Growing From Their Roots

Roots come in different types: physical, metaphorical, mathematical and linguistic. The roots that speak to Jerrmy Gawthrop and Bryan Hembree, though, are food and music. As two of the organizers of the Fayetteville Roots Festival -- now in its seventh year -- Gawthrop and Hembree have built an event dedicated to celebrating the traditional food, music and community that make up the Ozarks.

"This festival looks the way we dreamed it might be. This year feels like the culmination of years of dreaming -- like it's the full-grown version of what we think is possible and what we've wanted," Hembree says. "'Roots' allowed us to be broad. We're a festival that's happening within the city, and people are going to interact with it on all different levels. It attracts people who are interested in food and farming and folk music, so the idea is that we have the obligation to be wide and diverse."

That diversity comes in the form of filling stages across the city with music, filling still more stages with food and local chefs and engaging the community with free programming designed to connect people more deeply with the elements that make the Ozarks special. It's about "curating an experience," says Gawthrop.

"Lots of fun things are open to the public, which is great because you can participate all weekend long and do it for free. It's a big, feel-good festival all around. Every little nook and cranny of it is thought out, and [the festival] puts Fayetteville on a stage. It shows all of what we're doing," he adds.

The organizers say about 40 percent of the festival is free programming. Favorites from past years -- like the live broadcasts and artist interviews through KUAF -- will make their expected return among new events like the Dig In series, added this year.

"It's a combination of farm classes from bee keeping and composting to gardening. All things farming. It's a mini-festival under our festival with such a wide variety [of programming], even if you're not a farmer," Gawthrop says of the new Dig In additions.

Separate conversations with Gawthrop and Hembree show they're in sync with the planning and with the vision for the festival. They echo each other when discussing the overall goal of having equal focus on the three components of music, food and community engagement. And what makes it all work, both men agree, is that it all came together naturally.

"A lot of the programs come from working with our partners that can add value [and] don't just center around the music. We've added things as they've come about and they've fit. The food and the music are really in harmony," Hembree says. People "can get live music [on stage] and with the live radio broadcast, and with the movie and the interaction with a farmer, they can see how [urban farming] interacts with the food system here in Northwest Arkansas."

The intimate nature of the concert mainstage -- with performances that sold out months ago -- may keep some music fans from getting to see the big names performing in Northwest Arkansas this weekend. But Gawthrop and Hembree agree keeping the numbers down is part of what makes the festival so special, especially when they are able to engage people in so many other ways.

"We hear this a lot from people who come [to the festival] from out of town, that 'Is Fayetteville always this exciting?'" Gawthrop says. "Our partners and sponsors and friends around town get a lot of business, too, and I think the event does an awesome time of highlighting all these things happening here. The music [on the mainstage] sells out, but instead we can be focusing on all this other stuff [to give people] -- and how fantastic is that?!"

NAN What's Up on 08/26/2016