Weekend Flyer: Fayetteville Roots Fest, SOAR NWA, Washington County Fair, and more

North Mississippi Allstars / Courtesy

We mentioned last week that things are about to get real busy around Fayetteville now that the students are back in town. See exhibit A, the very long list of events below, for evidence. Phew.

It’s Fayetteville Roots Festival weekend. The event kicked off last night with the Thursday night grand tasting party, held this year at the Fayetteville Public Library. The festival really gets kickin’ on Friday, with main state performances scheduled by Taj Mahal, Bettye Lavette, and others, along with a host of other music at Roots HQ, Fayetteville Public Library, Ozark Natural Foods and other venues, restaurant takeovers by renowned chefs, songwriting workshops, and more all weekend long. Saturday mainstage headliners include North Mississippi Allstars, Brady Blade Sr. and the Hallelujah Train, and much more. You can find the full lineup, including a hour-by-hour schedule here.

Also in Fayetteville Roots news, George’s will host late-night Roots Fest shows on Friday night with Maggie Rose and Leyton Robinson on Friday night, and Arlo McKinley and Logan Halstead on Saturday night. Tickets to George’s shows are here.

Maxine’s Tap Room also has Roots Festival shows this weekend, including performances by Dylan Earl on Friday, Bonnie Montgomery on Saturday, and a day’s worth of music on Sunday featuring a Dolly Party Tribute, Noah Richmond’s Little Monster, and Kansas City-based artist Fritz Hutchinson. Here’s more about the weekend of music at Maxine’s.

The Washington County Fair is in town this weekend. Here’s more about the festivities at the fairgrounds.

How about a hot air balloon festival? There’s one of those happening this weekend at Drake Field. It’s called SOAR NWA, and proceeds from the event will benefit Open Avenues. Here’s more info.

Also in tunes, there’s a show in the parking lot at Pink House Alchemy on Saturday night featuring a trio of local ladies in a new group called The Hoecakes, and Fayetteville songwriter Nick Shoulders. Here’s a bit more about that.

Up north, there’s a big show on Friday night at the Walmart AMP with country artists Morgan Wallen and Hardy, local songwriter Willi Carlisle will play at the Momentary on Friday night, and there’s another cool-sounding show on Saturday at the Momentary called Collusion featuring 8 unique artists collaborating together sponsored by CACHE.

There’s a ton more below to explore. Click around on the individual events for more info.

Have fun, y’all.

Friday, August 26

Saturday, August 27

Sunday, August 28

Monday, August 29

Tuesday, August 30

Wednesday, August 31

Thursday, September 1

Friday, September 2

Saturday, September 3

Sunday, September 4