Who’s Ready For Mayfest?
I get so excited this time of year.
Mayfest (AKA Tulsa International Mayfest) — Tulsa’s definitive art and music festival — is one of the culturally-coolest parts of the year.
Mayfest has been running for 44 years — originally operating under the name Jubilee ’73. This awesome arts and music festival once even ran it’s schedule in the Brady District (two years in a row) and partied hard for 10 days in ’92. Can you imagine 10 days of Mayfest?
This year, Mayfest will run from May 19th to May 22nd… and you won’t want to miss any of it.
We decided to put together a short list of a few reasons why you’ll want to be in attendance before… especially if you’ve never been before!
1. The Headliners
This may seem like an obvious one to start off with, but with past headliners like the Old 97’s, Joe Diffie, Wayman Tisdale, and Hanson, we thought this would also be appropriate one to start off with.
This year, we’ll see some great headliners at Mayfest — some you’ve heard of and some you haven’t.
These include:
- Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root’s
- William Clark Green
- Stephen Neeper & The Wild Hearts
- Electric Rag Band (a personal favorite)
- Blake Pettigrove
- Sam & The Stylees
- Breaking Silence
- Dante & The Hawks
- and The Taylor Machine
William Clark Green is a new one by me, but I went ahead and looked him up. Check out this video — I think Green will be a set worth checking out at Mayfest this year:
William Clark Green – Ringling Road from Evan Kaufmann on Vimeo.
You can find check out Mayfest 2016’s music schedule over here.
2. The Stages
With three main stages this year (plus a kids’ stage), Mayfest will span a pretty good sized footprint, just like it does every year. What’s so great about this?
The streets between the stages are lined with arts, crafts, food vendors, and plain old fun people watching. Mayfest always has excellent equipment, too — good speaker systems keep the bands sounding great and the lighting setup keeps things visually interesting.
The KidZone Stage will host a whole day’s worth of music on Saturday — location to be announced later by the good crew at Mayfest.
You’ll find the other stages at Bartlett Square, 4th and Boston, and Williams Green (just on the south side of the Williams Tower.)
3. A Gorgeous Location
Downtown Tulsa — viewed from the inside — makes the head swim. Its enormity isn’t fully realized until you look north on Boston towards 2nd Street or looking up at the sheer size of the cluster of behemoths (old and new) from the Blue Dome District.
The atmosphere in itself is one of the best things about Mayfest — which I would hazard a guess that this beautiful, historic location is a major reason that Mayfest draws the numbers that it does every year.
4. Local and Up-And-Coming Talent
I always find a new local artist that I like here every year.
Though you may remember some of this year’s headliners — like Dante & The Hawks and Sam & The Stylees — from watching them gig around Tulsa over the years, you’ll want to keep an eye out for some of our favorite locals like the Steve Liddell Band, Eric Hyman, and Klondike 5.
Make sure you’re at one of the main stages Friday and Saturday evenings around sunset — you won’t be disappointed.
5. The Cost of Admission
Why is the cost of admission something to be excited about? Because — like every year — Mayfest is free.
This is one of the other reasons that Mayfest is so popular — experiencing this much good live music and art almost seems unbelievable.
6. The Food
The Tulsa State Fair has never been a “must-do” annual event for me, personally, but I do really enjoy the food. Wait — is enjoy the right word? I’ve always found the food interesting enough to try. There, that’s better.
The beauty of Mayfest is that the food vendors are numerous, relatively inexpensive, and the lines are never too bad. When I start thinking about funnel cakes while I’m at Mayfest this year, I’ll simply go buy a funnel cake.
Also — for the beer drinkers out there: beer is $4 this year. Not awfully outrageous compared to other festivals.
7. The Invitational Gallery
One of my favorite parts of Mayfest is the Invitational Gallery.
You’ll get to take a close look at the work of over one hundred of Tulsa’s best artists, spanning the full spectrum of art mediums.
This is also where they show of the year’s official Mayfest poster!
8. The Weather
Barring the chances of any unpleasant weather, one of the other great parts about Mayfest is the weather. Mid-to-late May is always a pretty time of year — and well before we get into the “dog days of summer” temperature range.
If it does happen to rain one of the evenings — as it sometimes does — Mayfest will typically pause and resume as the weather clears up… then it’s back to the party.
So, we’ll see you there?
Now the countdown begins…
We’re really looking forward to Mayfest this year and we hope we get to see your smiling faces out there this year, too!