Festival Community Impact
FORMAT is committed to having a positive impact on Northwest Arkansas and our neighboring communities. We hire local vendors and staff and support local artists and musicians as part of our programming. This past year, we donated over $100,000 for the Bentonville Public School System, and we will be supporting them again through this year's event. In addition to this, we have several programs running with the University of Arkansas, and will be working closely with students and teachers around the show.
We remain focused on encouraging our visiting guests to spend time in Bentonville and neighboring towns over the weekend ahead of festival gates opening.
Committed to the long-term success of this event in the area, we have listened to local feedback and made changes to our plan for 2023, including hours of operation, aiming to create the least amount of disturbance possible.
Festival Details
- Friday, September 22nd: 1pm - 11pm
- Saturday, September 23rd: 1pm - 11pm
- Sunday, September 24th: 1pm - 9:30pm
The Momentary Hours of Operation
The Momentary will be closed from September 18-25th. Outside of those dates it will be operating normal business hours. During the festival weekend, only FORMAT ticket holders will be able to access the Momentary. All of the galleries and shows inside the Momentary will remain open. Festival patrons will be able to use bathrooms inside the museum and have access to Onyx Coffee and the Momentary shop.
The 8th Street Market Hours of Operation
The 8th Street Market will be closed to the general public during the three days of the festival, remaining open and accessible to Festival patrons only. Outside of that, the market will operate normal hours. Sections of the parking lot will be used in the lead up to the show, but it should not affect customer parking for the market. Some of the 8th Street Market vendors will be participating in the festival weekend. You can find the attached list on our website here.
Street and Sidewalk Closures
We work with the City of Bentonville and the County to ensure we have a plan in place which maximizes convenience to all of our neighbors and minimizes the overall impact to the street and circulation patterns for area residents and businesses. We also coordinate the breakdown of the event to return your streets to you as soon as possible.
The Momentary is located at 507 SE E St, Bentonville, AR 72712. To ensure the highest level of safety and crowd management as well as preventing patrons from parking in the surrounding neighborhoods, SE E Street between SE 5th Street and SE 8th Street, as well as the south lane of SE 5th street between SE E Street to SE F Street will be closed on show days. Any residents living within the street closures will receive a vehicle credential to access their personal driveways. SE 8th Street will remain open and 8th Street Market will be incorporated into the festival footprint. We will also implement “soft road closures” of neighborhood streets surrounding the Momentary to prevent unwanted parking or increased traffic. These streets will technically remain open; however, we will place signage advising “No Event Parking, Local Traffic Only” at intersections where we anticipate people might try to park.
Your neighborhood will be enjoyed by music lovers; we hope you are among them. Rest assured both City and Event Safety personnel are in place to ensure the entire neighborhood enjoys this celebration in a peaceful and safe manner.
Have questions or need assistance?
Please visit our website at www.format-festival.com or contact us at info@format-festival.com, and someone will be in touch with you to discuss any concerns or questions you might have.
***PLEASE NOTE: The email address above is format -dash- festival and not just formatfestival. If you don't include the dash (hyphen), it won't reach us.***