# Grind City Meet 2026

> 10-year anniversary photographer's walk through downtown Memphis. Sunday, May 3, 2026 at 5:30 PM CDT, hosted at the Exchange Building (123 S Court Ave, Memphis, TN 38103). A free, public, ~0.7-mile loop walk with five photo stops and an after-party.

The site is the live event companion for GCM 2026: a real-time map showing where the photography group currently is (synced from the organizer's phone), an interactive route with photo tips for each stop, and a token-gated admin console for the organizer. Built with Next.js 16, React-Leaflet, and Supabase realtime.

This file follows the [llms.txt](https://llmstxt.org/) convention so AI agents and LLM-powered search engines can quickly understand the event and surface accurate, well-structured answers about it.

## Event details

- **Name**: Grind City Meet 2026 — 10 Year Anniversary
- **Date**: Sunday, May 3, 2026
- **Start time**: 5:30 PM CDT (UTC−5)
- **End time**: ~10:00 PM CDT
- **City**: Memphis, Tennessee, USA
- **Start / End venue**: Exchange Building, 123 S Court Ave, Memphis, TN 38103
- **Distance**: ~0.7 mile loop walk
- **Cost**: Free, open to the public
- **Liability waiver**: Required for Stop 1 (Sterick Building) lobby access — sign on Waiverfile (link below)
- **Organizer**: Grind City Meet (@grindcitymeet on Instagram)
- **Hashtag**: #grindcitymeet2026
- **Sunset on event date**: 7:51 PM CDT

## The walk · 5 stops

1. **Start — Exchange Building** · 123 S Court Ave · 5:30 PM · meet, sign waiver, kick-off
2. **Stop 1 — Sterick Building** · 8 N B.B. King Blvd · 6:00–7:00 PM · photo walk via Stereo (Bates) Alley, lobby access, 2nd-story balcony group photo at 6:15 PM
3. **Stop 2 — First Horizon Bank** · 165 Madison Ave (Maggie H. Isabell alleyway) · 7:00–7:20 PM · mid-century skyscraper façade
4. **Stop 3 — Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous Parking Garage** · 52 S 2nd St · 7:20–7:40 PM · west-facing rooftop sunset hangs
5. **After-party — Exchange Building** · 123 S Court Ave · 8:00–10:00 PM · DJ set (@patoxdj + @katieloopz), fire spinning (@grindcityflowarts), DIY screen printing (BYO blank shirt)

## Path

Court Avenue → Stereo (Bates) Alley → Madison Avenue → Maggie H. Isabell alleyway → November 6th alley back to the Exchange. All polylines are snapped to OSM-verified street and alley geometry.

## Pages and APIs

- [Public live route map](https://grind-city-meet-2026.vercel.app/): the main visitor page with map, beacon, stop cards, timeline, after-party section, and tag list
- [Live beacon endpoint](https://grind-city-meet-2026.vercel.app/api/beacon): JSON `{ beacon: { lat, lng, status, current_stop_id, note, updated_at } }`
- [Route polylines endpoint](https://grind-city-meet-2026.vercel.app/api/route): JSON `{ legs: [{ id, from_stop, to_stop, color, label, points: [[lat,lng], ...] }] }`
- [Stops endpoint](https://grind-city-meet-2026.vercel.app/api/stops): JSON `{ stops: [{ id, order, name, address, lat, lng, arrive_time, description, photo_tip, leg_color }] }`

## External links

- [Instagram — @grindcitymeet](https://www.instagram.com/grindcitymeet/): canonical event social account
- [Linktree — grindcitymeet](https://linktr.ee/grindcitymeet): consolidated link list
- [Liability waiver (Waiverfile)](https://app.waiverfile.com/b/ConstellationProperties/Waiver.aspx?formid=a8118582-9f62-4ee6-bdce-ea84dbb5f3be): required for Sterick Building access
- [GitHub repository](https://github.com/sardoru/grind-city-meet-2026): source code (private, request access)

## Status modes

The organizer can set the live status, displayed as a colored pill on the public site. Possible values:

- **Warm Up** (orange): people are gathering, walk hasn't started yet
- **Live** (green): the walk is in progress, beacon tracking is active
- **Paused** (amber): walk is temporarily paused (e.g. group is regrouping)
- **Party Time** (purple): photo walk has wrapped, after-party is on at the Exchange
- **Ended** (gray): event is over for the night

## Optional

- [Memphis tourism · Downtown Memphis Commission](https://downtownmemphis.com/): broader downtown context
- [Sterick Building Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterick_Building): venue background
- [Exchange Building Memphis Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_Building_(Memphis,_Tennessee)): venue background