MEMPHIS IN MAY. From MEMPHIS DOWNTOWNER, May, 2007.

Something changes in the city when the clock hits 12:01 a.m. every May 1.

The trees have turned mostly green but still have a little bit of filling out to do. The wettest month of the year is over, and our hot, humid summers still have not begun their annual oppression — probably something songwriter Hoagy Carmichael did not consider when he wrote his 1945 song “Memphis in June.”

Back in 1931, Memphis held its first Cotton Carnival in March to promote business and the use of cotton. It can get cold in March, so it was switched to May, setting in motion a chain of events that would give us today’s Memphis in May International Festival.

In 1970, the Chamber of Commerce first applied the phrase “Memphis in May” to encompass several random events happening that month. But what we now know as Memphis in May really took root in 1977, when Memphis in May president Lyman Aldrich and a group of creative and diverse citizens decided it was time to transform what was then little more than a concept into a meaningful reality.

That year, Memphis attorney Irvin Salky orchestrated his brainchild, and the first Beale Street Music Festival took the stage on Beale Street — never mind that at the time, all the buildings on that street where chain-linked except Abe Schwab's — and the Sunset Symphony played on an unsheltered stage on a glorious evening to an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 music lovers.

Also that year, Jack Powell and Rodney Baber smoked up the idea for a barbecue contest — which debuted the following year with 18 teams in the dirt parking lot north of the Orpheum Theatre. Bessie Louise Cathey flashed a huge smile for a photo when she became the contest's first winner.

And the festival, in 1977, began the tradition of honoring a different country each year. Well, sort of. Two countries have been honored twice: Japan in 1977 and 1986, and the Netherlands in 1982 and 2001. In 1996, to celebrate 20 years of honored countries, they elected to honor all of the previous nations. Over the years, this component has brought cultural exchanges to the city. Court Square became a Japanese Tea Garden one year. If Memphis feels just a little bit Spanish this month, you'll know why.

Some smaller — some may say quirky — events have been part of the festivities. Someone is probably still beaming after seeing a favorite dog, cat, or none of the above win the 1978 Pet Parade in Overton Park. Visitors to the Hickory Ridge Mall in 1985 could see a photo exhibit of famous Australian inventors. Did anyone catch the 2001 exhibit at Mud Island on flood control in the Netherlands? And in 1984, and for a few years afterwards, an event in Tom Lee Park tried to create the World’s Largest Aerobics Class. If the event reached that mark, a pair of those cable knit leg warmers and headbands may be pieces of Memphis history.

But new traditions have joined the old in the month of May. In 1979, area waiters and waitresses first sloshed through The Great Wine Race, and the Outdoors Inc. Canoe and Kayak Race paddled out in 1982 and is now the largest in the Southeast. Since 1983, the Memphis in May Triathlon has brought in multisport enthusiasts from across the country.

Although the economic impact of Memphis in May is more than $30 million, it took until 1990 for the <<Guinness Book of World Records>> to recognize the barbecue contest as the largest on the planet. The music festival has grown to be the largest in the city. And on the last weekend of all things Memphis in May, tens of thousands head to Tom Lee Park for the Sunset Symphony to give a crescendo farewell. At the first symphony 30 years ago, explosions supplemented the <<1812 Overture>>. The crowd yelled, “Do it again!”

They did. And they will.

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