Courtesy Photo In addition to several music acts, there are several performance arts acts performing at Last Night Fayetteville Jan. 31.
Returning for its fifth New Year’s Eve celebration, Last Night Fayetteville is gearing up to be its biggest yet with all Northwest Arkansas talent on the bill.
The all-ages event is renown for its take on the New York ball drop at midnight — the Hog Drop. An 8.5 foot-long fiberglass hog sculpture is lowered 70 to 100 feet at 11:59 p.m. to welcome the new year, and directly following it will be a fireworks display free to the public.
The event is estimated to bring in about 2,000 people from the region, and the festivities will start at 7 p.m. At last year’s event, 64 percent of the audience came in from outside of Fayetteville, said Lauren Embree, executive director for the festival.
In total, there will be 30 acts performing on 11 stages throughout the downtown Fayetteville square for folk, side shows, cabaret, dancing, theatre, kids music and an “unplugged” rock stage throughout the night. New this year after the hog drop will be an after party with DJ Purp Loder curating the first party playlist of 2016. If playlists aren’t your thing, there will be a new interactive live dance music stage that will feature swing, belly dancing, square dancing and Cajun dancing complete with instructors throughout the night.
For the price of $25 per adult — in advance, it’s $35 day of — and $5 for children under 13 (under 2 is free) to Last Night Fayetteville, attendees get an entire night of live music, comedy and performance art. If you really want to live it up while you still can in 2015, VIP tickets are available for $95, and include access to priority seating, a champagne toast at midnight and a VIP lounge with hors d’oeuvres, beer, wine and artisan cocktails from Pink House Alchemy and Apple Blossom Brewing Co. — both will be selling drinks for all patrons at the main stage as well. Tickets and more information are available at www.LastNightFayetteville.com.
This year there is also a VIP Gold package that includes two VIP tickets, a room booked at The Chancellor Hotel and a southern-style brunch at the 6494 Bistro in the morning. As a bonus, the hotel staff are allowing a 3 p.m. late check out. Including tax, VIP Gold packages are $485.
Courtesy Photo Local funk-rockers Groovement will be headlining the main stage at this year’s Last Night Fayetteville.
Local funk-rockers Groovement will headline the event alongside Galaxy Tour Guides, National Park Radio and performances from the students at the School of Rock. In addition to the headliners, there will be performances from folksters Tyrannosaurus Chicken, Candy Lee & The Sisters Sweet, Adam Cox, Cosmic American, The Silvershakers, Buffalo Hustle, Ozark Highballers and Jumpsuit Jamey & The Can’t Wait to Play Boys.
There’s also going to be a Battle of the Bands at Matt Miller’s studio (behind Jammin’ Java on the square) that will feature performances from Drawing Blanks, The Salesmen, Hollowed by Instinct and Izzy Savage & the Cannibal who all feature members under 21.
“We’re excited about the new battle of the bands,” Embree said. “It’s something we’ve wanted to do for several years and we were finally able to do it this year.”
The Comedians of NWA will perform in between performances by Cabaret Fayetteville at the cabaret stage. For the theatre lovers out there expect to see shows in the Fayetteville Underground Sheetfort Theater from Artist’s Laboratory Theatre, Phunbags Comedy Improv, Roughhouse Improv, Word Wars, Opera Fayetteville and even Jugglology. There will even be a Diamond Divas Drag Show at 10:30 p.m. at the Chancellor Hotel.
“Before Last Night Fayetteville, I had never participated in a large New Year’s Eve party,” said Mark Landon Smith of Phunbags Comedy Improv (who are performing at 8 p.m. at the Fayetteville Underground Sheetfort stage). “I’ve always gone to small private ones. As an adult I think it’s great because you’re giving people a lot of entertainment options in one place. You just park once and go to all the stuff like it’s Disney World. The family options are great, too.”
For the kids, there will be storytelling, juggling, a magic show, and performances by kid-music-band Shaky Bugs.
New this year to the festival will be the Rock Unplugged stage at Hawaiian Brian’s that will feature mellower renditions of local rock bands Cosmic American, Buffalo Hustle and High Lonesome.
The Fayetteville square will be closed the night of the event for ease of access to each stage. There will also be LED screens set up with stage schedules in addition to wayward signs to help direct everyone to the different stages, especially for those unfamiliar with downtown.
Courtesy Photo
Last Night Fayetteville is reknown for its one of-a-kind Hog Drop celebration countdown to the New Year. The hog is decorated differently each year, and following the drop, a fireworks display will commence. The public may attend these events for free.
“We try to make it everyone-friendly, is what we call it,” Embree said. “It’s not just for families or just for kids or just the 21 and up crowd. We have something absolutely for everyone. And, if you want to enjoy a cocktail responsibly while you’re doing that, you can.”
That’s all just up until midnight. Once the hog has dropped and the fireworks pop, then the after party with DJ Purp Loder will commence.
For the full experience, the event will start early at 5 p.m. with a live recording of the NPR show “Tales from the South” hosted alongside a pre-festival dinner (for $35) at The Chancellor Hotel’s 6494 Bistro.
“It’s our fifth year and we want to celebrate in a big way,” Embree said. “We use the joke ‘Turning it up to 11’ from Spinal Tap, and we’re doing 11 stages this year. I think last year we only had seven, so we’ve added a lot of entertainment options. Being a nonprofit we have very little money to put this event on. Really, leveraging our community partnerships and relationships allows it to work the way it does and we’re very thankful for all of our sponsors and co-collabortors that help put this event on every year. It would be impossible to do it without them.”
