Ninety years at the Shell, the Classic on Saturday, and cumbia on the river

Hey Memphis 👋 It's Thursday. Sunny and 99, heat index up to 107 — yesterday we called 105 the biggest number of the week, and Thursday took that personally. The weather service has a Heat Advisory up from 11 this morning to 8 tonight, so if you're outdoors today, treat it like the real thing.

Big weekend ahead: the Southern Heritage Classic owns Saturday, ninety years of Memphis music get sung back on a Midtown lawn, and Friday brings a 50-50 shot at storms — starting in the morning, not waiting for the afternoon. Five things tonight, then all three days.

Booker T. Jones — Overton Park Shell, 1928 Poplar Ave., doors 6, show 7, $25 ($30 day-of). The man who wrote "Green Onions" opens the Shell's ninetieth birthday on the stage that raised him. Details

Hometown Headliners: Brian Blake — Historic Hernando Square, 7–9 PM, free. Live music under the water tower on the old courthouse square, food trucks alongside, nothing at the gate. Details

The Pit Comedy Club opens — Flyway Brewing, 598 Monroe Ave., doors 7, show 8, $20 in advance or $25 at the door. We said Tuesday tickets weren't up yet. They are now — a Comedy Cellar regular, seventy-five seats, over a brewery. Details

Star Wars, John Williams, and the Rise of Film Music Concerts — McNeill Concert Hall, Rhodes College, 5 PM, free. How a movie score became a night out at the symphony. Details

Ashton Riker & The Memphis Royals — B.B. King's Blues Club, 143 Beale St., 8 PM, $10. That ten dollars is good all day and night, so the four o'clock set is included. Details

FRIDAY

90th Shellebration: Birthday Picnic — Overton Park Shell, noon–2 PM, free. The Memphis Youth Symphony plays the Shell a happy birthday. Rain is a 50-50 call all day Friday, so bring a blanket and keep an eye on the sky. Details

Redbirds vs. Norfolk: Dolly Night — AutoZone Park, first pitch 7:05, from $9.01. Dolly cake mix to the first thousand fans, and a free bedazzle-a-butterfly-mask table behind section 106. Details

Tiger Pro Wrestling — MFS Brewing, South Main, doors 6, first bell 7, $15. A brewery turns two and builds a wrestling ring in its back lot. Details

Alvin Youngblood Hart's Muscle Theory — Hernando's Hide-A-Way, 3210 Old Hernando Rd., 8 PM, $10–$15. A Grammy winner in the juke joint where Jerry Lee Lewis used to hold court. Details

SATURDAY

Saturday stacks up badly between six and eight — the Classic, the Shell and the Orpheum all want the same evening.

Southern Heritage Classic — Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, kickoff 6 PM, $23, $38 and $53 before fees. Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Alcorn State for the thirty-seventh time — though the day starts ten hours before anybody kicks anything. Tailgating opens at 8, the parade steps off at 9 on Park, and the bands go head to head at Whitehaven High at 10 ($12, or $15 that morning). Details

90th Shellebration: Sounds of the Shell — Overton Park Shell, 7 PM, free. Will Sexton, Amy LaVere, Joe Restivo and a dozen more, walking ninety years of that stage from Pirates of Penzance to Rufus Thomas. Details

Germantown Festival — Germantown Civic Club Complex, 7745 Poplar Pike, 9:30 AM–6 PM, free. Fifty-third year, nearly 400 artists and craftsmen, and it has never charged admission. Details

8Ball & MJG and Bun B with the Renaissance Orchestra — Orpheum Theatre, 203 S. Main St., 8 PM, $99.15–$327.75. Memphis's own, plus UGK's Bun B, backed by a full orchestra. Friday sold out — Saturday is what's left. Details

Sonidero Gótico — Bar DKDC, 964 S. Cooper, 9 PM, $10, 21 and up. Cumbia, darkwave and post-punk on one floor, half the door to a local immigrant-support group. Details

SUNDAY

90th Shellebration: Memphis Studio Super-Set — Overton Park Shell, 7 PM, free. Sam Phillips Recording, Stax, Sun, American, Royal and Unapologetic on one stage. If you do one thing all weekend, do this. Details

United Festival: Cumbia en El Río — Beale Street Landing, 251 Riverside Dr., 3–8:30 PM, free. Five and a half hours of cumbia on the river, plus a dance-off and a low-rider show. Details

Redbirds vs. Norfolk, last home game of the year — AutoZone Park, first pitch 1:05, from $9.01. After this, the only baseball downtown is the playoffs they've already clinched. Details

Central Gardens Home & Garden Tour — Central Gardens, Sunday 1–6 PM, $20 in advance or $30 that day. The fiftieth year of the one afternoon the neighborhood lets you inside the houses you've only ever driven past — eight of them, with free shuttles running between. Details

Like You Children's Film Festival — Pink Palace Giant Screen Theater, 3050 Central Ave., Friday through Sunday, festival pass $60. A film festival where every film is for kids. Saturday Morning Cartoons at 10, and the first fifty get a mini box of cereal. Details

Running of the Weenies — Germantown Charity Horse Show Arena, Saturday, best-dressed at 11 and the dachshund sprint at 11:30, free to watch. The festival shuttle will carry your dog. Details

Free Family Day at Stax — Stax Museum, 926 E. McLemore Ave., Saturday 1–4 PM, free. Three hours inside Stax for nothing — normally eighteen dollars a head. Details

The Sound of Music — The Harrell Theatre, 440 W. Powell Rd., Collierville, Friday and Saturday 7:30 PM, Sunday matinee 2:30 PM, $20–$25. Collierville's community theater doing the whole Rodgers and Hammerstein thing, and no seat costs more than twenty-five dollars. Details

If the zoo was your Friday plan, move it — the Memphis Zoo closes to regular visitors all day Friday to set up for Zoo Rendezvous. The party is that night, 6:30 to 10:30, 21 and up, $200 a head, and the VIP tier has already sold out. (via Memphis Zoo)

The Pink Door is closing. After twenty-five-plus years on Poplar, everything left is on the racks until the end of the month. (via The Pink Door)

Memphis broke ground this week on the first house in the Orange Mound Community Land Trust. The city assembled twelve vacant lots to start it, and the point is keeping those homes affordable as the neighborhood grows. (via Action News 5)

The Metal Museum's new Overton Park building opens for ordinary walk-in visits Friday. Wednesday to Sunday, 11 to 5, $10 for adults — and free every Thursday for Tennessee residents, starting next week. (via Metal Museum)

Black Dining Week — through Saturday, all over town. A citywide push to spend the week eating at Black-owned Memphis restaurants, with a directory to work through. No ticket, no pass — just go eat. Details

A note from Hey Memphis

Want to support Hey Memphis? We're booking sponsored spots. We started this to put Memphis things in front of Memphis people, and we think your business deserves that chance too. See how a spot works →

Gonerfest 23 — September 24–27, Wiseacre's Broad Avenue taproom. Thirty-plus bands over four days, Golden Pass on sale now. Details

Mid-South Fair — October 1–11 at the Landers Center in Southaven. Buy early if you're going: $8 through September 20, then $10, then $15 at the gate. Details

Ninety years is a lot of Overton Park Shell. Elvis played his first paid show on that stage in 1954, and plenty of you have your own night out there — a first date, a band you'd never heard of, a thunderstorm that turned up anyway. Send us the one you still tell people about.

Got a photo from a Shell night? Send that too — we'd love to run a few.

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

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

— Josh