COVID-19 Postpones Memphis' Beale Street Music Festival

The Memphis-based Beale Street Music Festival has been postponed due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The postponement follows orders from local government officials. Memphis in May, which hosts the festival, noted in a statement that “we have been instructed by authorities with the City of Memphis that our events cannot be held as originally scheduled in May.”

“With the health and safety of our patrons, performers, volunteer teams, judges, runners, and staff as our top priorities, we are working on a fall postponement,” organizers said.

Beale Street Music Festival was slated to take place from May 1 to 3 in Tom Lee Park. While rescheduled dates have not been confirmed at this time, organizers said they expect to have new dates for all events – including the cancelled World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, Great American River Run, and International Salute To Ghana – by March 27. They will likely take place in September or early October. Ticketholders who are unable to attend the new dates will receive information regarding refunds.

This is the latest large-scale music festival to be cancelled or postponed due to the virus; Coachella and Stagecoach have been rescheduled to October, Ultra and SXSW have been outright cancelled, and California’s BottleRock Napa Valley music festival and New Orleans Jazz Fest have been postponed. Tennessee’s Bonnaroo has also been postponed – the fest will now take place from September 24 to 27.

As of Thursday, there were 154 cases of coronavirus in the state of Tennessee, the Tennessee Department of Health reports.