Africa in April

[mandrws1]

While participating in the Africa in April festivities this year, I decided to take a few pictures and they turned out great so I decided to share them with my urban planet friends! I hope you enjoy....

FedEx Forum literally touches Beale Street

Peabody Place Tower

Construction of the new Westin Hotel

[Bears]

WOW!!! I use to go to Africa in April when I was younger and had a blast every time. I love festivals, espeically cultural ones in an urban enviorment. Thanks for sharing those pictures with us. After next week, the mood of downtown will change to reflect Costa Rica for Memphis in May and the Highland area will be alive with its annual Greek festival. It would've been perfect if the grizz game was at home tonight. Nice to see the westin is coming along and whats going on with the 1st Tennesse Building? Did they take down that logo too? The UP bank sign makes that building look dead.

[ricky_the_great]

it looks like they took 20 feet off the top of 1st tennessee bank building haha.

oh and im interested to know why they have little lateral support for the westin building. i figured the earthqauke code would have forced to put at least a 5 percent lateral load capability.

[Rural King]

I have to say I love these pics. They are fantastic and IMO relay the feeling of the event for those of us who were not there and of the city in general.

I have a question about the event. This year was Sierra Leone correct? Was much of the vending and food related to that nation in particular, or was it mostly a diverse offering? How was the turnout?

I was happy to see the Westin construction pics too! Its great to see another structure going up in the CBD. Now if only we can get the Vue from being a hole in the ground.......

[mandrws1]

I have to say I love these pics. They are fantastic and IMO relay the feeling of the event for those of us who were not there and of the city in general.

I have a question about the event. This year was Sierra Leone correct? Was much of the vending and food related to that nation in particular, or was it mostly a diverse offering? How was the turnout?

I was happy to see the Westin construction pics too! Its great to see another structure going up in the CBD. Now if only we can get the Vue from being a hole in the ground.......

The turnout was GREAT! In the paper today, it stated that this was the most successful Africa in April with attendance expected to hit 60,000! The vending and food was pretty diverse, not Just from Sierra Leone.

[mandrws1]

Nice to see the westin is coming along and whats going on with the 1st Tennesse Building? Did they take down that logo too?

I know that they are just wrapping up a $25 million renovation, so I'm hoping that they put an even better sign up instead of just leaving it bare.

[memphman]

Hey, I was there too! I was pleasantly surprised that it was a pretty diverse festival. People from all walks of life attended and I thought that was great.

[Fellowmann20]

Wow thats a lot of people! I wouldn't have excpected 60,000!

One question, what the heck are they doing to the 1st tennessee building??? That would be cool if they were adding on 20 more floors to the top of it, making it the tallest building in Memphis. Just a thought!

[ricky_the_great]

Wow thats a lot of people! I wouldn't have excpected 60,000!

One question, what the heck are they doing to the 1st tennessee building??? That would be cool if they were adding on 20 more floors to the top of it, making it the tallest building in Memphis. Just a thought!

theyre renovating it so that it will be class A office space

[Bears]

Here's the article about AIA

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local/...4643904,00.html

And a video of AIA (or PR video for Fedex ) that shows the event a few years back

http://www.africainapril.org/aia/photosandvideos/video.htm