Beale Street Music Festival

The Beale Street Music Festival has been recognized by Travel + Leisure magazine as one of their “Festivals Worth Traveling For,” named one of the nation’s top music festivals by Fuse TV five years in a row, one of the World’s Top Festivals by Fest300, and listed by Forbes as one of “5 Underrated Music Festivals You Should Attend.”  Rolling Stone Magazine wrote Beale Street Music Festival “always has a full and eccentric line-up,” while the Wall Street Journal referred to the festival as “one of the largest parties in the United States, drawing people from all over the world to come experience a celebration of the birth of an expressive art form that materialized as the music of Memphis.” Having been featured on CNN and the BBC among others, and in everything from National Geographic to Playboy,­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ the 2017 Beale Street Music Festival attracted nearly 90,000 music fans to Memphis, TN from all 50 states and fourteen foreign countries.

After much anticipation and recently being once again named as one of the nation’s top music festivals in 2018 by Fuse TV, the Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival announces its 2018 lineup.  In keeping with its reputation for an eclectic mix, the forty-second annual Beale Street Music Festival presents a list of artists who run the gamut from rock, alternative, and indie to neo-soul, and hip hop, to EDM, country, and of course, the blues for which Beale Street is known.

The mainstage headliners for the 2018 Beale Street Music Festival include Jack White, Queens of the Stone Age, Odesza, Erykah Badu, Logic, Post Malone, Incubus, Alanis Morissette, and Tyler, the Creator. 

“Each year we strive to present a unique, relevant and diverse line-up that will appeal to a broad spectrum of musical tastes,” said James L. Holt, President and CEO of Memphis in May. “You will find our Beale Street Music Festival line-up features artists you won’t find at other festivals around the country, with classic favorites from the past three decades as well as today’s top stars.”

Over two dozen artists will mark their first appearance at the 2018 Beale Street Music Festival including Jack White, Queens of the Stone Age, Odesza, Erykah Badu, Post Malone, Logic, Tyler the Creator, David Byrne, Kaleo, Vance Joy, Luke Combs, Action Bronson, D.R.A.M., Dashboard Confessional, All Time Low, Margo Price, Young Dolph, Oh Wonder, MisterWives, Andrew W.K., Tank and the Bangas, Calexico, Wilderado and flor.  Festival favorites making a return to the Beale Street Music Festival line-up in 2018 include Incubus, The Flaming Lips, Ludacris, Cake, Third Eye Blind, Gov’t. Mule, Juicy J and Chevelle.  

The Blues always play prominently at the Beale Street Music Festival, and the 2018 festival is no exception, featuring Delbert McClinton, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Marcia Ball, Tommy Castro and the Painkillers, Love Light Orchestra, Eddy “the Chief” Clearwater, and R.L. Boyce among the all-star Blues line-up.

Memphis talent has a pronounced role in the 2018 Beale Street Music Festival line-up with Juicy J making a return to the festival, along with Young Dolph, Al Kapone, Valerie June, North Mississippi Allstars, Tav Falco and the Panther Burns, Tora Tora, Star & Micey, Chinese Connection Dub Embassy, Ghost Town Blues Band, Reba Russell, Blind Mississippi Morris, and Earl “the Pearl” Banks among the 60+ artists featured.

An additional highlight for 2018 is Czech rock singer and seven-time Andel Award winner Dan Barta and Illustratosphere, who will perform on Saturday, May 5, as part of the 2018 Memphis in May International Festival salute to the Czech Republic.

Tickets can be purchased through ticketfly.com and are sold in advance as three-day passes for $125 or single-day tickets for $55. A limited number of VIP passes are also available at ticketfly.com for $595 and provide access to exclusive viewing platforms near the main stages and in the Blues Tent, private “comfort station” restrooms, and light snacks and drinks (including limited alcoholic beverages) for all three days.

The festival opens to the public at 5:00 pm on Friday, May 4 and runs through Sunday, May 6. The 2018 Beale Street Music Festival is sponsored by FedEx, Bud Light and Coca-Cola.