It'll cost you $10 to enter Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, on Saturday nights for the time being. Following a spate of violence along the beloved thoroughfare lined with blues bars, barbecue joints, and dance clubs, the city has introduced the entrance fee as a way of keeping out underage drinkers and troublemakers. The cover charge applies only on Saturday nights after 10 p.m.—in other words, when things start getting fun. In return for paying the fee, you get a $7 voucher valid at Beale Street businesses, but if you leave the street for any reason, you'll have to pay another $10 to get back in. Presumably there's no fee for walking with your feet 10 feet off of Beale, as in the Marc Cohn song.
Officials expect the program to last into August.
