A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
The Insider Scoop on the New Bentonville Bike and Music Festival
Meet Lauren Pickman, businesswoman, race director, cancer survivor, wife, mother, and voice behind OZ Trails and Will Eubanks, experienced arts leader in bringing world-class, community-oriented experiences to Northwest Arkansas. They give us a general overview of the Send it South Bike and Music Festival coming to Bentonville, AR this February 7-9, 2025.
Find more information about Send it South via our website here and Send it South's Instagram page here. And here's the link to book your tickets now!
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Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your bike host, nat Ross. Today we're joined by Lauren Pickman and Will Eubanks on why bikes and music are made for each other, especially here in Bentonville. Send it south. It is at the momentary. It's a brand new music festival which brings Opry Bike to us February 7th through the 9th with bonfires, community rides and good vibes. Let's get into it. Well, super excited here because Bentonville has some amazing things in the pipeline and the biggest talk and all the rave is this new music festival going down. So got two special guests and we have Will Eubanks from the Momentary and Lauren Pickman, who programs the Momentary in terms of cycling with the cycling community, to fill us in on what is going to go down in February in Bentonville. So it's a brand new music festival and the town is known for biking. So the culmination of bringing music and bikes together at the momentary. Um, fill us in on what the name of the festival is, where we can find out more information on what is going down.
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, thanks for having us. Um, so the festival is called Send it South. It's going to be taking place February 7th through the 9thth, um, at the momentary and around the trail systems all through bentonville, bella vista and more. Um, really, it just sort of came about. As you know, bentonville is obviously a place that cyclists want to come to. It's a, it's a town that we're really trying to push, with the momentary being a music town, and so we decided why not just match the two together? You know, um, and so, uh, we started looking at when we wanted to do it and we had the idea that, you know, you can really ride year-round here, absolutely, and so, so we started thinking and, as crazy as people thought it was to do it in, uh, early february. That's when we decided and la and Lauren here has done a great job getting some local riders together and putting things together for that, and we're just excited to see what comes of it.
Speaker 1:So Send it South Lauren. What's the buzz around town for Send it South?
Speaker 3:The buzz around town. Well, we have lots of local Rylators that have curated group rides for the Saturday portion of the event, you being one of them, nat Ross will be potentially one of your Rylators that have curated group rides for the Saturday portion of the event. You being one of them, nat Ross will be potentially one of your Rylators that day if you sign up for his ride, and so we'll have night rides by Rafa. We'll have guided, curated routes, the best of Northwest Arkansas of mountain biking, gravel riding and rule of three rides as well. We'll have an oz art ride with a party in the woods. That party is going to be hosted by narco bikes, fox and kohler, with a dj and games and raffles, so that should be really fun. There'll be a sauna and cold plunge on sunday. Really just a little bit of everything for everyone and great music.
Speaker 1:So, as far as the weekend goes, it encapsulates exactly what Bentonville is known for. Will talk about what it's like for some of the artists to roll into Bentonville or to play at the momentary and what we get to see for the community. If folks want to come ride or just listen to the music, what their options are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. We've got some great artists coming in Will Dorado out of Tulsa. They're up-and-comers. We got Dirtwire. Coming back to the momentary, they've been there once before. We're excited to have them back. These guys are actually bikers themselves and so they're super stoked to come out. Hopefully they have a little bit of time to go on some rides and stuff as well.
Speaker 2:Feedback we get from artists is just the sense of um, amazement. You know, like Bentonville is still gaining traction as uh, as a place to hit for these artists, and every time we get an artist they they're like I have never heard of this place, but we got here and it was just absolutely amazing and the momentary is amazing and and I will say that like we have an amazing production team and our production is like world class you literally can't get better in anywhere in the south, and so I think for artists and guests and cyclists and everyone you know, it can really be a place that, um, people haven't seen something of this quality around here yeah, I think you're nailing it and uh, there's an expo going on as well, lauren.
