Cooper-Young Festival returns with music, food and 400-plus vendors. Here's what to expect

A Memphis tradition for more than three decades, the Cooper-Young Festival in its first few years was "more or less like a yard sale," said Tamara Cook, executive director of the Cooper-Young Business Association, which runs the event.

Some yard sale. In 2022, a person might need a lawn as large as the one at the White House to host the event.

Billed as the 34th annual Cooper-Young Festival, this year's celebration of one of Memphis' hippest neighborhoods is expected to attract close to 130,000 people to its two stages of live music and 400-plus vendor booths, Cook said.

If that prediction proves correct, the festival will have returned more or less to the full strength it had achieved before 2020, when the event — like so many others that year — was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Cook said the Memphis Police Department estimated that about 75,000 people attended last year's festival. That would be a massive number in almost any other context, but for Cooper-Young organizers, it suggested many Memphians remained wary of crowds.

Although Shelby County continues to record an average of about 250 new COVID-19 cases a day, according to the Health Department, the severity of infections generally has been reduced, thanks to vaccinations and booster shots. "The community level of COVID-19 in Shelby County is low, based on cases and hospitalizations," reported The New York Times last week, on its online "COVID Case Tracker."

Of course, estimating crowd size at non-ticketed outdoor events is a fairly imprecise science. But what's certain is that thousands of Memphians look forward every year to wandering up and down Cooper and Young, the intersecting avenues that give the festival its distinctive cruciform shape.

"For a lot of Memphians, it's like a pilgrimage," Cook said. "Everybody knows that everybody's going to be here. It's a great place to see your friends."

And Memphis Police are planning for high traffic in the area, with the festival and the University of Memphis football team playing at home. Police said Cooper Street will be shut down from Central Avenue to Walker Street. and all side streets will be blocked.

The festival has downsized intentionally in one way since COVID-19, however. For many years, the event had three music stages, but the festival likely will host only two for the foreseeable future, to cut expenses.

Officially incorporated in 1988 (the first festival featured 25 vendor booths and pop-soul diva Joyce Cobb as the music headliner), the Cooper-Young Festival is a fundraiser for the business association, which represents 187 enterprises.

If that number seems surprisingly large, remember, the Cooper-Young neighborhood extends well beyond the dimensions of its namesake festival.

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Boasting some 3,500 residents (most of whom live in bungalow- or craftsman-style homes built between 1900 and 1915), the neighborhood is bounded by East Parkway South on the east; McLean on the west; Central on the north; and Southern on the south. Within those boundaries are about 30 restaurants and 60 retail shops, along with offices representing roofers, electricians, plumbers, Realtors and more.

Cook said the festival costs about $90,000 to produce. Derived mainly from sponsorships and vendor fees, proceeds go to improving the neighborhood's business district. For example, Cook said the solar-powered pedestrian walkways that cross Cooper at First Congregational Church and the Celtic Crossing Irish Pub cost about $115,000 to install. Also expensive was the addition of gingko trees and other improvements made to the gazebo area near the Cooper-Young intersection.

In 1988, Cooper-Young was characterized by "a lot of vacant properties," Cook said. The festival originally was organized "to raise awareness of the neighborhood." Now, the area is thriving and awareness is high, but the festival still functions as promotion not only for what Cook calls "the largest historic district in Memphis" but as "a celebration of all things Memphis."

"It's a very diverse neighborhood," she said. "It's very 'Memphis.'"

Cooper-Young Festival

9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17.

400-plus vendors along Cooper and Young, offering art, jewelry, food, fashion, toys, knickknacks, music and more.

Outdoor "children's area" at 902 S. Cooper, with games, craft and art supplies, free vision screenings and more.

Two stages of music. The lineup for the Grizzlies Stage at Meda and Young includes Danny and Joyce Green (12:30 p.m.); Rachel Maxann (1:30 p.m.); The Delta Project (2:30 p.m.); Jay Jones (3:30 p.m.); Generation Gap (4:30 p.m.). The lineup for the Main Stage, located in front of Young Avenue Deli, includes SoundBox (11:15 a.m.); Rodrick Duran (12:15 p.m.); Elevation (1:15 p.m.); The City Fathers (2:15 p.m.); Chinese Connection Dub Embassy (3:15 p.m.); Carlos Ecos (4:15 p.m.); and Bailey Bigger (5:15 p.m.).

9 a.m. parade from the Cooper-Young Trestle to the intersection of Cooper and Young features the 32-piece Bellevue Middle School drumline.

For more information, visit cooperyoungfestival.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Cooper-Young Festival 2022: From music acts to vendors, what to expect