A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Tune into Visit Bentonville’s podcast series for a weekly update on all things Bentonville, Arkansas. Hosted by Beth Bobbitt, you’ll hear captivating stories and updates from our city—connecting you with the locals that make this town worth visiting.
A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
The Momentary: A Hub for Music and Community
Join us for a look into Bentonville's cultural hotspot, as we chat with the Momentary about the upcoming season of indoor and outdoor concerts, the nightclub series, art, and more. We'll unveil the 2025 lineup featuring artists like Megan Maroney, Real Estate, and Shemedia Copeland. Discover the family-friendly FreshGrass Festival, a celebration of American global roots and folk music, complete with art and music experiences for all ages. And don't miss "Best in Show Pets in Contemporary Photography" exhibition currently on view and in partnership with Best Friends Pet Resource Center whose goal is to bring the whole country to no-kill by the end of 2025.
We'll explore how the Momentary's events foster community spirit, bolster Bentonville's local economy, and paint the perfect day —a blend of art, coffee, live music, and dining—highlighting why this town should be on every cultural explorer's itinerary.
Learn more at themomentary.org
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Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit Bittenville. I'm your host, beth Bobbitt, broadcasting from Haxton Road Studios, and today we're excited to speak with Emma and Anna from the Momentary. We're talking about live music coming up. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having us. Thanks, yes. So let's first of all set the stage. What is the Momentary? What are the spaces like that? Have the music indoor and outdoor?
Anna :Yeah, the really cool thing about the Momentary is that we have multiple spaces that we can have music at. So we have our green stage that hosts our live on the green music series and that's our big outdoor amphitheater with the green lawn. And then we also have the roadhouse, which is indoors. It's a little smaller like 550 people can fit in there and that lets us bring a wider array of musicians, because we don't only have to get the giant people who can fill up that stage and we can get smaller people, rising people, more people, because we can have way more inside.
Anna :It's way less of a lift, yeah, and then we've also been really focusing on doing some more things with community partners and local music. So we have our courtyard sessions during the summer Friday nights outside and it's free music out there and we just we have music everywhere there.
Beth Bobbitt :Lovely and it's. You know it doesn't have to be seasonal, yeah, all year round, yeah.
Anna :And that's the great thing about Roadhouse is that it's indoors.
Emma :So it doesn't have to just be in the summer and we can do it all year round, and the thing about the momentary is it's so much more than music. We are a venue for music, of course, but we have art, we have culinary events, we have all different types of things that people can enjoy all year round, and we always try to fold some of those other events into the music events that we do have at the Momentary all of our concerts. So it's really just a great place. We like to call it the living room of the community, where everyone can come and gather and have a good time with their friends and family.
Beth Bobbitt :Beautiful. I love it. Well, tell us a little bit about what's in store for 2025. What can we expect?
Anna :Yeah, from the music standpoint, like I was saying, with the Roadhouse, we're going to be having music all year round in there, which will be new for 2025. This past year we only had it at the beginning of the year and this year we're expanding that to all year. We're continuing our Live on the Green concert series with even more music and we have tons of exciting announcements planned for that. Courtyard sessions continuing. We have our monthly nightclub series called Collide that features local artists and we're doing something really cool with it this year, where we're going to be taking different artists who may not typically do things together. So for the one in January, it's going to be a drum and bass night, which is a genre of EDM, but we're going to have a live drummer playing with it, which is going to be really cool, and we're really trying to pair up different musicians who maybe haven't done things before to create a really cool experience and give that kind of nightlife energy to Bentonville. Yeah, awesome.
Beth Bobbitt :Well, let's talk about the artist. Are there any that are really exciting or announcements that you can share?
Anna :Yeah, I mean one that I'm super excited for that we have next year is our Megan Maroney concert. We announced that in September, I think, and it sold out immediately. Her whole tour sold out and she's just blown up in the past couple months, and so I think we're all really excited for that.
