Here are 6 of the most unusual things we saw at Beale Street Music Festival

When you've a got a few dozen musical acts and several thousand fans in and around a riverside park, you expect the unusual.

Even so, a few moments stand out as particularly memorable or noteworthy, even amidst the weirdness at this past weekend's Beale Street Music Festival.

So here's a sample — some unusual sights, sounds and observations.

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GloRilla's inflatable gorilla

GloRilla's stage caught the attention of everyone passing by Saturday — and it wasn't just because of her shiny outfit.

A giant inflatable gorilla stood tall on the Bud Light Stage for GloRilla's set, towering over the Memphis rapper, her dancers and the crowd.

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Throughout GloRilla's performance, the bass not only shook the park but also the inflatable gorilla, which moved with each note and bass drop.

The inflatable gorilla couldn't steal the show from GloRilla, but it definitely caught the crowd's attention.

Jack Chick's 'Jaws'

As if it were a shift change at a factory, the female exhibition jump ropers of the 40+Double Dutch club left Beale Street at about 5 p.m. Saturday and were immediately replaced by banner-carrying fundamentalist Christian preachers, who eventually made their way down the street, from the area near Handy Park where the new Blues Stage was located to the main festival entrance at Tom Lee Park.

As usual, the preachers' minions passed out literature promoting their particular brand of salvation. I took one and my heart was gladdened, because it had been a long time since someone had passed me a Jack Chick comic book gospel tract, and this one was a doozy: The cover caption promised "The Story of Jonah - The First Jaws," and the accompanying illustration of a toothy leviathan snatching at the prophet looked more Steven Spielberg than Old Testament.

Possibly you've seen these "Chick tracts" and been unaware of their history. Chick, who died in 2016 at the age of 92, spent decades publishing palm-sized rectangular black-and-white comic book-style gospel tracts with often alarming religious messages. Distributed worldwide from Chick's California headquarters, they continue to be handed out to presumed "sinners" at concerts and other events.

It had been a while since I'd seen one, and "The First Jaws" is a winner, with a particularly graphic illustration accompanying the verse: "The Lord spake unto the fish... and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." Says the fish: "Yuuuck!"

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Lil King

It was probably well past his bedtime, but the appearance by child rapper Lil King proved to be one of the more intriguing elements of Finesse2Tymes’ Saturday night performance on the Bud Light Stage.

Finesse2Tymes, a rising rapper signed to Atlantic records, has been mentoring the 10-year-old Lil King, and brought him out during his music fest set, where he promptly stole the show rapping some very adult lyrics.

At one point, he was propped onto a riser and got down close to the crowd, who lapped up the performance by the young hip-hop prodigy.

Big King

It's likely that no previous Beale Street Music Festival featured a crowd of hundreds and hundreds of people chanting: "Elvis is dead! Elvis is dead!"

That's what occurred Saturday night when Living Colour, a politically conscious rock/metal band from New York, performed one of its most famous (some would say infamous) songs, "Elvis Is Dead," originally recorded in 1990.

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"Can we talk about Elvis?" lead singer Corey Glover teased, by way of introducing the song. "The giant blue suede shoe elephant in the room, can we talk about that? 'Cause you know he's dead." When he reached the song's title chorus, he asked the crowd to sing along, and many here in the city of Graceland did just that.

Although the song is provocative and arguably in questionable taste ("Picture a zombie Elvis," Glover sings), it's more political than disrespectful: Its lyrics criticize the postmortem exploitation of Elvis while also seeking to place the singer within the context of the Black pioneers who also were "kings" of rock 'n' roll (the song's original recording features a rap by Little Richard).

Outdoor dance floor

In an example of what might be called synchronized spontaneity, the veteran funk band Cameo inspired the outbreak of several impressive impromptu "dance floors" on the space in front of the Bud Light Stage on Saturday.

As if they had practiced in advance, rows of previously unacquainted concertgoers busted out "The Electric Slide" and other mass dance moves as Cameo performed such 1970s body movers as "Word Up!" and "Candy."

What was especially surprising was that the dancers were able to keep their eyes on their partners and not on the stage, because standing up there was one comically funky sight: Band co-founder and bass player Aaron Mills, wearing a literal crown (who needs Charles III when you've got Cameo?), along with a cape and a kilt with a front "apron" that resembled a large dangling padlock, like some sort of comical male version of a chastity belt.

The weather

Sunshine, no rain, no tornadoes, no mud... is this Beale Street Music Festival or some other, less interesting music festival, known for its good weather?

Despite weather reports calling for rain, festival-goers stayed dry the entire time. Following a year when Megan Thee Stallion's performance was delayed, and almost canceled, due to an evacuation caused by thunderstorms and lightning strikes, and following the many years of trudging through muddy grounds at Tom Lee Park, the nice weather felt... strange.

And midway through Sunday, at the peak of the heat with little shady options to watch sets in, festival-goers could be forgiven for wishing for maybe just a light drizzle.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Beale Street Music Fest: GloRilla's inflatable gorilla, Lil King, more