There is a new music festival coming to Memphis, Tennessee on October 6th & 7th at Shelby Farms Park, to celebrate the birthplace of Blues, Soul, and Rock & Roll. The inaugural MEMPHO music festival will open its doors with performances from Cage the Elephant, Cold War Kids, Bishop Briggs, Southern Avenue, and Dan Luke & the Raid on Friday night. The celebration will continue on Saturday with a full day of music from Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, a very special tribute to the music of Memphis set from Steve Cropper & Friends, Booker T. Presents: A Stax Revue and a Journey through Soul, Blues, and R&B, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Hard Working Americans, The Weeks, and Jojo Hermann’s Slim Wednesday.MEMPHO will be the first major music festival held amid the natural splendor of Shelby Farms Park. Just minutes from downtown Memphis, and five times the size of New York’s Central Park, Shelby Farms is one of the largest urban parks in America and features diverse outdoor activities including biking, canoeing, zip lining, and horseback riding. With two stages of music and culinary options for every taste and budget, MEMPHO will offer attendees an abundance of great music, food and nature. The menu will of course include Memphis’ legendary barbecue, as well as a wide array of beer, wine, and cocktails.It’s been a tough year for first festivals, but Mempho looks to be an exception. Big River Presents have recruited a stellar team of professionals to work with the event, including talent buyer Rand Levy of WE Festival and Soundset, production manager and fellow Memphian Mike Smith from Widespread Panic, Royal Studios owner Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell, former Ardent/Compass Point Studios engineer and legendary producer Terry Manning, Rolling Stones and Allman Brothers Band keyboardist Chuck Leavell, and the city of Memphis.Chuck Leavell, who is also the founder of the Mother Nature Network (MNN) added in the festival’s press release, “As a special advisor to MEMPHO, I’m proud to help bring one of the greatest musical cities in the world a new kind of music festival. The setting is spectacular and the talent line-up is top notch with a combination of great new artists and some established fan favorites. As an environmentalist, I’m also very pleased that everyone involved has a high sensitivity to keeping the event clean and green, and in harmony with nature.”With the tagline, “music food and nature,” MEMPHO seems to share the urge to preserve the rich musical history of Memphis. Its founders are committed to making it an integral part of the Memphis cultural scene for years to come. At 4,500 acres, Memphis’s Shelby Farms Park feels like the obvious home for this new-natured event. The Park features miles of paved and unpaved trails, dozens of lakes and ponds, the internationally recognized and sustainably designed Woodland Discovery Playground, a buffalo herd, the FedEx Event Center, The Kitchen Bistro and Kitchenette, a water play splash pad, an outdoor event stage overlooking an 80-acre lake, a treetop adventure course and more. It’s the perfect backdrop for this exciting inaugural event.For more information, head to the festival’s website.
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