With the autumnal weekend of its flagship Mempho Music Festival drawing inexorably closer, Mempho Presents has announced who will be taking to the stage at the Memphis Botanic Garden on October 9–11. It will begin with a decidedly futuristic turn, as electronic pioneer Pretty Lights headlines on Friday. Rick Rubin once dubbed Derek Vincent Smith, aka Pretty Lights, “the face and voice of the new American electronic music scene,” and it’s still true a dozen years later.
Then, as has become a kind of Mempho tradition, get ready for a two-night headline run by Widespread Panic. For whatever reason, Memphis and Panic just go hand in hand, as Mid-South fans throng to their magnetic improvisational chops. This year is sure to be no different.
“We set out every year to build a lineup that crosses genres the way Memphis always
has,” said Mempho Presents producer Jeff Bransford. “This lineup has something for
everyone, and that’s what Mempho is all about — bringing fans together around great
music.”
The genre-jumping has indeed been exuberant in every Mempho fest so far, and this year’s no different. What other festival could boast a lineup as eclectic as Spoon, Gary Clark Jr., Ziggy Marley, STS9, Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs, De La Soul, Broken Social Scene, JJ Grey & Mofro, and Fishbone?
Additional performers across the festival’s three stages will feature a few local heroes, including trailblazing bassist MonoNeon, Devil Train, Zoë Dominguez, and Degenerate Breakfast. Maggie Rose, Dumpstaphunk, Sierra Hull, the Randall Bramblett Band, and a special guest appearance by legendary keyboardist Chuck Leavell are among the other musical delights planned.
With an eye toward helping “Memphis nonprofits,” the festival will once again host a Charity Auction in partnership with the nonprofit Positive Legacy, with fans bidding on autographed memorabilia, rare merchandise, show tickets, and “artist experiences.”
This year, Mempho introduces two “elevated” ticket options: GA+, a centrally
located private hangout with upgraded comforts and amenities, and Platinum, a limited
run of luxury suite-level passes at the Main Stage. Meanwhile, the festival’s usual VIP experience is still an option.
Three-day and single-day tickets are now on sale for the Mempho Music Festival, with three-day General Admission passes at $269, three-day GA+ passes at $399, three-day VIP passes at $859 and three-day Platinum passes at $2,200; single-day General Admission passes at $139, single-day GA+ passes at $179, single-day VIP passes at $329 and single-day Platinum passes at $900. Feeling like you might need to take out a mortgage on your home? Wait! Payment plans are also available, letting fans secure passes with a deposit and pay the balance in installments. Visit memphofest.com for details.
