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This year gave us music, fashion and art, with new events and parties cropping up and institutions pivoting in response to funding changes.
So what can we expect for 2026?
A host of museums and venues opening, big anniversaries and entertainers ready to take the stage.
Anniversaries
It’s a year of landmark birthdays. Time marches on and we all get a little older. Even if you’re a theater or an art gallery.
 Hattiloo Theatre founder and CEO Ekundayo Bandele (right) stars as Ulysses Lincoln in "Black Odyssey" in February 2025. (Marlinda Shorter/Unspeakable Joy Photography)
Collage Dance Collective
Collage Dance Collective is celebrating two decades of supporting diversity in dance. Its season returns in 2026 with “Rise.” The program includes three shows: “The Cotillion,” a ballet inspired by the legacy of Black cotillions in the South, “Flack,” which is set to the music of the late Roberta Flack and “Rise,” Kevin Thomas’ ballet set to Martin Luther King Jr.‘s “Mountaintop” speech.
Hattiloo Theatre
Ekundayo Bandele founded Hattiloo Theatre in 2006 and named it after his two daughters. Now, the area’s only freestanding Black repertory theater is turning 20 years old. “Dreamgirls” kicks off the theater’s 2026 productions. The theater will end the season with “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” an August Wilson play. And anything by August Wilson is worth seeing.
National Civil Rights Museum
Jan. 19 will mark the 40th year of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday. To honor the anniversary, the National Civil Rights Museum, which turns 35 itself, is hosting a day-long celebration, which includes choir performances, a blood donation and food drive, collaborative art and more.
Ballet Memphis
Ballet Memphis is celebrating its 40th. The company’s 2025-26 season continues Feb. 13 with its “Winter Mix” production and ends in April with “Romeo & Juliet.”
 More than half a million tulips will bloom across the Dixon Gallery and Gardens grounds during the 2026 spring season. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)
Dixon Gallery & Gardens
The Dixon Gallery & Gardens is having its 50th birthday this year and, in addition to celebratory anniversary parties and garden soirees, there will be “anniversary flair” splashed into your favorite Dixon events.
Opera Memphis
Opera Memphis enters its 70th year in 2026. Its 2025-26 season returns Jan. 23 with “The Barber of Seville” and ends in June with “Sweeney Todd.” For those playing at home, that’s two barbers with two very different vibes.
Overton Park Shell
Throughout its history, the Overton Park Shell has seen music legends like Johnny Cash, Booker T. & the MGs, Isaac Hayes, Mavis Staples, Sid Selvidge and the debut of Elvis Presley. This year, everyone’s favorite open-air amphitheater and museum turns 90. No anniversary events have been announced just yet, but one date is already on our calendar: Shell Daze Music Festival in April. The two-day event features Trampled by Turtles, Molly Tuttle, Greensky Bluegrass and more.
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Openings
For other organizations, this year will mark beginnings and expansions. Several museums and venues will be opening in 2026, so you will get plenty of use out of your “grand opening” outfit.
 The front entrance portal of Baron Von Opperbean and the River of Time. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)
Baron Von Opperbean and the River of Time
Portals to parallel universes are sprouting up at Mud Island in 2026. Baron Von Opperbean and the River of Time will open March 7. Created by Memphis artist Christopher Reyes, BVO is an “immersive adventure that fuses the exploration of an open-world video game with the storytelling of a choose-your-own-adventure book.” It’s a captivating experience that will launch you through space and time using a portal-jumping riverboat. Which is certainly a first for the Mississippi River.
Grind City Amp at Grind City Brewing
The first concert at the new Grind City Amp will be April 22 (more on that in a second). The concert venue will take over some of the sprawling land at Grind City Brewing in Uptown Memphis. Having hosted a handful of music festivals before, brewery president and founder Hopper Seely hopes the new venue will grow to have 16-18 shows a year — shows that will come with one of the best views of Downtown Memphis.
