Second Night Of Last Night

Fayetteville festival returns to ring in new year

Artist’s Laboratory Theater will once again perform inside a “sheet fort” at this year’s Last Night celebration.
Artist’s Laboratory Theater will once again perform inside a “sheet fort” at this year’s Last Night celebration.

Creative writing by a middle-school student, a Craigslist ad, comment threads from a media website and ephemera found on the ground might not seem to add up to much. But for Erika Wilhite and Artist’s Laboratory Theater, they were enough to inspire a performance.

“Found Fayetteville,” which Wilhite describes as a 50-minute “love letter to Fayetteville,” is among the myriad offerings at this year’s Last Night New Year’s Eve celebration. It will be performed in one of Wilhite’s womb-like “sheet forts,” where audiences snuggle into bean bags inside a fabric structure.

“It’s really cool because it feels like when you were a kid,” she says.

Drama is just one of the arts represented at Last Night, adds Wilhite, who is also the festival’s programming coordinator.

“The reason why I’m part of this is because Fayetteville has such a diverse performing arts scene, and Last Night is about showcasing that,” she says. “It’s almost like our calling card, a way to put the work out there so Fayetteville knows where to find it next.”

Last Night took over the concept of a community New Year’s Eve celebration in 2011 after First Night Fayetteville came to an end in 2009.

“We realized it was such a Fayetteville tradition, we had to pick up the torch,” says event coordinator Lauren Embree.

“We changed the name because we wanted it to be a different celebration, to expand from a kids’ event into the younger adult population.”

In just its second year, the festival is growing by leaps and bounds, she adds.

“It’s been more successful than we could have imagined,” Embree says. “Everything was packed last year, so we knew the moment the fireworks started we’d do it again and do more.”

New this year will be a local beer garden offering the region’s best brews, an adultsonly performance by the dance troupe Blossom’s Burlesque anda full children’s stage featuring music by Shaky Bugs and Jason Suel, interactive art projects hosted by Terra Studios, a performance by Marshall Mitchell and theater games with the Arts Live Theatre ensemble. There will be visual arts at the Fayetteville Underground including a fashion gallery and ashort-film festival presented by the Seedling Film Association.

Phunbags Comedy Improv and the NWA Comedians will provide the laughs.

Music is still at the heart of the festival, with 3 Penny Acre, Groovement and Randall Shreve & the Sideshow headlining the main stage,along with Emily Kaitz and Still on the Hill on the folk stage and a jazz stage curated by North Arkansas Jazz Society President Robert Ginsburg.

And the evening wraps up with the Fly-N-Hog countdown and fireworks.

“We’ve truly got something for everyone,” Embree says.

Whats Up, Pages 11 on 12/28/2012

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