Carnival Memphis

Carnival Memphis (formerly known as the Memphis Cotton Carnival), is a series of parties and festivities staged annually since 1931 in Memphis, Tennessee by the centralized Carnival Memphis Association and its member krewes (similar to that of Mardi Gras) during the month of June. Carnival salutes various aspects of Memphis and its industries, and is reigned over by the current year's secretly selected King, Queen, and Royal Court of Carnival.

The Royal Court is made up of young women from Memphis (princesses), mostly around the age of nineteen, typically having completed their first-year of study in college, and their escorts. Members of the Court not from the city of Memphis are known as "Ladies of the Realm." Members of the Court sometimes carry special titles such as the "King's Princess," in which she is selected by the King himself to bear this title, as is a "Queen's Princess," a "President's Princess", and princesses representing various social clubs in Memphis, such as the "Princess of the Memphis Country Club" or the various krewes within Carnival. The male escort of the princess representing the various social clubs normally bears the masculine form of the title as well, making one in this instance be the "Prince of the University Club." The Queen is a young woman who is at least a few years older than the court, typically being the age one would be having finished two to three years in college. The King is traditionally much older than the court, and is a prominent leader from the current year's saluted industry. "Carnival" is usually held during the first week of June, commencing the Friday after Memorial Day, beginning with the Crown & Sceptre Ball and ending with the Grand Carnival Ball. During this time the Grand Krewes of Carnival also hold their own events and parties celebrating their King, Queen and Court, along with the entire revelers of Carnival Memphis.

Carnival Memphis is put on by the Carnival Memphis Association, which is governed by a Board of Directors, (vacancies are filled by the other members of the Board), a President (elected annually by the Board members), and an Executive Director, who manages the daily aspects of the association.

The Carnival Memphis Association organizes, plans, budgets, and promotes the King, Queen, and Royal Court, as well as many of the events staged during Carnival week. However, the Grand Krewes (once known as secret societies) also stage their own festivities throughout the year, elect their own royalty, manage their own budget, and have their own membership requirements. Most of these organizations bear Egyptian names in accordance to tradition originally set out by the Mystic Memphi, and in conjunction with Memphis being the sister city of ancient Memphis, Egypt. The twelve Grand Krewes that Carnival Memphis recognizes are the Mystic Society of the Memphi, Osiris, Sphinx, RaMet, Ennead, Phoenix, Aani, Ptolemy, Kemet Jubilee, Ptah, Luxor, Queen Bees. The Secret Order of the Boll Weevils is a support group of Carnival that is not a Grand Krewe. The Grand Krewes of Memphi, Osiris, RaMet and Sphinx are "old-line" Grand Krewes and were all started in the 1930s as the original secret societies of the Memphis Cotton Carnival. However, Memphi considers its history traceable to the 1870s as the original promoters of the Memphis Mardi Gras, although it became defunct during the time that span between the last Mardi Gras and its restoration as a Cotton Carnival secret society. Membership requirements and financial commitments are normally more complex when one wishes to join one of the older krewes, as compared to the newer krewes, that may have little or no membership process. Memphi and Osiris are all-male organizations, with some exceptions. Memphi allows their past queens to become members after their reign, following their belief that "once a Queen, always a Queen!."

...
Wikipedia