Beale Street Music Festival: The music and fans are back — along with a Ferris wheel

The sun shone over Liberty Park on Friday, with hardly a cloud in the sky, as fans began lining up for the return of Beale Street Music Festival.

After back-to-back years of pandemic-related cancellations, the three-day music festival is making its comeback this weekend — although at a new location. The event shifted to the Fairgrounds in Liberty Park while construction continues at Tom Lee Park, its longtime home.

The location change did not stop fans from all 50 states from purchasing tickets. The more than 90,000 tickets sold for the event kept pace with 2018's and 2019's festivals.

Friday night acts included Three 6 Mafia, DaBaby, Van Morrison and Sarah McLachlan.

Entry lines from Central Avenue and Southern Avenue were mostly empty an hour before the gates opened at 5 p.m., but not completely desolate.

A group of 10 fans gathered under a tent near the venue's northern entrance around 4 p.m., avoiding the heat while they waited. Some were sitting on the ground, preparing to be on their feet for the next few hours.

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Kelly Howe is a 15-year veteran of Beale Street Music Festival, but decided to volunteer for the first time this year.

"I was incredibly excited to see the Foo Fighters, but unfortunately they pulled out — God bless them," Howe said. "But I'm still excited to see Van Morrison, Toad the Wet Sprocket and Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88's. I'm really rocking with the '90s vibes."

Howe was impressed with the venue, but thinks there are some positives — one being the terrain is easier to walk on, and negatives — such as the heat when standing on the asphalt.

Kenah Rice, 42, is attending the music festival with her cousin. This will be her second time attending, and she was nervous about being in a crowd due to COVID-19 at first. However, she said Beale Street Music Festival was a perfect occasion to get out after social distancing for two years.

"It's time to get out of the house," Rice said.

Stu Stork and Jack Dobovsky were two of the many out-of-state fans. The duo traveled more than 400 miles, from Illinois to Memphis, for Beale Street Music Festival this year.

"One of our buddies that we lived with last year, he lives down here now and he told us to come down and check it out," Stork said.

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Dobovsky saw the Foo Fighters in Madison, Wisconsin, a few years ago and wanted to see them again. But even after the Foo Fighters canceled their Beale Street appearance, the lineup seemed too good for Stork and Dobovsky to pass up.

Dobovsky's current travel plans have him leaving Sunday, "like an idiot," he said — but the Sunday headliners, such as Counting Crows and Lil Wayne, have made him debate staying an extra day.

"They did a really good job of stacking some people on that third day that have made me reevaluate my travel plans," Dobovsky said.

Along with the move came a new addition to Beale Street Music Festival: a Ferris wheel, which marked the center of the fairground, cast an increasingly long shadow over Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium as the sun began to set and the gates started to open.

A slow trickle of fans began to enter the fairgrounds, all the while the entry lines at the north gate began to snake around Central Avenue. The line had people of all ages.

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As the flow of concert-goers into the fairgrounds quickened, each of the three major stages plus the blues tent attracted fans.

The Zyn Stage, where Amy LaVere became the first Beale Street Music Festival act to perform since 2019, kicked off the performances around 5:45 p.m.

Fans perused the vendors lined up along Tiger Lane. Some eventually found their way to the Terminix Stage where Black Pistol Fire performed.

Meanwhile, on the Bud Light Stage, Memphis rapper Al Kapone — donning a Memphis Grizzlies jersey — rapped to a crowd full of fans in Grizzlies gear along with a smattering of Growl Towels.

Kerry Senecal, 24, is attending the festival for the first time with her partner, Jackson Woods, 28. They were browsing around the vendors' booths for psychedelic print tapestries and clothes.

Woods, who has attended the festival five times, was excited to introduce Senecal to the event. They were most excited to see rock bands this weekend including Weezer and Grouplove. Although they're sad to miss Foo Fighters, they said they are still grateful to attend the festival.

"We're so glad to be here," Woods said. "Just good vibes and meeting cool people."

Lucas Finton is a news reporter for the Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at lucas.finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Beale Street Music Fest makes its return at Liberty Park in Memphis