Historic Downtown Square | Fayetteville, Arkansas

First Thursday on the Square is traditionally held the first Thursday of the month May through October from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

First Thursday is a vibrant, free monthly arts & culture festival brought to you by Experience Fayetteville. Each event features live music, a robust vendor market, community activations, and different activities based on a theme.

Apply to be a Food & Beverage Vendor at First Thursday

Apply to be a NON-Food & Beverage Vendor at First Thursday

Objects of art or craft produced and sold by a local artist, curator or craftsperson may be sold at the First Thursday Fayetteville.

If your organization is interested in a partnership, on-site marketing, or a sponsored activation, please reach out to Community Engagement Manager Chloe Bell at 479-935-4751 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Food &/or Beverage Vendor fees are $50.00 per event, and fees for non-food and beverage are $40.00 per event.

Yes. Experience Fayetteville establishes a budget-friendly fee for all our vendors.

This data helps us help you have the best night possible by noting trends, how sales may be affected by weather or crowds, and it shows the positive economic impact we have when we provide this community, art-focused event. Experience Fayetteville does NOT collect a percentage of your sales.

Vendor placement varies each month due to a variety of factors including electrical needs, theme activations, etc. We carefully plan our layout to ensure the success of our vendors and a fresh experience for our attendees, and therefore cannot honor specific requests for placement. If you have any needs that we need to be aware of in our planning, please let us know in your application!

Because power is limited, Experience Fayetteville will not provide electrical power or extension cords to vendors UNLESS it is necessary to operate your booth or activation. If power is required, please note that in your application.

Vendors are responsible for bringing all of their own equipment and materials needed for their setup (tent, chairs, table, lighting, extension cords, etc.)

As to not diminish or disrupt the event experience we ask our vendors to remain set up for the duration of the event. For the safety of our attendees, we do not allow vehicles on the square to assist with load out until the event has ended.

Experience Fayetteville will not be issuing refunds unless the event is cancelled.

Vendors are responsible for remitting their own sales tax to the city and state as appropriate. To learn more, visit the state website here: https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/images/uploads/revenuePolicyLegalOffice/starting_a-new_business.pdf

To complete the application, you will need the following attachments:

• At least one high quality photo of your food or beverage truck setup. This photo may be used for promotional purposes.
• Menu
• Proof of Arkansas sales tax permit if applicable

First Thursday is excited to partner with FoodLoops to create a sustainable event experience! We will have staffed waste stations to sort compostable and recyclable items to divert our event waste from landfills.

Food Vendors are required to serve their food items in compostable containers. Beverages are allowed in compostable containers, glass bottles, #1 or #2 plastic, and aluminum cans. FoodLoops is very user friendly; check out their website here: foodloops.net. If you so choose, you may order compostable containers from them. This is not required.

All food and beverage vendors must be up to date on HMR taxes to participate in First Thursday. To get started, please download the pdf here.

While we strive to ensure a diversity of items and set all vendors up for success, no one vendor will have exclusive rights to sell one type of product.