Speaker 1:so if folks want to dabble with the music and then then check out the cycling in the local community in between rides, or if someone wants to come just see if they even are interested in riding, but they they're attending for the music part of it, what is the expo about and what's the expo book going to look like for attendees?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the expo will be available Friday, saturday and Sunday, and there'll be many vendors there and so you can come and you can shop to your heart's delight. A lot of bike brands will be there. And then, for the music only ticket, the vendor village will be open the entire weekend. There'll be a happy hour at the Quonset Hut. The Momentary Grounds is just so beautiful and we'll have most of it activated. Concerts will also be inside, so everyone will be nice and warm. Yes, Will.
Speaker 1:Can you speak to the VIP passes or even the standard passes if someone wants to attend all three days, or what their options are when they come to town?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we have several options. We've got our GA pass, which includes your rides and your happy hours and the party in the woods and all of those things. We've got a companion pass. If somebody's coming in from out of town and say their partner doesn't cycle or whatever, just doesn't feel like it doesn't want to get out in the cold that weekend, they're able to buy a pass that is just to kind of hang around. They get access to the music festival, all that kind of stuff. Vip comes with access to, you know, vip bars and a swag bag with stuff in it and and those things. They've also got priority access to some of the jump clinics that Lauren can talk a little bit more educatedly about than I can, um. And then we have the Saturday music only passes, for if you're a local or somewhere in the region and you want to come you don't necessarily want to bike, but you want to check out the music you can come in on Saturday and catch. I think it's like six plus hours of music across two stages.
Speaker 1:Want to dive deeper, Head to themomentaryorg for the full lineup ride schedule and tickets. Stay through the end to hear what's in store for all the group rides and special experiences at the Momentary In terms of if we want to watch some bike jumps or some bike activities, what might that look like? Like where there might be some pros in town or there's a lot of local talent regardless, but what might we see on the momentary campus?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So Saturday afternoon we'll have three airbags set up on the momentary green, this huge beautiful lawn that'll be visible from all different directions and the airbags will be there to kind of test your limits. We will have instruction as to how to ride your bike and do some jumps onto the airbags. And then Rich Drew, one of the local pros. He does instruction out of Bentonville here. He's setting up two VIP jump clinics on the Momentary Green and I think the best seat in the house is. My recommendation is to go to the Momentary Tower Bar, which is this bar on very high up and you can look down and see everyone attempting to do these jumps on the airbags and from experience it's the best seat in the house.
Speaker 1:Oh, can't wait. So Ascended South is getting a lot of acclaimed talent coming into town. As far as the musicians and, will I like the fact that you pointed out that those musicians are healthy. They live active lifestyles themselves Riding a bike is something important to them or exercise, so they will be around as well and hopefully, on some of the rides, lauren explain kind of the types of disciplines of riding that people can choose from when they sign up for a ride at the festival.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So to learn more, just head over to the Momentary's website and go to the calendar, and you'll find Send it South. With that, you'll have all the descriptions of the group rides that you have to choose from, and so, as you go through registration, you'll see mountain bike rides, e-bike rides, gravel rides all different paces and distances, and then also rule of three rides that incorporates gravel, single track and road all on one bike, and so you get to decide what type of ride that you want to do. If you prefer to ride by yourself or with your friends, you can do that as well. That you want to do. If you prefer to ride by yourself or with your friends, you can do that as well.
Speaker 3:We'll be emailing all the different routes that have been specially curated by these ride leaders to all the registered riders, and we have amazing local ride leaders. I mentioned that you're going to be one of the ride leaders for the e-bike 30-mile Little Sugar Ride, which looks amazing. We've got Annika Beerton, rich Drew, gary Vernon, taylor Ledeen, andy Chasteen so many amazing local riders excited to show everyone all the trails and routes here in Northwest Arkansas. And I've heard too that Christopher Blevins, olympian this past year, he'll also be in town for this event. So yeah, it's just going to be a really fun weekend of music and riding bikes.
Speaker 1:Well, the Oztrails is something special and the Momentary is opening up the gates and the floodgates, by the way, for music and the culture piece Will. What can we look forward to at the Momentary in terms of a new experience for folks? So I personally don't go to the momentary enough. I basically only go in a couple, a concert or two. So what would folks get to look forward to at Send it South at the momentary?
