Hot Springs music festival eyes changing date in ’24

HOT SPRINGS — The 19th annual Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival has come and gone on possibly the busiest weekend of the year for Hot Springs.

Taking place March 17-19, the event was just another draw to the city as the annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade, spring breaks and mountain bike racing on the Northwoods Trails all coincided to fill the streets of Hot Springs.

Event organizers at Low Key Arts say that while the festival was a success, they are considering the possibility of moving it to another date next year. To ensure festivalgoers get to enjoy the springtime weather at Cedar Glades Park and to not compete with the parade, the group is looking to push it back a few weeks.

“This arrangement has almost just become tradition,” said Sonny Kay, executive director at Low Key Arts. “That VOV and the parade kind of go hand-in-hand. It worked when VOV was in town.”

Since relocating from their old building on Arbor Street, Low Key Arts has held the three-day event in Cedar Glades Park for the past three years. This leaves them at the mercy of the unpredictable Arkansas weather and puts them a little farther out of town.

The music festival is billed as a stop for bands on their way to the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

On top of days worth of independent music, the festival also boasts art, vendors, food and workshops.

“I would say arguably that the parade and VOV are two of the most iconic things in Hot Springs on the calendar,” Kay said. “And for one to effectively compete with the other, or ineffectively as the case may be, seems unnecessary. So, the time might be coming for a change in that equation.”