Down on Main Street

The Downtown Tupelo Main Street Association announced Down on Main Street, a new free music event in Fairpark. Down on Main Street will be held Thursday, July 16 at 6:30 pm.
The Downtown Tupelo Main Street Association’s promotions committee and Quality of Life each began working on a free event in Fairpark. The groups merged in April to form a new committee with the goal to enhance the quality of life in Tupelo and bring more visitors to the downtown area.
“We are constantly looking for great, new ideas to help make downtown and Tupelo a great place to be,” said Debbie Brangenberg, director the Main Street program. “This committee is very passionate about this event and has worked very hard to make this possible for our community.”
Down on Main Street has received $15,000 from the Quality of Life committee for the July event. The Quality of Life is a subcommittee of the Planning Department. They receive funding through Tupelo Water and Light’s round-up program, Tupelo residents can choose to have their utility bill rounded up to the nearest dollar to support the committee. The $15,000 was approved by the committee for Down on Main Street at their June meeting.
“We appreciate the committee’s faith in our event and look forward to working with them on this project,” said Brangenberg.
The Down on Main Street committee plans to make this event a three part series with the next two concerts scheduled for August 20 and September 17. These events are tentative and contingent upon funding. For more information on the event or how to donate, contact the Downtown Tupelo Main Street Association at 841-6598.

Tupelo Challenge

One of our wonderful local retail merchants Barbara Fleishhacker found the 3/50 project on the Southern Accents Miss Gracious Living's website. It tells us to think about our three favorite independently owned business and then think about how we would feel if they were gone. It challeges you to visit these stores and spend $50 in each store every month. If half of our city's population would spend $50 in their three favorite stores, we would generate $2,704,350.00 this month alone. Over the course of a year that would be $32,452,200.00.

Ok so how is that different than spending that money in national chain businesses or online? Sixty-eight percent of that revenue stays in Tupelo through taxes, payroll and other expenditures. Only 48 percent stays in Tupelo when we spend it with other businesses. Think about it. So get downtown! Let us show you our businesses are up to the challenge.

For more information on the 3/50 project, contact us at 662-841-6598 or go to http://mrsblandings.blogspot.com/2009/05/350-project.html.

Elvis on Broadway

During the Tupelo Elvis Festival, the King will have a new place to dwell. The Lyric Theatre and Broadway Street in historic downtown Tupelo is being dubbed “All Elvis, All the Time.” With 24 Elvis tribute artists competing in the 2009 Ultimate Elvis® Tribute Artist Competition, fans can sit back and enjoy all the great eras of Elvis. Outside the Lyric tribute artists will meet and greet with fans in between the three rounds of competition. Music will fill the streets throughout the weekend on the free stage with some time for open mic. Other great activities during the weekend are the Elvis Parade, the Elvis-Look-A-Like Parade and the Ladybug's Children's Activities on North Spring Street where youth tribute artists Demi Downing and Nick Gutierrez will headline. Elvis merchandise will be available for purchase to help attendees commemorate the fun-filled weekend. Join us in celebrating Tupelo's favorite son!

2009 Tupelo Elvis Festival

The Tupelo Elvis Festival will be held June 5-7 in Tupelo Mississippi. We are pleased to announce the following entertainers for this year's Fairpark line-up. Headliners are Lucero and Jason Michael Caroll.

Shagadoo, Jamie Davis & Soul Gravy, AllyeriA, Busted Screen Door, Spunk Monkees, The House Rockers, Antioch Road, Drew Chapman, John Milstead, Tatum Shappley, Kevin & Bethany Paige Band, and Steven Floyd and Shane Rowe!

The Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Competition, a special Friday night concert with Travis Ledoyt, and the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Finals featuring Victor Trevino, Shawn Klush and Donny Edwards will be held at the Lyric Theatre.

The Ladybug's Children's Activities will be held Saturday, June 6. Headliners are Demi Downing and Nick Gutierrez. Free and open to the public!

Tickets are on sale at http://www.tupeloelvisfestival.com/. We hope you can make it to the 11th annual Tupelo Elvis Festival!

Downtown Give-Away

Here's what's going on in downtown Tupelo. Fifteen merchants and restaurant owners are working together to show their appreciation for their customers and to encourage others to try shopping and dining downtown. The Big Downtown Give Away will begin April 1 and end June 5. Each business is offering a prize worth $50 or more in value.

The participating businesses are: Beauty Motif, Boondocks, Bar-B-Que by Jim, Fairpark Grill, Hilton Garden Inn Great American Grill, Kirksey Brothers, Ladybug's, Main Attraction, MLM Clothiers, Monogram It!, Park Heights, Omi Boutique, Reeds Department Store, Sprint Print, Swirlz, Tupelo Hardware.

The 15 winners will be announced at the Fairpark stage during the Tupelo Elvis Festival Saturday, June 6.