First Friday. First Thursday. Second Saturday. Third Friday. It might take a calendar to keep them in order, but know that these community events that take place around Northwest Arkansas all promise arts, entertainment and a family-friendly atmosphere.

And with spring perhaps finally springing, these street fair-style festivals are returning.

"It's about our community," says Hazel Hernandez, who coordinates First Thursday Fayetteville for the city's Visitors Bureau.. "It's local food, local music and local arts."

Indeed, several cities have announced the lineups and new offerings for the 2014 season of outdoor community fairs. All of the events feature arts vendors, and many of them also focus on food and activities for children.

Fayetteville's First Thursday returns next week with a homage to the blues. First Thursday is teaming up with the Blues in the Natural State festival -- see Page ?? -- and offering two blues artists for free on the square. The blues performances follow a show on the mainstage by Arts Live Theatre students.

The following months will echo that pattern, with kid-friendly activities and ties to current events, such as Cinco de Mayo in May, back to school in August and Oktoberfest in October.

Around the corner from the arts and crafts and street performances will be a more adult-friendly element. A beer garden will this year feature the many local breweries that now serve up their own suds. Each month, a different local brewery will be featured, and money raised by the Visitors Bureau inside the beer garden will be given to a charitable organization.

The timing for the event has also changed slightly this year. It now begins at 5:30 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. because Hernandez says the vendors and guests need a few minutes after work to get to the festivities.

To the north, Bentonville's First Friday continues to expand and prosper. The first offering of the season took place in early March and attracted about 2,500 people, says David Deggs, executive director of sponsoring organization Downtown Bentonville Inc.

The second event of the series takes place on April 4 with an International Street Faire. It differs slightly from the other events scheduled for First Friday in that there is no musical act scheduled for the mainstage. Instead, the performers -- such as a juggler and a magician -- come visit the crowds.

Unlike other community street fairs, Bentonville's event also has a lunchtime performance from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. And because the performers often spend additional time in the area at lunch and after the event, it expands the outreach of the program, says Cher Evans, Downtown Bentonville's marketing and public relations coordinator. As an example, she points to the street artists coming in for the April 4 event. Through a partnership with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the artists will also perform at that venue on April 5.

"It extends the community, not only by location but throughout the weekend," Evans says.