Fun in Abundance — Weekend of Festivals Offer Music, Food, Arts and a Side of Praise

By Pamela Perkins

Apparently, you can’t have too much fun on a Labor Day weekend.

And Mid-Southerners, and any Hurricane Gustav evacuees in need of a pleasant distraction, have had at least four places to get it.

The Delta Fair and Music Festival at Agricenter International, the Memphis Music and Heritage Festival Downtown and the 34th annual WLOK Stone Soul Picnic Weekend, all continue today.

And Summer Crunkness 2008, a free hip-hop concert and block party, starts at noon today at Belz Park in South Memphis. The Southern Coalition Movement organizes the block party and other events for inner-city kids who may not be able to afford tickets to concerts like Crunkfest.

The Heritage festival at Peabody Place and Main Street Downtown runs through today from 11 a.m to 11 p.m.

“I’ve never been to this one,” said Tara Ousley of Arlington, who milled around the hundreds of other attendees absorbing the music and checking out vendors’ wares at the festival.

“I just heard about it last night and I wanted to see what it’s about.”

The Heritage festival is a celebration of the art, food and dance of various well-established traditions and more newly introduced cultures of the South.

This year, it is accompanied by “Gems of the Memphis Music & Heritage Festival,” a virtual exhibit of rare video, audio recordings and photographs from previous festivals on the Web site southernfolklore.com.

Several yards away in Tom Lee Park, hundreds of kids sat with grownups in lawn chairs and under tents and mixed their fun with some praise.

“You cannot praise Jesus enough,” said Downtown resident Darlene Glover, raising her voice over the Gospel Warriors singing at the 34th annual Stone Soul Picnic. “And it’s good to fellowship with one another without violence. Children and adults in one accord in the name of the Lord.”

Today, it will continue at 3 p.m. with the “WLOK Hair and Fashion Show” at the Holiday Inn at the University of Memphis.

For details, visit wlok.com/stonesoulpicnic.shtml .

And organizers of the second annual Delta Fair are hoping to be well on their way to more than 200,000 visitors this year as it continues today from noon to 10 p.m. and continues through Sept. 7. For ticket prices and other details, visit deltafest.com.

– Pamela Perkins: 529-6514

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“I just heard about it last night and I wanted to see what it’s about.”

Tara Ousley, Millington resident attending the Heritage Festival

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Delta Fair video at: http://www.commercialappeal.com/videos/ detail/delta-fair-weekend/

Delta Fair Weekend

The Delta Fair runs through September 7th at the Agricenter.

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Originally published by Pamela Perkins perkins@commercialappeal.com .

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