Happy 200th birthday, Memphis! You can bet we’re gonna celebrate all year long, but if you can only visit once, consider the month of May. That’s when we’ll hold our annual, month-long Memphis in May celebration—only this year, we’re doing something a little different. Rather than designating a country to honor, we’re celebrating the city of Memphis for the first time ever. The crowning event will be Celebrate Memphis, May 25, 2019. Expect a party feting our heritage and a new century of soul to come. 

The Mighty Lights dynamic light shows now take place every hour on the hour after sundown on Big River Crossing. In October, the hourly shows will grow to incorporate the Hernando de Soto’s new installation. Mighty Lights, which can introduce millions of dynamic colors and pattern designs, will synchronize and coordinate the Hernando de Soto bridge and Big River Crossing lighting to achieve dramatic effects that bookend the Mississippi River and highlight the entire riverfront in between.

This innovative green space is the first big reveal in a new campaign to amp up Memphis’ riverfront. Visit to check out native meadow plantings that change with the season. Claim a hangout that channels a life-sized bird nest. Climb through a tunnel and cross a bridge made of rope. Chill in an elevated treehouse for one-of-a-kind river views. Connect to the new River Line pedestrian/cycle trail to see what else is developing along Memphis’ riverfront. And watch for pop-up events like weekend board games and seasonal Firepit Fridays. 

During Women’s History Month in March, the Memphis Women’s History Trail will be unveiled. Follow it across the city to celebrate Memphis women who led the way in fields from entertainment to social justice—an app, website and print guide are in development to help you find your way. You’ll discover Memphis landmarks from Elmwood Cemetery, where pioneering suffragists are buried, to Beale Street, where historic markers illuminate the legacies of trailblazers including Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who courageously confronted racism as a journalist in 19th-century Memphis.

Memphis’ “vertical urban village” won another award at the close of 2018—from the National Trust for Historic Preservation—but Crosstown Concourse has no plans to rest on its laurels. Catch performing arts, live music and film in Crosstown’s new “Doll House” theater. Experience an intimate performance inside the recently revealed Green Room, a state-of-the-art audio/visual space tucked inside Crosstown’s historic halls. And with a recent wave of food-and-drink additions, Crosstown ensures you’ll have your pick of artisan cocktails, craft beer and culinary delights. Experience a cynosure of entertainment, diversity, and community with the mixed-use redevelopment of a former Sears building. The largest building in Memphis at 650,000 square feet, you'll find new restaurants, Crosstown Brewing Co., a juice bar, a nail salon, ice cream parlor, free art gallery, a 500-seat theatre, special events and more in this urban village.

At Crosstown Concourse alone, you’ll find six new spots to try: Do craft cocktails at Art Bar. Taste your way through plant-based Today & Always or Global Café, an international food hall where you might choose Nepalese dumplings or Syrian stuffed grape leaves. Choose Elemento’s Neopolitan for authentic Neopolitan pizza; Saucy Chicken for tenders, wings and sandwiches. For dessert, it has to be Lucy J’s. And you’ll find plenty of new concepts in other parts of the city too, from picture-perfect macarons to wood-fired oysters

The tournament is officially known as the World Golf Classic FedEx St. Jude Invitational, but all you need to know is this: The world’s very best golfers are coming to Memphis July 24-28, 2019. (A little sports trivia for you: The PGA has actually played annually in Memphis since 1958, but they’re upping their game in 2019 by bringing the WGC.) 

Electric scooters promote the greater good—improving traffic, lessening air pollution—but let’s be honest: They’re also a ton of fun. To ride, download the app and grab a scooter. (The app can also tell you where to find a scooter if you’re unsure.) Then scan the QR code on your scooter and go! When you’ve reached your destination, park properly and snap a photo with the app to end your session. It’s easy and breezy wherever you’re zipping around town. Just bring your own helmet, mkay? These aren’t provided with your rental.

You might not immediately realize it when you’re standing outside of Memphis’ legendary Sun Studio, but the neighborhood—known as The Edge District—was once a hub for everything automotive in Memphis. To illuminate this heritage, a new automobile museum will repurpose a 1925 building, once a car showroom and assembly shop. Seems like the perfect add-on to any visit to Sun Studio, just 600 feet away. 

The vintage trolleys are back on track in Downtown Memphis on Main Street and soon will be coming back to the River Line. Hop aboard an authentic, vintage trolley car and glide through historic Downtown Memphis for only $1 a ride and $3.50 for a day pass. The clickety-clack of the track is just like going back in time.

Keep an eye on the gorgeous historic building at the corner of South Main Street and GE Patterson. Once a bustling railroad depot, Central Station will debut its second act in 2019. Enjoy a movie in the theater (tricked out with electric recliners and a rooftop screening area) and watch as other projects develop, including a restaurant, boutique hotel and retail all within Memphis’ vibrant South Main Historic Arts District.

After a two-year renovation, Memphis’ Pink Palace Museum has re-opened with new and improved exhibits. Enjoy a reconstructed replica of the original Piggly Wiggly, a restored Clyde Park Miniature Circus and newly opened areas of the mansion not accessible for 40 years. As a hub for Memphis history, you can bet the Pink Palace is celebrating the city’s bicentennial in a big way, too: Visit in March for the debut of Making Memphis: 200 Years of Community, an exhibit featuring oral histories and artifacts from Memphians capturing the past, present and future of our storied city. 

When the United Soccer League (USL) announced it was bringing professional soccer to Memphis, a sellout crowd gathered to celebrate. The venue was AutoZone Park, now home to the AAA Memphis Redbirds and Memphis 901 FC, the city’s brand-new USL soccer team. The team plays its inaugural game in March as part of a network of 10 Southern teams. 

Our bluffs are beautiful but if you want to climb something in Memphis, make it one of our new climbing gyms. Memphis Rox was the first to open—across the street from the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, no less—and its pay-what-you-can model and emphasis on bouldering walls set it apart. Brand-new High Point Climbing, featuring an outdoor climbing wall, a generous line-up of auto-belay routes and a kids zone, claims the title of the largest climbing gym in Tennessee.   

Skateboarding advocates have been hard at work developing an indoor skatepark for Memphis. And not just any skatepark, but a 10,000-square-foot wonderland with a skate shop and coffee lounge. Find it in the Broad Avenue Arts District.