their home on the 15th green at TPC Southwind.

Alex and Rick Gardner
Veronica Gomez and
Justin Gallagher
Liliana McKenna and
Hunter Parker

The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital connection happened when they began using Evite Online Invitations for the party, says Rick, president of Fremont-Wright, which owns architectural and engineering firms around the country. Evite has “a great system where you can just link to a charity of your choice,” Rick says. So, donating to St. Jude was a “no-brainer.”

Justin Harness and Lexi Brazeal
Micheal Bush and Charles Chandler

This year, they decided to “make it a true benefit for St. Jude” instead of just donating money online. Alex was “actually in communication with people at St. Jude that are involved with the tournament and they helped out with banners and pop-ups in the house.”

Michael Bi and Madison Spence
Nuphet Insixiengmay, Abbey Burgett,
Michael Gardner, and Corinne Gardner

About 150 people attended. “I don’t think there’s anybody who hasn’t known someone who has a child that had to go to St. Jude,” Alex says. 

The party “spread a lot of good cheer.” 

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

Phil’s FESJC

Phil Cannon

This is arguably the greatest week of the year for Memphis sports. Seventy of the finest golfers on the planet arrive in the Bluff City for the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first of three playoff tournaments to decide the winner of this year’s FedEx Cup. Masters champion Scottie Scheffler will be here. Xander Schauffele — winner of the PGA Championship and the British Open — will be here. So will Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and Justin Thomas. Memphis is the center of the golf universe for a precious, if humid, weekend.

I always think of Phil Cannon when the FESJC rolls around. We lost the longtime tournament director much too soon (in 2016), but Phil’s imprint on the event lives on, and in ways that go beyond any plaque or statue. The hundreds of volunteers who make you feel like the tournament belongs to you, personally? That’s Phil Cannon’s influence. A media center equipped with every tool a reporter might need to best share a story? That’s Phil Cannon’s influence. And the ongoing bonds between our tournament and both St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and FedEx? That’s Phil Cannon’s priority list, living and breathing, making the FESJC distinct from any other golf tournament in the world.

Phil was the primary source for my very first feature in Memphis Magazine, way back in June 1994. He treated me like a veteran scribe in town for Sports Illustrated. I have little doubt every writer who crossed his path would tell you the same thing. Phil Cannon was a Memphis treasure. When the FESJC makes sports headlines every summer, I’m reminded that he still is.

• The Memphis Redbirds unveiled a new sign on the outfield wall at AutoZone Park last Saturday, a tribute to the 1938 Negro American League champion Memphis Red Sox. It made for a glorious night at the ballpark, Memphis beating Gwinnett, 8-2, while wearing uniforms commemorating the city’s Negro League team of days gone by.

It’s a good start for a franchise and facility that desperately needs to better embrace the history we’ve seen over the ballpark’s first quarter-century. That lone red chair on the right-field bluff? That’s where Albert Pujols (yes, that guy) hit a baseball to win the 2000 Pacific Coast League championship for Memphis. But there’s no plaque to tell a new fan why September 15, 2000, is an important date in Memphis sports history. Just an oddly placed red seat. 

And how about a reminder (poster?) that Yadier Molina played here, and actually caught his first game with Adam Wainwright on the mound at AutoZone Park? (The two broke the major-league record for starts by a battery in 2022.) You might recognize highlights of David Freese from the 2011 World Series. Did you know Freese hit game-winning home runs in the 2009 PCL playoffs, helping Memphis to its second championship? A visual reminder would make AutoZone Park a better, happier place.

• The U.S. Olympic basketball teams (men and women) both brought home gold medals from the Paris Games. Salute to LeBron James, Breanna Stewart, and the many future Hall of Famers who handled the uncomfortable role of heavy favorite and made it to the podium. It makes for a good time to remind voters for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame that Memphis legend Penny Hardaway is the only member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team — also gold medalists — not currently enshrined. The only one. Mitch Richmond is in the Hall of Fame, for crying out loud, but not Penny Hardaway. Let’s get this corrected.

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From My Seat Sports

Destination: Southwind

Chad Ramey (courtesy PGA TOUR)

Nearing the end of his rookie season on the PGA Tour, Chad Ramey will be in the field at this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship. Having earned his first win in March, Ramey has reached 80th in the FedExCup standings. (The top 125 players will compete at Southwind in the first of three playoff tournaments.) The Fulton, Mississippi, native — a graduate of Mississippi State —  shared some thoughts before making his playoff debut.

What have you learned about yourself as a rookie on the PGA Tour?

I’ve been able to go to a lot of new places, and play a lot of great golf courses. I can’t complain at all, picking up my first PGA Tour win. I wish I’d been a little more consistent, but I’ve learned a lot, and can build off that.

What stands out in your memories of that win at the Corales Puntacana Championship?

Those four rounds were really good, but they were far from perfect. You don’t have to be perfect to win. You’re gonna miss golf shots. It’s whoever moves on and gets over them the quickest. I can get in trouble with myself when I want everything to be perfect. Sometimes things can be good, and you create a problem in trying to make them better. I’m working on that.

Did nerves hit you on Sunday?

No doubt. They were there from the first tee to the last putt. I kept telling myself they’re just thoughts, feelings. Stay within myself and execute the game plan. Trust that hard work will pay off.

Have you played Southwind? 

I Monday-qualified [for the FESJC] in 2015. And being so close to home, I’ve actually played it quite a bit. I really like the course. I’ve never played it as firm as it was during the tournament. The PGA Tour is going to set it up as firm and fast as they can. I think it’s very fair. If you can get the ball in position off the tee, you’ll have enough scoring clubs in your hand. 

This is the first time in Memphis for the FedExCup Playoffs. What’s your perspective as a player on the magnitude of the event?

Everyone’s going to be on high alert, hoping to make the top 70 and get to Delaware [for the second playoff tournament]. This will be my first playoff experience. Can’t wait to be there.

Have you visited St. Jude? Any thoughts on the charitable impact the FESJC makes?

It’s absolutely amazing, what St. Jude does. I haven’t had the chance to visit the hospital, but I’d love to. The caddy bibs, with the pictures the children draw . . . it’s a great foundation. I couldn’t be more proud of what St. Jude does.

The Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour has shaken the sport this year. Do you have thoughts on the changing landscape?

Golf’s in a weird spot right now. I haven’t put a lot of thought into it, to be honest. I’ve tried to be focused on the PGA Tour. My entire life, this is where I’ve wanted to play. And I’m staying true to that.

You attended the Masters as a fan when you were 10 years old. What would playing at Augusta mean to you at this stage of your growing career?

It would mean everything. I’ve never played there. It would be special to finally get there. A dream come true. The ultimate goal was to play on the PGA Tour, but for the Masters to come along with it . . . that would be special.