I counted fourteen bag checks in the first ninety minutes.
That was yesterday afternoon at the south gate of Tom Lee Park, where the 2024 World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest kicked off its four-day run. The lines moved. Not fast, not slow. Steady. A rhythm of open-your-bag, quick look, wave-through that the security teams at the entrance had clearly rehearsed. By the time the first brisket hit a competition grill around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, the security apparatus around the park was already running at full capacity.
If you manage events in Memphis or contract security for large gatherings, what’s happening at Tom Lee Park right now is a live case study. More than 200 security personnel are working across overlapping shifts through Saturday, and the coordination between public agencies and private firms is the most complex the city has deployed for a non-emergency event this year.
The New Park Changes Everything
Anyone who attended the BBQ contest at the old Tom Lee Park layout remembers the headaches. Wide-open sight lines in some spots, blind corners near the old retaining walls, and crowd bottlenecks near the river overlook. The $61 million renovation that Memphis River Parks Partnership completed changed the geometry of this event.
The new layout gives security teams something they didn’t have before: controlled access points. There are now defined gates along Riverside Drive where every attendee passes through a checkpoint. The old park had stretches where people could walk in from multiple directions. That’s gone. You enter through a gate or you don’t enter.
I walked the perimeter yesterday with a retired MPD officer who now works private security (he asked me not to use his name). His assessment was blunt. “This is a different animal. The grading, the pathways, the way the elevation changes work. You can actually see your sector now.” He pointed toward the bluff overlooking the Mississippi. From the elevated sections near the playground area, you can scan the entire cooking competition zone below. That wasn’t possible before.
The sight lines matter because of crowd density. Memphis in May expects roughly 100,000 visitors across four days. On peak nights, that number compresses into a space that, while larger than the old footprint, still pushes bodies together near the main stage and along the food vendor rows closest to the river.
Who’s Working and How They’re Organized
The security operation breaks into three layers.
The outer ring is Memphis Police Department. MPD bike patrol units are running continuous loops along Riverside Drive and the paths connecting Tom Lee Park to Beale Street Landing. I counted six officers on bikes during a 30-minute stretch Thursday morning, and two patrol cars staged at the Riverside Drive entrance. MPD’s role is perimeter control and response. If something serious happens inside the park, they’re the ones who can shut down vehicle access along Riverside within minutes.
The middle layer is Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputies. They’re positioned at key intersections around the event footprint, managing traffic flow on the streets that feed into downtown from the south. The coordination between SCSO and MPD on traffic is one of the smoother joint operations I’ve seen at a Memphis event. Part of that is practice. These agencies have been working Memphis in May together for decades.
The inner layer, the one most attendees interact with, is private security. Multiple firms have personnel inside the gates. The bag check teams, the roving guards near the cooking areas, the staff monitoring the alcohol service zones. I recognized uniforms from at least three different companies, and there were plainclothes officers mixed into the crowd as well. A source familiar with the event’s security plan told me the ratio is roughly one security staffer for every 400 attendees during peak hours. During off-peak, that drops to about one per 600.
That ratio is solid for an outdoor festival. Not great. Solid. The industry standard for alcohol-serving outdoor events typically targets one per 250 to 350, depending on the risk profile. Memphis in May’s numbers fall slightly below that, which means the plainclothes presence is doing some of the heavy lifting on deterrence.
Alcohol Zones and the Staffing Math
Here’s where event security gets expensive: booze.
The BBQ contest has designated alcohol service zones, and each one needs its own dedicated security presence. Tennessee law and the event’s permits require that alcohol stays within marked boundaries. That means guards at the perimeter of each zone checking wristbands and watching for people trying to carry drinks out.
I spoke with a security supervisor working one of the beer garden areas near the north end of the park. He told me his team of four was covering an area he’d normally want six for. “We’re making it work, but it’s tight. Especially after 7 p.m. when the crowd really builds.” He estimated that the alcohol zones alone account for 30 to 40 security personnel across the event, a significant chunk of the total headcount.
This is the math that event planners and security directors wrestle with every festival season. Each alcohol zone isn’t just a revenue generator. It’s a staffing multiplier. You need perimeter control, ID verification, crowd monitoring, and incident response capability within that zone. At $18 to $25 per hour for qualified event security in Memphis, a single beer garden can cost $2,500 to $4,000 per day in guard labor alone.
What’s Working
Three things stand out through the first day and a half.
First, the gate flow. Bag checks are consistent and quick. The teams are using a visual inspection protocol, not digging through every pocket of every backpack. They’re looking for weapons, glass bottles, and prohibited items, and they’re doing it in 15 to 20 seconds per bag. That pace keeps the lines manageable even during the 5 to 7 p.m. surge.
Second, the bike patrols. MPD’s bike units are visible without being overbearing. They ride through the crowd areas, stop and talk with people, then loop back to the perimeter. It’s a community policing model adapted for festival security, and it works. The bikes can navigate paths that patrol cars can’t reach, and they project presence without the intimidation factor of tactical vehicles.
Third, communication. I watched a minor incident near the main stage Thursday evening. A verbal altercation between two groups. Within maybe 90 seconds, three private security guards and an MPD officer converged on the spot. The situation de-escalated without incident. That response time suggests the radio coordination between the private teams and law enforcement is tight. In past years, the handoff between private security and MPD was sometimes clunky. This year the transition looks smoother.
What Needs Work
The south end of the park, closest to the Memphis skyline viewing area, has a coverage gap in the early evening. Between about 5:30 and 7 p.m. yesterday, I walked through that section twice and saw one roving guard. The area gets heavy foot traffic from people walking south toward the overlook points, and the lighting in that stretch is good (another benefit of the renovation), but the staffing is thin.
Parking areas along Riverside Drive are another weak point. The lots and street parking south of the event don’t have consistent security presence after dark. A few years ago, car break-ins during Memphis in May were a regular complaint. The renovated park addressed many access and visibility issues, but the parking situation around the perimeter hasn’t changed much.
And there’s the heat factor. Today’s forecast calls for highs in the mid-80s. By Saturday, it could push 90. Security personnel working outdoor posts for 8 to 10 hour shifts in direct sun need hydration stations, rotation schedules, and shade access. I saw water coolers at two of the four gate positions. The other two had nothing visible. That’s a workforce management issue that becomes a safety issue fast in a Memphis May.
The Bigger Picture
Tom Lee Park’s renovation gave Memphis an event venue that’s genuinely better designed for crowd management than what existed before. The controlled access points, the improved sight lines, the better lighting along pathways. These aren’t cosmetic improvements. They’re force multipliers for every security team working inside that fence line.
The coordination between MPD, Shelby County, and the private firms running inner-perimeter security is tighter than I’ve seen at previous Memphis in May events. Whether that holds through Saturday night, when crowd numbers peak and the alcohol has been flowing for hours, is the real test.
If you’re in the security business and you haven’t walked this event as a professional exercise, you should. Get a ticket. Go tonight or Friday afternoon. Watch how the gates operate. Count the guards in each zone. Time the response to incidents. Tom Lee Park in mid-May is one of the best real-world classrooms for event security in the Mid-South.
The brisket is worth the trip too.