When the Beale Street Music Festival opens its gate Friday evening, Dale and Carlene Dockus will be among the first arrivals. They’ve made the annual pilgrimage from distant Cordova for about 15 years. They stay Downtown the entire weekend. They get around by trolley. (”After all the beer, don’t want to be driving,” Dale says.)

To say they plan for every kind of weather is an understatement. See, Dale works in the FedEx Meteorology Department. In the words of Bob Dylan, one of his favorite MIM headliners of the past, “he don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

Troubling news: he’ll be wearing rain gear Friday night. “Some of the (weather prediction) models are saying it’s going to be a little stormy Friday night,” he said, “as in a severe thunderstorm watch. We’re hoping it hits early.”

For foul weather occasions, he and his wife just wear their lawn-mowing and gardening sneakers. It doesn’t matter if they get wet — they keep several pairs back in the hotel room.

We’re on it.

And no matter what happens this weekend, we’ll be there, too. The Commercial Appeal has raided the newsroom for its mavens of music and masochists of mud. Check out pop music critic Bob Mehr’s overview of the festival in Friday’s Playbook, with a park map and complete schedule of acts.

Party line columnist Michael Donahue will feature in a quirky online photo game, updated regularly: “Where’s Donahue?” See if you can spot Memphis’ most hirsute party-goer as he makes his way through the crowds. TRY IT OUT. You might even spot yourself. Better wear something funky.

Video correspondent Jon W. Sparks and Appeal TV creators Dennis Copeland and Lacey Winters will be scouring Tom Lee Park for moments of breathless cinema and general insanity. Free your inner celebrity.

Moonlighters Christopher Blank (our theater critic), John Beifuss (our movie critic) and Mark Jordan (our intrepid correspondent) will be hugging the speakers for up-to-the-minute updates and commentary from various stages around Tom Lee Park.

Our bloggers Bret Weaver, Lindsey Turner and Mark Richens will be posting numerous photos and descriptions of all the crazy stuff people do.

And there are even a few special guests. (We’re really pulling teeth to get people out of the office for three exciting days of music and partying!)

Shout out!

Be sure to visit often, share experiences, and steal our thunder if you can. It’s Memphis in May. And that means, it’s time to rock.