Delta Arts Festival continues to grow, add artists

Since Joey Thomas was a child he has loved to write. The Grubbs native liked to write poems, short stories and when he became a musician he even dabbled in song writing. For many years, he wanted to write a book, but he only had one problem.

“I was always good at the start,” the 48-year-old told Talk Business & Politics. “I had to learn how to finish.”

Thomas was one of the featured authors at the 14th annual Delta Arts Festival held the first weekend in June in Newport. Jon Chadwell, executive director of the Newport Economic Development Commission, said about 3,800 people attended the two-day event that featured 182 artists and authors.

“It went really, really well,” he said. “In years past it seems like we would have surges in the crowd. This year, it seemed steadier. I think our Friday crowd was the largest we’ve ever had.”

This was the second year Thomas attended the arts festival as an author. He finished his first book in 2015 and has since written seven others. His latest book, “Tripping Nevada,” a fictional story about a man escaping the despair in life, was released earlier this year.

Thomas, and his wife Kimberlee, have owned several local magazines through the years. She had attended the festival in the past as an artist and he would come with her. Now that he has his own books, it provides him the chance to connect with his readers and to find new ones.

“It’s really nice. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of good people. It’s a good time,” he said.

Quantifying the economic impacts of the festival are hard to gauge, Chadwell said. Economic activity is generated by attendees who spend money on hotels, food, gasoline and other items. An estimated $250,000 is spent on the artwork at the show based on the sales tax receipts submitted each year, he said.

The first year, the show had 17 artists and 180 visitors attended. Local leaders were pleased with the turnout. Little did they know the show would double the number of artists and visitors each year until the last couple of years, Chadwell said. Most of the drop was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the numbers have rebounded in recent years.

Jackson County is mostly located in the flat lands of the Arkansas Delta. There is archeological evidence that humans have inhabited this area for at least 10,000 years. It is believed that famed explorer Hernando De Soto passed through the county and may have stayed one winter near Jacksonport, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

The county was carved out of land from Independence County in 1829. It was named for then U.S. President Andrew Jackson.

The county, like many Delta counties, has struggled to maintain its population and grow its tax base in recent years. The county has a population of about 16,600, a 1% drop since 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Median income in the county is more than $39,000 which outpaces many other counties in the Delta, but still lags behind state and national averages.

It costs about $24,000 to hold the festival, Chadwell said. Up to 100 volunteers donate their time and the costs are mostly covered by individual and business sponsors. Jackson County has up to seven small and large festivals including the Delta Arts Festival, Depot Days and the Delta Music Festival. Chadwell said they approach sponsors once a year to provide funding for all the events, and raise about $160,000 per year for the events.

When the festival first started there were many buildings in downtown Newport that were empty which made planning and organizing the artists easy, Chadwell said. As the years have passed, efforts to fill those buildings with viable businesses have been successful, but it has made planning the festival harder as the number of artists has grown, he said.

“I’ll say this. It’s a good problem to have,” Chadwell said.

Thomas has no plans to stop writing books. He is working on a book he plans to release next year. He said there is nothing better than getting lost in your writing.

Does Thomas have any advice for an aspiring writer?

“Just do it. Just make the time and do it. Put in the work. … I love the flow state, losing myself in the process. Characters start to come alive. It’s great.”