11 Facts About Carnival Memphis

Carnival Memphis, is a series of parties and festivals staged annually since 1931 in Memphis, Tennessee by the centralized Carnival Memphis Association and its member krewes during the month of June.

The twelve Grand Krewes that Carnival Memphis recognizes are the Mystic Society of the Memphi, Osiris, Sphinx, RaMet, Ennead, Phoenix, Aani, Ptolemy, Kemet Jubilee, Ptah, Luxor, Queen Bees.

Year, 1872, the city of Memphis celebrated Mardi Gras and Carnival in keeping with the traditional Christian liturgical calendar just before the season of Lent, as still enjoyed in cities such as New Orleans, Louisiana, Mobile, Alabama, Galveston, Texas, Venice, Italy and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Sadly, and not long after, Carnival Memphis experienced a yellow fever epidemic that along with cholera wiped out much of the city's population.

Fanfare and excitement that centered around the Cotton Carnival Memphis climaxed throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century.

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The Memphis Cotton Carnival Association had become a very centralized governing body, which along with the participating krewes, was becoming a festival that could not be rivaled anywhere in the South except New Orleans' Mardi Gras.

The organization sited this was done because the community had grown in such tremendous ways, and that the Carnival Memphis economy had become more diversified and no longer centered exclusively around cotton.

Years, the Cotton Carnival Memphis was, though not officially, for all intents and purposes for whites only.

However, as Carnival Memphis officials grew more and more aware about certain negative issues surrounding the event and its severely declining reputation, they began actually implementing steps over the years to bring outsiders into their realm.

Also, Carnival Memphis has begun selecting local charities and organizing special events just for Carnival Memphis krewes, with each charity receiving a monetary donation.

Seventy-four years later, the mission of Carnival remains much the same as it was in 1931-to recognize and promote an industry that has a major economic impact on the Mid-South community, and to promote the City of Memphis as a great place to live and work, and to cause an annual celebration in honor of that industry and the people of the Mid-South.