Anna :Um, I'm personally really excited for a lot of the musicians that we have um in the roadhouse. So we have Jessica Pratt, who is kind of like a 60s folk sound and she's super critically acclaimed. She was just on a song with ASAP Rocky and I'm super excited for that one. That's going to be at the beginning of April. I mean, we're planning on doing like 20-something concerts in there, so we have so many. Another one that I'm really excited for is our Real Estate concert. That's happening in early February. The tickets are already selling super well, which is great, since it's still pretty far away and they're kind of like an indie rock band. So I'm really excited about that one. We've got people like the Main Squeeze, Shemeika Copeland, who's up for like three Grammys currently.
Anna :All kinds of exciting things.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah Well, congrats on already a stellar season. What about the festivals?
Anna :Yeah, sorry I did not mention that. Yeah, we've got our Momentous EDM Festival next year it's going to be in October and our one that we had this past year. It was so successful, it sold out, we had great response from the community and it was just awesome, and so we're going to be expanding that this year. It's going to be a two-day festival and that'll allow us to just bring in even more people. One of the really cool things that I'm working on for that is we're going to be doing a community stage with all of the local community partners that are big in the local EDM scene To bring in tons of different local DJs and really give them a place to shine in this festival and give them the opportunity to play. But I'm really excited about that. We've got fresh grass coming back this year, which is super exciting. We've got the announcements coming out real soon. Um.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah, Amazing. And for those that may have never been to the momentary and have not experienced a festival, can you give us a little bit of a like what we can expect kind of the FAQs?
Anna :Yeah Is there. You know, seating things about them is the feel that they have. It's very laid back, almost, I want to say. It's not so like giant corporate pumping people in and out. It's very. It's just a cool vibe. We bring in tons of different food and drink options and from a lot of local vendors, so there's tons of different things you can get there. Most of our concerts we do allow people to bring in blankets and folding chairs for seating. Um, we don't allow pets at the concert, but they can come in the galleries right now for our best and show exhibit um, yeah, and then they're.
Anna :They're all ages, unless otherwise specified, but all the ones we've had so far are pretty all ages.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah.
Emma :Yeah, at our Fresh Grass Festival. That really is. It's a two-day festival. It's American global roots music and folk music as well. People love that and it's so much more than just a music festival. There's art making, there's music classes that you can take all of that kind of stuff and it's really all ages. So that's my favorite part about Fresh Grass in particular is just seeing all the families that come out, the parents, all the young kids doing cartwheels across the green.
Emma :It's just really a fun place to be with all of your people and it's really welcoming for anyone of all ages.
Beth Bobbitt :Yeah, it's my favorite. We take my daughter every year and I find it super family-friendly and just fun to be outside and amongst the art. I mean, there's so many artworks and sculptures you can see from the green and it's a great atmosphere, so let's talk about. I mean, why is this important for our community? You know, why is live music still relevant?
Anna :Yeah, I mean from a purely financial standpoint. I mean it's great, it's great for the local economy, so that. But also I think music is just really important and it brings people together in every sense of the word really, and I feel that, especially at our concerts like how I was saying, it's not quite so like giant stadium, get the people in, get them out it's got more of a community feel, which I think also comes from just our location and being amongst and right in the heart of Bentonville, but it really just lets people connect over shared interests. It gives people a space to to come and hang out with their friends and do something fun. Um, and it's really important for developing Bentonville as a destination. Um, we already have way more attention, I guess I should say, from agents that are in New York and LA about Bentonville, arkansas, which is super cool and it's really elevating it as a destination in those bigger cities that are so far away from here.
Beth Bobbitt :We are on the map now in terms of music, and that's not always been the case. Yeah, amazing. Well, what else is there? You touched on a little bit of what's happening now, at the momentary, in terms of the visual arts. Do you want to say any more about that?
Emma :Yeah, I can talk a little bit about our exhibition right now. It's called Best in Show Pets in Contemporary Photography, and if you haven't been out to see it yet, you really do need to go. It features photographs from 25 different artists and it focuses on the relationship between humans and pets. So it's all pet photography, everything from puppies to kittens. There's even some photos of some betta fish, guinea pigs, any kind of animal that you can think of. You're going to find a photo of it in this exhibition. And something that's really cool that we're doing for this exhibition is your pets are actually allowed in the galleries at the momentary through the run of this exhibition. So that's been really cool to see everyone come out with their furry friends, which are obviously a part of the family as well. Seeing all the dogs sitting on the couches looking at the art. It's really awesome. So that is running through April 13th of 2025. So you have plenty of time to see it. It is free to see. You just have to stop by the momentary to see it.
