Highlights
Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen at George’s
Texas rockers Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen will be in town Wednesday night for a show at George’s. The two are doing an acoustic tour this summer that they’re calling the Songs and Stories Tour. Expect a laidback night with a living room feel.
Kids’ Day at Farmers Market
The kids looking for something fun to do. Parents are looking for safe and affordable activities. One way to have both while celebrating the bounty of the season is to join the folks at the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market for Kids’ Day from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday on the Fayetteville Square. Galen Hart will showoff his juggling antics. Geoff Oelsner will play music and there will be a variety of educational activities ranging from recycling fun with Washington County Solid Waste and Recycling to caterpillar adoption with the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. Storyteller, Oda Mulloy will be telling tales and there will be a fire truck and farm tractor for viewing. The Little Mountain Bindery will explain bookmaking. The Bicycle Coalition of the Ozarks will have a helmet give-away and the Master Gardeners will share their knowledge of plants. The usual tasty local vegetables, fruit, fresh flowers, plants and Ozark crafts will all be available.
Battle of the Bands Round 2
Northwest Arkansas Battle of the Bands, Round 2 is set for Wednesday night at the new Froggy’s on Dickson Street. Froggy’s is officially opening that night in the old Gypsy location. Round 1 of Battle of the Bands pitted pop groups together. Round 2 will feature metal bands. Competing on Wednesday night will be: Silverstone, Burnt by Design, Pile of Dead Women and Kind. The winner of Round 2 will advance to the grand finale. The grand finale winner will open for a national act arranged by H Bros Entertainment, the NWABB sponsor.
Wine a lot at the Grand Tasting
If you doubt that there are wine lovers in NWA, think again. For almost a decade now, the Walton Arts Center has hosted the “Art of Wine” event as a major fundraiser for it’s programming. The event is one of the most packed events in NWA. Thousands, of folks ante up $70 for one night of the Grand Tasting, which will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights. If you’ve never been, expect about 500 or 600 folks each night tasting hundreds of wines poured by wine experts and winemakers from around the country. Six hundred wines from 300 wineries will be poured. This can be a bit overwhelming. Before you go, you might consider making a game plan…say go for a certain kind of wine, try only Chardonnays or Pinots or try only wines from Oregon or France. Heck, go try and taste all 600 if you want, but if you’re a first timer, know that trying to taste even 20 is a fete. And if you’re game, another way to approach it is to pay an extra $45 for entry into the reserve room where the wines with the really big price tags are poured. Oh, and did we mention there will be food from several local restaurants? You will get a wine list and map of where to find the various labels, which will help guide you through the various stations. You’ll be able to rate the wines you taste, so you can look for them next time you shop. Get tickets at the Walton Arts Center box office.
Open Gardens
Four fine sounding garden events are happening this week: The OMNI Peace Garden tour, the Through the Garden Gate Tour and Mozart and Beethoven in the Garden and the Days of Wine and Roses, both at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks.
The OMNI tour from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday features six gardens ranging from a tiny flower-filled downtown front yard, to a bamboo grove garden and a country wildlife habitat. Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased at any of the gardens. The most convenient garden to downtown is Emily’s Kaitz’s garden at 5 E. Davidson, one block north of Maple, off of College Avenue. For a map and a list of the gardens go to http://peacegardens.blogspot.com.
Also on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. the Through the Garden Gate tour will feature six gardens. Tickets are $15 and can be bought at any garden. The garden most convenient to downtown is the garden of Janice Ryan at 424 N. Willow Ave. in Fayetteville’s Washington Willow Historic District.
Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks enjoy a free live concert of the music of Mozart and Beethoven. Bring seating.
On June 12 at 6 p.m. at the BGO, will be the Days of Wine and Roses, with live music, wine and appetizers. Tickets are $20. For information on the BGO events call 750-2620.