Speaker 2:I think you know Lauren kind of hit this a little bit, but we're going to be activating so much of the campus and there's so many different types of things you can do. You know we have galleries that are that you can explore. You're going to be able to hit two different venues, you know we'll have sort of live, live bands quote unquote in one room and then more like DJs in the other room. We've got the Quonset Hut, which is just this really interesting space where we're going to set up a whole outdoor beer garden slash. You know camp vibes kind of thing. We'll have like meals cooked out there over open flame on Saturday night, and so we're really just able to like I mean, it's an old cheese factory, right, that's been converted to this venue, and so we figure, if you can convert a cheese factory to a museum, then you can do just about anything else with it, and so we're really trying to lean into that and just like make the space as creative a vibe as we can.
Speaker 1:Sounds like you're giving so many of the participants choices galore and it's going to be hard to decide where to be and what to do at Send it South, absolutely, yeah. Well, lauren, as far as the rides go, are folks able to bring their families or kids? And what would we recommend for someone that is a diehard, that wants to go get fitness, or someone that just wants to check out the Oz Trails?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the routes, the descriptions, are there. They are definitely leaning more towards the intermediate to advanced riders but, that being said, there's lots of kids, teenagers specifically, that can shred and ride like anyone, and so we only ask that if they're under 18, that they ride with a guardian, so that really anyone is welcome to come and enjoy the trails great.
Speaker 1:And as far as send it south goes, what's some aspirations in the future? Because this is a very uh. There have always been kind of bike music festival concepts, but not any of this kind of level or tier. So, uh, what does the future look like for send it South?
Speaker 2:I mean, if there's one thing I've learned since being at the moment, terry, it's really that the sky's the limit. You know, this being year one, we're just hoping that we can get a good turnout and have a great time with everybody and let its reputation carry it forward, but I mean it can potentially get as big as we could want it to. You know, I think that ultimately, the hope is to show not only the biking but the music and the sense of community that Bentonville has and to bring people in from, you know, several states away for now, and then maybe in a few years it's more states than that away, and Canada, and you know, on and on until we've got people coming from all around the world.
Speaker 1:Well, will, I would like to send folks to find out more information, because right now, after just hearing this, there's so many cool things going on at Send it South, so where do they check it out? Where are they going to learn more about the festival?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can check it out on our website, themomentaryorg. Like Lauren said, just go to the calendar there. It should be right up near the top. Click on Send it South. It's going to have just a ton of information. Our team's done such a great job putting together this website that gives you every bit of info you could possibly need. It's going to have your ticket links and all that too.
Speaker 1:Great, and I think some folks are flying in. So what's the local airport that they would fly into if they want to do this, or some options? Perhaps some may even want to come in from Tulsa, but what would that look like for somebody flying in? And then, lauren, I'm going to ask you some questions on if they want to ride their own bike, or if they want to just show up in town and ride a bike that they can get elsewhere, but Will, if they're flying into town for this festival, what does that look like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're going to definitely want to fly into XNA. They can fly in there. It's really easy to grab an Uber or whatever get into town. You know any of the hotels here are 15, 20 minutes max from XNA, so it's a real easy trip in.
Speaker 1:Great and Lauren, if someone, sometimes I don't want to pack my bike and I just want to show up and grab one from a local vendor or a community member, so what does that look like for choices for folks?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there are so many choices. Here in Bentonville we have YT bikes that you can get a bike from. We've got Specialized Experience Center and then we have so many bike shops, Mojo and Fat Tire specifically. They have huge fleets of rentals that you can rent from.
Speaker 1:Great. Well, as you can tell, lauren Pickman here a wealth of knowledge, and Will Eubanks also for the music side of things and the cultural experience. The culmination of bringing both of these two together in Bentonville. It's the place, it's the time. So here we are at Send it South and let's welcome everybody to town.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Matt.
Speaker 1:Thanks, matt. See you guys soon. Visit Bentonville as your one-stop shop for year-round world-class cycling, art, music and more. Plan your trip now with all our online resources linked in the show notes to give us a follow on social media. Thanks for listening.