1 COMMESTIBLES
Get a real taste for what enterprising Arkansans can dish up at the eighth Main Street Food Truck
Festival, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday in downtown Little Rock. More than 60 food trucks will serve everything from barbecue to vegetarian treats along Main Street, blocked off from Third to Ninth streets, and Capitol Avenue, from Main to Spring streets. Add in beer gardens, crafts, a vendor marketplace, music, games and animals from Heifer Village. The 2018 Arkansas State Criterium Championships — a speed-focused cycling event — takes place at the southern end of the festival perimeter. Admission is free; food and drink, of course, and other vendor goods cost money. Call (501) 375-0121 or visit mainstreetfoodtrucks.com.
2 COMICS
Artists and fans will converge, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, upon the Statehouse Convention Center, Markham and Main streets, Little Rock, for a weekend of panels, cosplay and signings at the
Arkansas Comic Con. Guests will include Star Wars actors Tim Rose and Richard Oldfield, Power Rangers Jason David Frank and Johnny Yong Bosch and artist Paris Cullins. Tickets in advance are $20 per day, $30 for the weekend, $20 for weekend military passes, $5 for youngsters 2-8. Sameday admission: $25 per day; weekend passes are $40, $25 for the military. Visit arkansascomiccon.com.
3 CROONER
Johnny Mathis, smoothvoiced singer of songs including “Chances Are” and “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late,” will perform popular tunes and personal favorites at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall, 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $42$128. Call (800) 745-3000 or visit ticketmaster.com.
4 COMEDIAN
Comedian and radio host Bobby Bones, on his “Red Hoodie Comedy Tour,” tells stories about growing up in rural Arkansas, 8 p.m. Friday, Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway, Little Rock. Also on the bill: country singer Lauren Duski. Tickets are $33.50; $83.50 gets you VIP prime seating and a pre-show meet-and-greet. Call (800) 745-3000 or visit Ticketmaster.com.
5 CREATORS
Area chefs, artists, entrepreneurs and other creative types will come together for the new Little Rock Night
Market, 5-9:30 p.m. Friday (with a sequel Oct. 5) at Bernice Garden, 1401 S. Main St., Little Rock. It’s a platform to encourage shoppers to buy local. Admission is free. Visit littlerocknightmarket.com.
6 CANVASES
“On My Mind: The Natural State” — an exhibit of recent landscape paintings by Washington artist Barry D. Lindley — goes on display with a reception, 6-8 p.m. Friday, with a gallery talk at 2 p.m. Saturday, at Cantrell Gallery, 8208 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. The exhibit will be up through Oct. 27, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. MondaySaturday or by appointment. Admission to exhibit and reception is free. Call (501) 224-1335, email cantrellgallery@ sbcglobal.net or visit cantrellgallery.com.
7 CONVERSION
When the owner of a run-down, smalltown Florida bar brings in a B-level drag show to replace him, an impoverished young Elvis impersonator finds that he has a whole lot to learn about show business — and himself — in The
Legend of Georgia McBride by Matthew Lopez, 7:30 p.m. today-Saturday and Sept. 13-15 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday and Sept. 16 at the Studio Theatre, 320 W. Seventh St., Little Rock. Tickets are $20, $15 for students, senior citizens (65-plus) and military. Call (501) 3742615 or visit studiotheatrelr.com or centralarkansastickets.com.
8 CABARET
Students in the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s education classes take the mainstage at 601 Main St., Little Rock, for the third annual Student Cabaret,
3 p.m. Sunday. Doors open at 2:30. Tickets are $15, $10 for students; all proceeds benefit the Education Department Scholarship Fund. Call (501) 378-0405 or visit tickets.therep. org.
9 CELTIC
Celtic musicians Ashley Davis and
Cormac de Barra perform for a Little Rock Folk Club concert, 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Hibernia Irish Tavern, 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock. Tickets are $15, $10 for military (with ID), $8 for students (with ID), free for accompanied children 12 and younger. Call (501) 663-0634 or visit littlerockfolkclub.org. See Music Scene on Page 5E.
10 CULTIVATORS
The Plantation Agriculture Museum, U.S. 165 and Arkansas 161 in Scott, will sputter, rattle and roar during its annual Antique Tractor and Engine
Show, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Owners of pre-1960s tractors and engines will have their prized possessions at the museum, where guests can see how the machines work. Admission is free. Call (501) 961-1409 or visit arkansasstateparks.com.
So, Dad feels like barbecue. Mom wants a gourmet sandwich. The kids just want burgers.
On Saturday in Little Rock, there’s no need for families to make unpopular compromises or run all over town trying to satisfy incompatible taste buds. Instead, they can take a trip to the Main Street Food Truck Festival and make everybody happy.
As Anderson Penix, communications director for the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, explains, “The Main Street Food Truck Festival is basically going to a big outdoor cookout with 40,000 of your favorite friends.”
This is the eighth year for the festival, in which 60 food trucks camp out in an area that stretches along several blocks of Main Street and Capitol Avenue, all selling a wide variety of fare to satisfy a multitude of cravings.
When it started back in 2011, Penix says, “Downtown Little Rock Partnership wanted a way to bring people to Main Street. There wasn’t a whole lot of activity going on at that time. Food trucks were just getting more popular, so they had that idea.”
What started with a “handful” of trucks and a smattering of people has since exploded into five dozen trucks and 40,000 people eating their way along Main Street and Capitol Avenue.
He says, “It’s really supported by the community.”
And it’s not just food trucks. Heifer International will once again bring its urban farm with animals and games. And this year Riceland is setting up a family zone with games and a tented eating area.
The entertainment will be as varied as the food with busker performances stretching along the whole length of the festival.
This year the festival will beef up its arts and crafts area with a marketplace set up to accommodate more local vendors.
Penix says, “You can get your Christmas shopping done at the Main Street Food Truck Festival.”
Those who want some vicarious thrills can snag food and drinks and then camp out at the festival’s southern end, where the Arkansas State Criterium Championships — a speed cycling event — will “whoosh” on by.
The race may make things more complicated with extra street closures — so Penix recommends anyone coming to the festival via Interstate 630 take the Interstate 30 exchange, then exit on Sixth Street or Second Street.
Parking decks throughout the area will be open, with the closest decks at Scott and Sixth streets, where parking will be free, and Second and Main streets, where it will not.
Regardless, there should be space and parking for everyone who wants to come out.
Penix says, “If you have any interest in food or local craft beer or music or art or just community involvement – and that should be everybody – come on out and experience one of the best culinary festivals that Arkansas produces.”