Music, burgers and golf might be the recipe for a perfect summer weekend. This year, the Walmart Northwest Arkansas Championship presented by P&G will deliver that perfection with a concert by Grammy nominee Rachel Platten, a two-day food festival and the women of the LPGA taking over the Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.
The food festival, set for June 23 and 24, has been retitled "BITE NW Arkansas" and is described by the tagline "Taste. Sip. Sample. Discover." The festival aims to give patrons an unparalleled culinary experience in their own backyard, the event planners promise.
FAQ
Community Concert: Rachel Platten
WHEN — 8 p.m. June 25
WHERE — Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion in Rogers
COST — $5-$10
INFO — arkansasmusicpavili…
On Thursday, chefs from around the region will present "Taste of NW Arkansas." Among restaurants scheduled to participate are Fred's Hickory Inn, Bordinos, Ella's, Twenty-Eight Springs, The Hive and Theo's. Tickets are $30 per person or $50 per couple at nwachampionship.com.
On June 24, the Northwest Arkansas Beer & Burger Fest will combine sample signature burgers from some of the best joints in the region with offerings from Core Brewing Co., Post Wine, Lost 40, Bentonville Brewing Co. and Black Apple. Tickets are $30 per person or $50 per couple at nwachampionship.com.
On June 25, it's all about the music, with singer/songwriter Rachel Platten at the Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion.
Live, "Platten is a bit like a slightly glossier Sheryl Crow during her early solo days -- a triple threat performer who is a classically trained pianist, an able guitarist and a powerhouse vocalist -- and her songs burst with melodic tunefulness," writes Melissa Ruggieri at AJC.com. "Not to mention her incredible likability, also an all-too-rare trait among today's pop stars."
"I've always loved music and felt deeply connected to it, but it wasn't until I was on an internship in Trinidad, and my friends asked me if I would play keys and sing backup with their band in front of 80,000 people, that I truly knew music was my calling," Platten says.
Platten has endured her share of hard knocks to get to the life she wanted, she explains in her biography. A move to New York City right after college and a band she met on Craigslist led to her "paying dues through a mix of temping during the day and getting fired a lot, gigging until 4 a.m. and lugging an 80-pound keyboard" to her fifth floor walk-up night after night. But when "Fight Song" became an anthem in 2015, Platten knew she had found the right path.
"Both 'Fight Song' and [the newer] 'Stand By You' are empowerment anthems," she says. "'Fight Song' is about finding an inner strength and accomplishing anything in your path. 'Stand By You' is a love song. It's about standing by the person you love not only when things are easy, but when things are difficult.
"I wrote [this year's] 'Better Place' for my little sister who just got married," Platten adds. "She used to believe she wasn't ever going to find someone to love, but when she found her now husband her whole soul lit up, and 'Better Place' is about seeing her find her 'Better Place'."
The best thing about performing, she explains, is "I get to share my stories and emotions with the world, with the hope that maybe something I sing or play will be exactly what someone else needed to hear."
NAN What's Up on 06/17/2016