World Music Picnic

My neighborhood park — Overton Park in Midtown — boasts an adorable outdoor concert venue that hosts free live shows four nights a week in the spring and fall. The Shell stage has a long Memphis history (it's actually the first stage Elvis ever played on!), and it was recently re-vamped and re-named the Levitt Shell:

Tonight, a cute world music group called Chic Gamine performed, and though we didn't know anything about the band, Stephanie (of the Poopie Bitch blog) and I saw the event as the perfect opportunity to pack a picnic. Steph brought some homemade apple-sage steamed vegan sausages with homemade buns and some tasty macaroni slaw. I provided boozy beer beans and some marinated summer tomato salad:

And of course, Steph brought one of her uber-delicious vegan cakes (this lady can bake the hell out of some cakes). Tonight's selection was a summer-y Raspberry Lime Cake with a Lime Glaze:

Here's a blogger behind-the-scenes shot of Steph taking a picture for her blog:

And here we are — me, Barbara, Vaughan, and Steph's husband Richard (a.k.a. The Brit) — before stuffing ourselves silly:

The band — Chic Gamine — turned out to be pretty awesome. It's made of up four girls and one dude from Canada, and they play a mix of American soul and gospel blended with Brazilian forro and even 1950s doo-wop. Kinda crazy, but lots of fun. Here's the band in action (check out that one chick wearing the washboard instrument!):

Anyway, there's a free concert every Thursday through Sunday at the Levitt Shell through June, so I'm sure we'll be picnicking there again very soon.