Emma :And we're also partnering with Best Friends Animal Society for this exhibition. So if you don't know about them, they are a local adoption agency here. They are working to make shelters no-kill by 2026, I believe, or maybe 2025. But we're doing pop-up adoption events with them. We are also doing a pet food and supply donation drive. So all you have to do is bring your pet food any pet supplies to the momentary. There's a bin in our lobby and you can donate that. So we're really excited to work with those partners and this is just a really fun exhibition that anyone can enjoy. Everybody loves animals and everybody loves pets.
Emma :So it's definitely something that you should come check out, and we're doing a bunch of different programming throughout the run of the exhibition as well.
Beth Bobbitt :Amazing, oh, I can't wait to see it. Well, thank you both for being on the show. We have one final kind of wrap-up question. It's a fun one, don't worry. We ask all our guests about a day in the life. What would a dream day look like if you were just coming here to explore Bentonville, so curating your day from the morning till the evening, anna? What do you think?
Anna :Okay, so I'm making some assumptions here that it is warm outside.
Emma :Not what it is right now.
Anna :It's your day here that it is warm outside, not what it is right now. It's your day, it's my day and it's warmer outside. So I'm probably going with my friends and going to airship Kohler, kohler airship whichever the order is Taking that little walk with my headphones in, getting coffee. There, I'll probably sit and read my books, because I'm a huge nerd. And then, in my dream day, I go back to my friend's house and we get ready and we go to a concert at the Momentary, because I love music. I would hope so, considering that's what I work in, but I love going to live music and we would go, get ready, go to a show there, probably go by Hardwater afterwards, um, cause I've been. I've been real obsessed with that lately.
Anna :It's, it's really good and they've got great food and I think I think that's that's probably what I ended up with, unless we feel like staying up really late and watching a movie, you know, back at their house.
Beth Bobbitt :but music coffee, yeah, drinks what else?
Emma :I think I would start my day going to Crystal Bridges looking at all of the art, going through all the exhibitions, maybe grabbing lunch at 11. And then I would come down to the square and walk around. I love just walking around down here seeing everything that's going on. Pop in some of the shops. There's usually someone out playing live music on the square. I would definitely do that, and then I would probably go to the Tower Bar for a drink before a show at the momentary the Tower.
Beth Bobbitt :Bar is awesome.
Emma :And I love showing that off when people come here to visit.
Beth Bobbitt :That would be my perfect day, and what's better than art and music and culinary? We've got it all here and I think that they both sound dreamy, so I love that. Well, thank you, emma and Anna, for being here. Anything else we want to plug or say before? I know that Crystal Bridges and the Momentary both have membership programs that are very beneficial if you're in the community, so definitely recommend that.
Anna :Anything else we want to touch on yeah, I mean big promoting on the membership, especially if you're planning on going to multiple of our concerts because of the discount you get. It's honestly so worth it. I mean, with the people, we've got Megan Maroney's already sold out, but the Megan Maroney you can get pre-sales. So all of the people that wanted to get in line for that, that had memberships, were able to get the tickets first, which was amazing considering it sold out so quickly. Um, but yeah, we've got hippocampus coming to play on our green stage. Like I said, real estate wonderment country Shemeika, copeland Um, we have traders that's getting announced later this week, which is a metal band, um, and we're bringing we're bringing in there's going to be like four other bands, two of them are going to be local and so we've really got just a very diverse programming. So, big on the membership if you're wanting to get tickets to like two plus concerts, because it's so worth it with the discount.
Emma :For sure. Yeah, yeah. And speaking of the memberships, we're actually doing a promotion right now where, through January 27th of 2025, you can get 25% off a membership to Crystal Bridges and the Momentary either one. So that is a really good discount to take advantage of. And, as Anna said, if you're a member at the Momentary, you will be the first to know about what artists are coming here and you'll have first access to buy those tickets. There are never any ticket handling fees if you're a member, so it is really beneficial to be a member at the Momentary and Crystal Bridges.
Beth Bobbitt :Visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in our new American town. Give us a follow on social sign up for the newsletter and check out our website at visitbentonvillecom. Thanks for listening.