Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Fayetteville Roots Festival to cover music, art, food
The Fayetteville Roots Festival, a five-day urban music and food event, kicks off Wednesday and runs through Aug. 26, featuring nationally known musicians paired with undiscovered regional and local talent on more than 10 music stages, plus culinary events focusing on locally grown produce, locally raised meats and products from the Ozarks. The festival also includes film screenings, live radio broadcasts, workshops, a kids/family concert and live art.
The music lineup includes Mavis Staples and Booker T. Jones (Wednesday), Del McCoury Band (Thursday), Flaco Jimenez (Thursday and Friday), Josh Ritter (Friday), Gillian Welch with David Rawlings and Gregory Alan Isacov (Saturday) and Turnpike Troubadours (Aug. 26) performing at, among other venues, the Fayetteville Town Center at the Historic Downtown Square, George’s Majestic Lounge, Crystal Bridges and Brightwater Culinary Center. A full lineup is available online at therootsfest.org.
The culinary lineup includes Edward Lee, Milkwood, 610 Magnolia (Louisville, Ky.) and Succotash (Washington); Tandy Wilson, City House (Nashville, Tenn.); Shaun O’Neale, Season 7 winner of Master Chef; Jason Paul, Heirloom (Rogers); Crescent Dragonwagon (New York); Phoebe Lawless, Scratch (Durham, N.C.); Matthew McClure, The Hive (Bentonville); Nico Albert, MixCo. (Tulsa); Matthew Cooper, Preacher’s Son (Bentonville); Rob Nelson, Tusk & Trotter, Butcher & Pint (Bentonville); Travis McConnell, Pressroom (Bentonville); and Matthew Bell, South on Main (Little Rock). A full list of participating chefs and a roundup of the culinary events is also available at therootsfest.org.
Once in Fayetteville
Love of music draws together an Irish musician and a Czech immigrant on the streets of Dublin in the musical Once (music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, book by Enda Walsh), which Fayetteville-based Theatre-Squared stages Wednesday-Sept. 23 — 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday — at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, 505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville. The show includes some strong language and the theater recommends it for patrons 13 and older; call (479) 445-6333 with questions. Tickets are $17-$48; call (479) 443-5600 or visit theatre2.org.
Benefit screening
Little Rock native and former Arkansas Repertory Theatre actor Eric Mann will screen three short films and documentaries he has created through his New York-based production company Unreel Films at a special pay-what-youcan screening benefiting the Rep, 7 p.m. Monday at the theater, 601 Main St., Little Rock.
The films: The Hafiz Project, focusing on the work of the 14th-century Sufi poet; Storytellers, part of a documentary series that looks at the creative process; and Without a Mirror, filmed in Little Rock, following a blind woman, Elizabeth Whitaker, who studies dance with dancer and teacher Lauren McCarty Horak. Mann, Whitaker, Horak and actress Alicia Albright will take part in a post-screening talk back. Visit unreel-films.com.
Pen to Podium
Author and journalist Michael Hibblen will discuss his 2017 book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas for the Arkansas State Archives’ Pen to Podium lecture series, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Diamond Room, Department of Arkansas Heritage, 1100 North St., Little Rock. The Friends of the Arkansas State Archives, a nonprofit that supports ASA’s events, will host a 6:30 reception in the building lobby that will precede the lecture. Admission is free. Call (501) 682-6900 or visit archives. arkansas.gov.
Fort Smith season
New Orleans-inspired “song and groove man” Ray Bonneville kicks off the 201819 Artist, Audience & Community Live! season, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27 in the 801 Media Center at 5 Star Productions, 801 N. A St., Fort Smith.
The rest of the lineup (all shows, 7:30 p.m. at the center): ■ Oct. 18: Joe Krown & Jason Ricci
■ Nov. 8: Travis Meadows
■ Dec. 12: Jim Lauderdale
■ Jan. 22: Sarah Shook and the Disarmers
■ Feb. 7: Gaye Adegbalola
■ March 6: Gretchen Peters.
Season tickets are $250; admission to individual concerts is $40. Visit aaclive.com.
Philharmonic season
The Bentonville-based Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra opens its 2018-19 season with a concert titled “Halloween Fantasia,” 3 p.m. Sept. 29 at the Arend Arts Center, 1901 S.E. J St., Bentonville.
Guests will be encouraged to come in costume for a program of Halloween-theme music that includes the “Devil’s Dance” from the score for The Witches of Eastwick and “Witches, Wands, and Wizards” from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by John Williams; “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg: “Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Gotterdammerung by Richard Wagner; and three segments from The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky. Steven Byess conducts.
The rest of the lineup (except as noted, all performances, 7 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday at the Arend Arts Center in Bentonville, with Byess conducting):
■ Dec. 15-16: “Christmas with the APO,” featuring area children’s choruses and the Philharmonic Youth Orchestra
■ Feb. 9: “Music from the Heart.” Pianist Robert Henry solos in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2; Aram Khachaturian: “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia” from Spartacus; Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird
■ April 27: “Literary Inspirations.” Cellist Alison Eldredge solos in Michael Daugherty’s Tales of Hemingway Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, inspired by four Hemingway novels; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio; Maurice Ravel: Pavane pour une infante defunte; Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing Suite, op.11, Bentonville West Performing Arts Center, 1351 Gamble Road, Centerton.
Season tickets are $120, $20 for students K-college. Individual tickets are $35, $5 for students. Call (479) 841-4644, email info@ArkansasPhilharmonic.org or visit arphil.org.