MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Beale Street Music Festival made its highly anticipated return to the newly remodeled Tom Lee Park over the weekend. But how’s the park looking now, and was there any serious damage?
After a three-year absence brought on by the pandemic and park renovations, thousands of concertgoers came back to the banks of the Mississippi River for three days of music.
“We believe things went really well. Everybody from vendors to sponsors to festival goers, everybody had a great time, and the feedback has been very positive,” said Candace Gray with the Memphis River Parks Partnership.
The Memphis River Parks Partnership has invested more than $60 million in redesigns for the park. But now that the music has stopped and the fans are gone, we wanted to find out if there was any significant damage to the park.
“There was some damage during the load in from vendors, but overall, thank goodness it didn’t rain this weekend that probably saved some impact on the park, and just great to see people enjoying using Tom Lee Park,” said George Abbott, MRPP’s Director of External Affair.
Earlier this year, a required damage deposit had caused a rift between Memphis in May and the MRPP regarding Tom Lee Park.
The park now features new winding pathways, a decorative bridge, terraced stones, shrubs, flowers, and more than 1,000 new trees as festival goers will be attending more events throughout the month.
“The Beale Street Music Fest is completed, but as we know the World Championship BBQ Festival is coming up. So, after everything is done, we’ll really get to see what happened and what needs fixing and remediation,” said Gray.
In June, the MRPP will continue making repairs and restart construction as Tom Lee Park prepares for its official debut in September.
“So, we’re open to seeing what we can do to make sure that Tom Lee is ready to go for Labor Day weekend,” said Gray.
We also reached out to Memphis in May organizers about the damage. They said they didn’t have a comment right now.
