South Main celebration

Expanded Riverartsfest promises to be ‘a great party’

A vortex of art, music and food converges this weekend for RiverArtsFest, the end-of-October event that last year brought some 80,000 visitors to South Main.

Now in its sixth year, the festival expands from two days to three by starting Friday in conjunction with the monthly last-Friday South Main Art Trolley Tour, in what Lee Askew, one of the festival’s perennial organizers, promises will be “a great party.”

Another new feature: an admission fee. On Friday, the festival is free, but on Saturday and Sunday, admission is $5, with a two-hour window on Sunday for free admission; children 10 and younger get in free.

“We talked about the issue extensively,” said Askew, “and we had to acknowledge that everything is going up in price. This is an all-volunteer group, but this year we’re spending $32,000 to get the word out in billboards and other forms of advertising. Security costs $25,000. The cost of cleaning up the street has increased.

“When you count renting the stages and setting up and the electronics and paying the musicians, that’s all about $20,000. Those costs have to be offset, or it’s curtains for the festival.”

So while Friday’s 6 to 9 Trolley Tour and festival Artist Market require no admission, the $5 fee applies Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.; there is no entry fee Sunday from 10 a.m. until noon. South Main residents and businesses will receive identifying wristbands.

Also Friday is the RiverArtsFest Preview Party, at 431 S. Main, featuring a wine tasting, food, music and other entertainment. Tickets are $25 and include the preview party as well as a weekend pass for the festival.

This year’s RiverArtsFest includes an expanded artist market with more than 170 artists and craftsmen from across the country who will present works for sale in painting, photography, ceramics, jewelry, glass, toys and other mediums, fashions and functions.

About 45 musicians and groups will perform on the festival’s three stages, representing a wide range of styles and musical forms.

“We partner with a number of organizations,” said Catrina Guttery, director of artist relations and business manager for the Memphis Music Foundation, “like the Memphis Songwriters Association, NeoSoulsville and Shangri-La, and we work with them to organize and book the stages.”

The stages — the Memphis Music Foundation Stage at the Civil Rights Museum Plaza, the G.E. Patterson Stage and the Far End Stage-Central Station — don’t necessarily have unified themes, Guttery said.

“We want to make sure that there’s a diversity of groups and types of music. And we make sure that the bands who are performing take this as an opportunity to sell merchandise,