DISCOVER MEMPHIS

Memphis is the youngest of Tennessee's four major cities (traditionally including Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Nashville). A resident of Memphis is referred to as a Memphian and the Memphis region is known as the Mid-South.


CULTURAL EVENTS IN MEMPHIS

One of the largest celebrations in Memphis is Memphis in May. The month-long series of events promotes Memphis' heritage and outreach of its people far beyond the city's borders.

Part of this festival is the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, the largest pork barbecue cooking contest in the world.

Carnival Memphis, is an annual series of parties and festivities in the month of June that salutes various aspects of Memphis and its industries. An annual King and Queen of Carnival are secretly selected to reign over Carnival activities.

An arts festival, the Cooper-Young Festival, is held annually in September in the Cooper-Young district of Midtown Memphis. The event draws artists from all over North America, and includes art sales, contests, and displays. Fall also brings the Mid-South Fair to the city each year.


THE ARTS

Memphis is the home of founders and establishers of various American music genres, including Blues, Gospel, Rock n' Roll, and "sharecropper" country music (in contrast to the "rhinestone" country sound of Nashville). Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and B. B. King were all getting their starts in Memphis in the 1950s. They are respectively dubbed the "King" of Country, Rock n' Roll, and Blues.

Well-known writers from Memphis include Civil War historian Shelby Foote and playwright Tennessee Williams.

Memphis is the subject of two major pop songs, Graceland by Paul Simon, and Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn.


MUSEUMS AND ART COLLECTIONS

• The National Civil Rights Museum is located in the former Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. It includes a historical overview of the American civil rights movement.
  
  
• The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, founded in 1916, is the oldest and largest fine art museum in the state of Tennessee. The Brooks' permanent collection includes works from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque eras to British, French Impressionists, and 20th-century artists.
  
  
• Graceland, the former home of Rock 'n' Roll legend Elvis Presley, is one of the most visited houses in the United States (second only to the White House), attracting over 600,000 domestic and international visitors a year. Featured at Graceland are two of Presley's private airplanes, his extensive automobile and motorcycle collection and other Elvis memorabilia. On November 7, 1991 Graceland was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
  
  
• The Pink Palace Museum, serves as the Mid-South's major science and historical museum, and features exhibits ranging from archeology to chemistry. It includes America's third largest planetarium and an IMAX Theatre. One exhibit features a replica of the original Piggly Wiggly store, the first self-service grocery store, commemorating the invention of the supermarket by Memphian Clarence Saunders in 1916.
  
  
• The Memphis Walk of Fame is a public exhibit located in the Beale Street historic district, which is modelled after the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but is designated exclusively for Memphis musicians, singers, writers, and composers. Honorees include W. C. Handy, B. B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, and Alberta Hunter among others.
  
  
• Mud Island River Park and Mississippi River Museum is located on Mud Island in downtown Memphis. The Park is noted for its River Walk. The River walk is a 2112:1 scale working model showing 1000 mi (1600 km) of the Lower Mississippi River, from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. 30 in (75 cm) in the model equal 1 mi (1.6 km) of the Mississippi River. The Walk stretches roughly 0.5 mi (800 m), allowing visitors to walk in the water and see models of cities and bridges along the way.
  
  
• Victorian Village is a historic district of Memphis featuring a series of fine Victorian-era mansions, some of which are open to the public as museums.
  
  
• The Cotton Museum is a museum that opened in March 2006 on the old trading floor of the Memphis Cotton Exchange at 65 Union Avenue in downtown Memphis.

OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST

• Blues fans can visit Beale Street, where a young B.B. King used to play his guitar. He occasionally still appears there at the club bearing his name, which he partially owns. Street performers play live music, and bars and clubs feature live entertainment around the clock. In 2008, Beale Street is the most visited tourist attraction in the state of Tennessee.
  
  
• Sun studio was where Elvis Presley first recorded "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". Other famous musicians who got their start at Sun include Johnny Cash, Rufus Thomas, Charlie Rich, Howlin' Wolf, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
  
  
• The Memphis Zoo, which is located in midtown Memphis, features many exhibits of mammals, birds, fish, and amphibians from all over the world.
  
  
• Other Memphis attractions include the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium (also at the Midsouth Fairgrounds), the Pyramid Arena, FedExForum, and the Memphis Queen riverboat cruises.

From Wikipedia.org, the Free Encyclopedia


MEMPHIS HOTELS & ACCOMMODATION

MEMPHIS TOURS, TRAVEL & ACTIVITIES

---

---

HOME • USA • DISCOVER • TENNESSEE • Discover Memphis