A Memphis festival got off to a very Memphis start with the Lucky 7 Brass Band. In the wings were Odesza, Carla Thomas, Eric Gales and more.

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Riverbeat gallery: Crowds, music, lights down by the river

The City of Memphis’ proposed capital-improvement budget includes issuing $17.6 million in debt over four years for the amphitheater’s renovation. A potential big-name operator could be interested, too.

“Shrek the Musical” and “Legally Blonde” are some of the shows coming to theater stages across Memphis. Plus, a Pulitzer Prize winning comedy-drama makes its regional premiere at Circuit Playhouse.

This week, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra plays “Star Wars” tunes, Overton Park hosts a discussion on snakes and the Listening Lab celebrates a blues great’s 90th birthday. 

Pedro Velasquez joined Eric Barnes to talk about LifeDoc’s mission, his family’s journey from Venezuela to Memphis, and the organization’s evolution nearly 20 years after its founding.

Thay Floyd, who performed on Broadway in “Waitress” and “A Christmas Story,” got his start in Germantown High School fine arts department. 

How will the new Riverbeat Music Festival play out in the new Tom Lee Park, in the sound and on the ground? We’re about to find out. 

An Asian restaurant food tour, a Laotian happy hour and dinner, a night market and two art exhibitions are on the calendar for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in Memphis.

The Buckman Arts Center’s 27th season includes renowned singers, Japanese drumming, a fusion of live painting and music, contemporary dance and a live food podcast taping.

For two decades, Ann Perry Wallace collected stories of pluck and moxie about her hero. Stringing them together and performing all herself, she tells the life of Zora Neale Hurston, author of “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” 

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of women’s ordination in the Episcopal Church, Memphis is one of 11 cities nationwide selected for a one-night viewing of the new documentary “The Philadelphia Eleven.”

A crooner comes to Midtown’s Minglewood Hall, two FedExForum concert include star music acts with Memphis roots, a Black country music revue graces the Overton Park Shell and the Shell gets its first electronic-dance event.

The Tony-winning musical “Your Arms Too Short to Box with God” hasn’t been officially produced since 1982 but will return to the stage in Memphis.

This week, see Brittany Howard and Kingfish in Oxford, eat breakfast for dinner for a cause and get all the free stuff at Strangewaze Wednesdaze.

After closing her ceramics store, the head of Paper & Clay reached out to Belltower, a cafe and pottery studio, to sell her equipment — a conversation that molded into a partnership. 

Since her last Memphis-area show 18 months ago, the multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter has won a Grammy Award, headlined an international tour and hosted a fundraising concert with Jason Isbell.

The 2024 Live at the Garden lineup includes lauded rock and country acts.

For the first time in 10 years, the Africa in April Cultural Awareness Festival is extending its celebration beyond its traditional four-day schedule.

The Memphis in May event at Liberty Park will also have celebrity pitmasters doing cooking demonstrations and 129 teams from 22 states and four foreign countries competing for barbecue honors.

For the first time in a decade, a musical artist will take the stage at AutoZone Park to perform in a live full-scale production.

“Everybody got a festival celebrating their own heritage and ethnicity,” David Acey said. “So, our efforts in the early ’60s was to develop something that could get our people into their history and culture.”

Julie Pierotti, the Dixon’s Martha R. Robinson Curator, said that the show is a cross-section of art currently being made in the region.

Lonnie Robinson, one of the artists who worked on new stained-glass images for Historic Clayborn Temple, talks on the “On The Record” podcast about bringing images of the 1968 sanitation-workers strike to the landmark’s windows.

This week, 1990s hip-hop group Arrested Development headlines Africa in April, Shelby Farms Park gets a head start on Earth Day and music is back on Cooper-Young porches.

New bands performing this season are Fleetwood Mac tribute band Landslide on April 25, Grit & Grind Music Machine on May 30 and Memphis Soul Remedy on July 18.