 Madison Miller, director of development and communications at Metal Museum, gives a tour of what will be the home for the Metal Museum at Overton Park. (Brad Vest/Special to The Daily Memphian)
Metal Museum
The Metal Museum expansion in Overton Park is set to open Sept. 5. The takeover of the former Memphis College of Art space is a project that will give the museum more — more exhibit space, more storage space, more educational space, more library space and more office space. There will also be a larger gift shop, a cafe/restaurant, a public-events space, a 350-seat auditorium, a blacksmith/foundry space, an outdoor sculpture garden, extensive landscaping and, well, much more. All this comes with a complete restoration of Rust Hall. And here’s where I insert my joke about putting the Metal Museum in Rust Hall.
Satellite Music Hall
A new live music venue is slated to open in fall 2026 near Crosstown Concourse. Named the Satellite Music Hall, a wink to the original name of Stax Records (Satellite Record Shop), the venue is a collaboration between Live Nation and Crosstown Concourse. With a 1,300-person capacity, it’s expected to host about 100 events annually. Its location on North Claybrook Street means you’ll be able to grab drinks and dinner at the Concourse before your show.
Memphis Art Museum
The Memphis Art Museum is scheduled to open in December as the next iteration of the Brooks Museum. The new building will give the museum 50% more gallery space and a 10,000-square-foot street-level courtyard and a 50,000-square-foot sculpture garden with a Mississippi River view. The new facility will also include a plaza shared with the Cossitt Library, which will house classrooms, galleries, a restaurant and cafe, and a theater on the ground floor.
Live music and comedy
There is no shortage of live music and comedy performances to catch this year, but there are some details and dates we’ll have to wait and see about.
 Fans listen to Anderson .Paak perform during the final day of the Riverbeat Music Festival on May 4, 2025. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)
The Live at the Garden concert series and Riverbeat Music Fest are expected to be back this year. But the real question remains: Will there be a Beale Street Music Festival in 2026? I wish I had an answer for you, but Memphis in May hasn’t responded to our questions about it. However, dear reader, I will remind you that officials were planning for a 2026 return when they canceled this year’s festival.
Legendary rock band Journey’s Farewell Tour comes to FedExForum on March 21, giving locals, both old and old at heart, a chance to say goodbye before the band members go their “Separate Ways.”
Jason Isbell, a six-time Grammy winner, will be back in Memphis for a March 27 performance at the Orpheum Theatre. Not too long ago, the University of Memphis alumnus was in town to speak at the Springfield Lecture Series at Rhodes College. Critical listening includes, but is not limited to: “Cover Me Up,” “Elephant” and “Cast Iron Skillet.”
Country music star Riley Green will be at the Landers Center on April 16 during his Cowboy As It Gets Tour. While I can’t say I am that familiar with him, my baby sister (who very well could be Riley Green’s No. 1 fan) would say, “Well, Kelsey, he didn’t win three Country Music Awards for nothing.” And she’d be right! Bonus: This year, Mr. Duckman (if you know, you know) launched his new bourbon — created in conjunction with Memphian McCauley Williams and Morningside Brands.
Remember Grind City Amp’s opening? Grammy Award-winning blues-rock band Alabama Shakes will be the amphiteater’s first concert on April 22, with opening act Chattanooga-based indie folk artist Mon Rovia. The band has returned with new music and a new tour after going on hiatus in 2018. Alabama Shakes’ last album, “Sound and Color” (you’ve heard of it), was more than a decade ago. Critical listening includes but is not limited to: “Hold On,” “Gimme All Your Love” and, of course, “Sound and Color.”
Plus, there’s a whole gaggle of giggles headed our way. A handful of comedians will be in Memphis for some much-needed laughs:
John Mulaney at Graceland Soundstage on Feb. 12, Katt Williams at FedExForum on March 6, Nashville native Nate Bargatze at FedExForum on March 26 and Jeff Dunham at FedExForum on April 10.
Cheers to the arts!
I hope you were taking notes — on your calendar at least. Next year should have enough hub and bub to keep your plate full and your senses satisfied.
Tell us if there’s anything we missed or what you’re most excited for in 2026.
And happy new year from us at The Daily Memphian!
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