Free at the Delta Fair, a noon ballgame, and a lost Memphis soul record

Hey Memphis 👋 It's Wednesday. Sunny and 97, heat index up to 105 — the biggest number we've printed all week, and it's only Wednesday.

Today hands you two things that don't usually happen on a Wednesday: the Delta Fair opens its gates for free, and the Redbirds play at lunchtime. You can't do both. Choose carefully.

Delta Fair — Free Admission Wednesday — Agricenter International, gates at 9, midway from noon. Free at the gate. The fair's own free day: nothing to walk in, $10 to park, and $31 if you want a kid on every ride until they beg to go home. It runs through Sunday, but today is the only day the gate costs you nothing. Details

Redbirds vs. Norfolk Tides — AutoZone Park, first pitch 12:05 PM, from $9.01. A noon game on a Wednesday is the schedule handing you an excuse, and this is the last weekday matinee of the year. Nine dollars and a penny, and you're back at your desk by three. Details

WYXR Stereo Sessions: KWICK, To The Point — Memphis Listening Lab, 1350 Concourse Ave., 6–8 PM, free with an RSVP. KWICK came up out of the wreckage of Stax — same producer who rebuilt the Bar-Kays — and in 1981 put synthesizers on a Memphis groove. WYXR is playing the record start to finish on the Lab's stereo, in the city that made it. Details

Listen & Learn: guitar with Yella P — Cossitt Library, 33 S. Front St., 6–7:30 PM, free. A working Memphis guitarist teaching strangers their first chord on the second floor of a downtown library. There are a few loaner guitars, or bring your own — register, because the guitars run out before the seats do. Details

Oscar LaSell — Hi Tone, 282 N. Cleveland St., doors 7, show 8, $13.50. Downstairs in the small room, one name on the bill, 21 and up. The kind of Wednesday show you go to precisely because it's a Wednesday. Details

👶 With the kids

Toddler Storytime — Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar Ave., 10:15–11 AM, free. Forty-five minutes for the eighteen-months-to-three crowd, early enough to be finished before the day turns into an oven. Details

LEGO Club — Officer Geoffrey Redd Library, 5094 Poplar Ave., 3:30–4:30 PM, free. An hour of building at a table full of other kids, and nobody has to clean it up at your house. Details

Kaleidoscope Club — Dixon Gallery & Gardens, 4–5 PM, ages 5–9, $8 (members free). An art or garden project every week, and space is limited so you'll want to register. Worth knowing while you're there: the Dixon's front door is free now, permanently — the eight dollars is the class, not the admission. Details

The Brooks is free for the rest of the month — all of September, every gallery, no ticket. It's the museum stretching 901 Day out for Shelby County before it packs up for the move downtown. Open 10 to 4 today, which is a genuinely good idea when it's 97 outside. (via Memphis Brooks Museum of Art)

Collierville-Arlington Road is closed over the Wolf River, and it's a long one. TDOT shut the bridge Tuesday to replace it — a $16.8 million job that isn't expected to reopen to traffic until October 2027, with the rest of the work wrapping in spring 2028. A signed detour is going up. The Riverwalk Trail parking and the boat ramp are closed too, so pick another trailhead. (via TDOT)

The zoo has new tiger cubs and wants your help naming them. There's a ballot of name options and a live cub camera on the zoo's site. We'd give you more than that, but the zoo hasn't said much beyond "surprise" — so go watch the camera and vote. (via Memphis Zoo)

Food Truck Garden Party — Memphis Botanic Garden, 750 Cherry Road, 5–8 PM, free with Garden admission. Seven trucks on the lawn: 901 Eats & Treats, Mr. Casas, Snowbirds Sweets & Treats, Say Cheese, Delos Chicken and Waffles, Halinka's Polish Eatery and Sierra Squeeze. A Polish eatery parked next to a chicken-and-waffle truck is about as Memphis as an evening gets. Details

Southern Heritage Classic — Saturday. The kickoff time is finally up: 6 p.m. at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, Arkansas-Pine Bluff against Alcorn State, tickets $23, $38 and $53 before fees. The rest of the day is the real reason people go — tailgate from 8, the parade at 9 down Park Avenue from Haynes to Airways, and the Battle of the Bands at 10 at Whitehaven High, $12 ahead or $15 at the gate. Friday there's a free college and career fair at the Memphis Sports & Events Center, 8:30 to 2. Details

Cooper-Young Festival — Saturday, September 19, 9 AM to 7 PM. Ten days out, and it takes the whole neighborhood for the day. Put it on the calendar now if you had any plans to park near Cooper and Young that morning. Details

A free day at the fair means everybody is about to eat something they would never order anywhere else. So: what's your Delta Fair order? The funnel cake purist, the turkey leg loyalist, the one deep-fried thing you will defend in public to strangers. Send it over — we'll run the best answers, and we are taking this extremely seriously.

The tip line never closes — a pop-up, a band, a Wednesday we missed. No gatekeeping — send it to hey@heymemphis.co.

That's it for today — see you tomorrow at 6.

— Josh