GoElvis.com,

In the playful spirit of Elvis Week, The Edge community will present “EdgeFest: 25 years without a King” from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

The arts and auto repair district near downtown is staging the free street festival to promote itself on the coattails of the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death.

Activities will include live music, vendors of arts, crafts, food, drink and information, children’s arts and crafts and showings of a short play about Elvis at Sleeping Cat Studio, an independent theater at 655 Marshall.

Monroe will be closed from its intersection with Marshall west to Kudzu’s Bar and Deli at 603 Monroe.

Representatives of The Edge Community Association planned the festival to coincide with Elvis Week, which runs through Sunday, because of the tie-in with neighborhood landmark Sun Studio, 706 Union.

While the folks at Sun Studio weren’t able to participate in festival planning, the studio is a year-round draw for tourists.

EdgeFest wasn’t on Elvis Presley Enterprises’ long list of sanctioned Elvis Week events, which is entirely in keeping with The Edge’s independent style.

The Edge developed in the early 1900s as a hub of the city’s automobile industry, and many body shops and garages remain in operation. The neighborhood is hidden away north of Union Avenue, between AutoZone Park and the Medical Center. In recent years it’s become home to many artists, galleries and studios including Marshall Arts, 639 Marshall, and ArtFarm, 652 Marshall.

Neighborhood leaders saw the festival as an opportunity to increase The Edge’s public profile while boosting solidarity among the diverse businesses in the area.

A walking tour of neighborhood points of interest will be offered. Neighborhood galleries and studios will be open.

Stops include Sam Phillips Studio, 639 Madison; Will McGown Studios (custom furniture), 413 Monroe; International Baptist Church, 627 Monroe; Premiere Palace Ballroom, a party place in an old Hudson dealership at 629 Monroe; and Crump-Padgett Antiques, 645 Marshall, the old Chickasaw Motor Car Co. showroom and garage.

The festival will offer more than 50 booths selling local arts and crafts, festival food including Pronto Pups and funnel cakes and barbecue by the Sicilian Smokers cooking team.

Community association president Mike Todd said the Art Center donated art supplies for children’s art activities, and artist Carol DeForest is furnishing 100 tiles that will be decorated by children, then fired to make the artwork permanent.

Other attractions will include the Memphis Redbirds Redhots, a Memphis Fire Department truck and displays by the Center City Commission and Memphis Police Department.

Artist and playwright Jim Esposito, who operates Sleeping Cat Studios, has written a 25-minute original play, Conversations with Elvis, that will be presented several times during the festival.

The main sponsors are Budweiser, The Memphis Flyer and Todd’s business, Premiere Contractors.

Todd said an after-festival party at Premiere Palace Ballroom will be open to the public, free of charge for EdgeFest volunteers and probably on a donation basis for others.

The festival’s entertainment lineup will be:

– 11 a.m., Jimmy Crosthwait

– 11:30 a.m., X Radio

– 12:30 p.m., Bystanders

– 1:30 p.m., Possum Pie

– 2:30 p.m., Granola Shrapnel

– 3:30 p.m., Bob and Susie Salley

– 4:30 p.m., Gabe & Amy Show

– 5:30 p.m., Papa Top’s West Coast Turnaround

William Floyd of Profound Sound will do the sound.

More information can be found at: http://www.memphisedge.com