Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) — April 14, 2025 — The Foundation of Arts (FOA) continues to celebrate the visual, performing and culinary arts of Northeast Arkansas with its eighth annual Oasis Arts and Eats Festival set for late April.
The festival is scheduled for Saturday, April 26, from noon to 6 p.m. along Main Street in downtown Jonesboro. Because it is an outdoor event, the area will be closed off to all traffic.
The event is a collaborative effort between the FOA, the Downtown Jonesboro Alliance, the Department of Art + Design at A-State, the Jonesboro Media Group, and NEA Artist Collective.
As the largest and most established arts festival in Northeast Arkansas, this free event will feature more than 100 vendors, including visual artists and crafters, local food vendors and restaurants, live musical performances, and kid-friendly activities, according to FOA marketing director Meridith Pierce.
“We’ve got just about anything,” Pierce said. “We’ve got people that knit and crochet. We’ve got people, of course, that are painters and sketch artists. We’ve got ceramics. We’ve got some woodworking. We’ve got just a little bit of everything. Some people do graphic design on different items. It’s all the original things that they bring and create.”
There will also be free inflatables and a free petting zoo from the Wild Ones Ranch.
The music lineup on the Centennial Rotary Plaza Stage will include Spring Hollow, R.E.C., Steve Selvidge, Ronnie Tindel, Kain’s Alibi, FENIX, John Spencer, Joe Bateman, and Cory Epps. Performance times will be announced on the Oasis Arts & Eats Festival Facebook page soon.
“The food lineup also looks amazing,” Pierce said. “Of course, all our downtown businesses will be featured and many of the restaurants will be bringing their tables outside. So, for that day only, customers can come and enjoy their food outside of any of our great downtown spots, but then we will also have some visiting food vendors as well.
The FOA has already posted about its vendors before the event. People can find out what food or items each vendor might be serving, performers, a map of the festival, and more here.
In addition, the food vendor competition will be returning. There will be QR codes near each vendor where people can vote for their favorite, with the winner announced at the end of the day. The winner will receive an on-air advertising package from the Jonesboro Media Group and one full-page ad in a FOA playbill.
She also noted that the map layout would be a little different this year due to the road closure at the corner of Main Street and Washington Avenue.
“We’re just going to slightly alter our map so that we’re not using that one end of Main where the demolition occurred. Normally, we would take up that space as well,” Pierce said.
One change that Pierce noted was the location of the FOA’s silent auction.
“We’ve always had a silent auction in conjunction with this festival,” she said. “It happens at the same time as the festival, where different participating artists that are vendors donate an item to help raise money for the Foundation of Arts. We have always historically set up in the Forum lobby, however, this year our newest venue, Stage Two, is now open and running.”
Stage Two is located at 330 S. Main St.
“People can come on in and bid on different items and all sorts of things. We always get some really good stuff and all the proceeds go back to the Foundation of Arts,” Pierce added.
In the event of poor weather conditions, the festival will be moved to Sunday, April 27, from noon to 6 p.m.