FORT SMITH, Ark. — The annual downtown Fort Smith Peacemaker Festival will be taking place at Riverfront Park beginning Friday, July 30, at 7:00 p.m. and continuing into the weekend. The event will still be taking place as scheduled despite the heat advisory and spike in COVID cases in Arkansas.
The festival is allowing mask-wearing and social distancing to be optional for this year's event. Festival board members said they feel last year prepared them to host the concerts during another surge of COVID-19 cases.
The 2020 Peacemaker Festival COVID-19 protocols required guests to wear masks, hand sanitizer was distributed, and reminders of the protocols were displayed across stage screens.
The event was criticized after a photo surfaced showing a large crowd when state-required social distancing and mask measures were in place, resulting in the Arkansas Health Department looking into the festival.
The artists announced to perform are Cody Johnson, Paul Cauthen, Kolby Cooper, Lucero, Kylie Frey, Cody Hibbard and Tanner Usrey. Bands also scheduled to perform are Giovannie & The Hired Guns, The Band of Heathens and Muscadine Bloodline.
VIP tickets for the Peacemaker Festival are sold out, but general admissions tickets are still available online here.
The Peacemaker Festival is a nonprofit organization that is committed to providing a portion of the event proceeds to local charities to be put directly back into the community.