RiverBeat Music Fest says photo of crowd size was altered

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Organizers of the RiverBeat Music Festivals say a photograph taken of a crowd of concertgoers over the weekend was altered.

The picture was posted to Riverbeat’s social media sites and caught the attention of some, who noticed images in the picture had been repeated to make the crowd appear larger.

The photograph has since been removed from the online sites, and RiverBeat released the following statement:

“It has come to our attention that one of our photographers altered a single image of the crowd at this weekend’s Riverbeat Festival. We have been transparent about our numbers and were very pleased with the turnout of 30,000 fans for our inaugural weekend. We had no prior knowledge that this photographer altered any of the images until it was brought to our attention. We will not be working with him going forward, and the altered image has been removed from all our social media channels.”

RiverBeat attendance numbers still fell short of the Beale Street Music Festival.

In 2019, just over 107,000 people attended the Beale Street Music Festival. I n 2023, post-pandemic, the three-day Beale Street Music Festival fell to its lowest level in decades, with 37,805 in attendance.

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