FORT SMITH (KFSM)- The Peacemaker Music Festival and the Big Bass Bonanza will both be coming to Fort Smith July 31 through August 2 and businesses downtown are looking forward to the big crowds.
Hector Torres is the manager at La Huerta Mexican Restaurant on Garrison Avenue. He said when there are events in Fort Smith they always get prepared to handle more guests.
“For the Steel Horse Rally, it was a record-breaker for us,” Torres said. “We did pretty good, and I hope to do it again.”
Big crowds mean a lot of preparation ahead of time.
“We try to get everything ready the day before, let`s say Thursday night,” Torres said. “We have the whole crew for the weekend. We make sure we`ve got everything. We order extra stuff.”
Torres said festival-goers can expect La Huerta to have all-day food and drink specials, and they're not the only ones who will be offering special deals. Tattoo artist Jeff Slack owns Fort City Tattoo and said he wants to do something special for the people who are in town for the Big Bass Bonanza and Peacemaker Fest.
“I`d be stoked to just do bass fishing tattoos the whole weekend,” Slack said. “I`d run a special on some bass fishing tattoos.”
He said he's excited for the business the festivals will bring to his shop.
“If there`s a festival going on usually Friday and Saturday, there`s going to be people lined up out the door waiting to get tattooed,” Slack said.
He also said he’ll be preparing for a lot of walk-ins.
“The more people that are walking around, the more people are going to get tattooed,” Slack said.
Both Slack and Torres said they'd welcome more events downtown because it helps their fellow businesses owners.
“When they do stuff like that downtown at the Civic Center or at the park we always do pretty good, not just us but everybody down here,” Torres said.