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Welcome to Visit Bentonville's podcast A

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New American Town . As always , we're coming

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to you from Hachston Road Studios off

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the bustling Bentonville Square . I'm

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your host , alan Woody , joining

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me in studio . Today we have Jill

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Weger recently appointed

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director of the momentary . Well

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, congratulations on that . Really , really

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cool promotion .

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Thank you , alan , and it's good to

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be talking to a neighbor here in Bentonville .

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Yes , ma'am , Now tell me a little bit about

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where you come from and where you're going

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, because it's kind of awesome .

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That's terrific . I'm happy to do that . I

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joined the Crystal Bridges team in 2011

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and have been working most

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recently as deputy director of Crystal Bridges

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, and just last week was

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asked to step into the role of the director

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of the momentary , and I couldn't be more

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excited . It is an amazing

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facility , just across

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town from our sister institution .

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And you guys have done some amazing

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events in 2023 . Now

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, I know you were with Crystal Bridges at the time , but

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would you be able to recap some of the things that

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we saw this year ? Because I mean incredible

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stuff , all the way from Wu Tang Clan

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and more .

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Crystal Bridges and the momentaries one organization

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. So I'm happy to talk about it . I've been here

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and present for all of it . We started

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out our live on the green series , outdoor

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concert series with the roots , with

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quest love . That was amazing . And

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then we ended it with Wu Tang Clan . It

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was a very loud concert but really had

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an amazing engagement from our

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community . And all in between we had

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other artists like

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brothers Osborne .

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Which is one of my favorite live acts ever . Like

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they are amazing , brothers Osborne

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.

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Did you come ?

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I was not able to . I have seen them

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several times . Of course , I used

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to host a morning show on Kicks 104

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. So I definitely have run into

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TJ and John and

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I'm a huge fan .

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That's fantastic . One of the other things

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the momentary does really well is we serve as a platform

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for our community , having others come

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in and have amazing events here , and

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our forum has been doing the Northwest

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Arkansas fashion show here in the

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momentary format . Festival

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was in September and , of course , one

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of momentary signature events is Fresh

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Grass , which is our grassroots

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festival that is very popular

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among our community .

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That sounds really awesome . What kind of bands

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and music is that involved ? Just all

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roots music ?

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Yeah , it is . So we've just announced our dates

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for 2024 May

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17th and 18th , and Jason Isbell

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is headlining Fresh Grass

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, along with a lot of other really

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wonderful musicians . The tickets

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are live and anyone

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can buy them now .

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Well , since you broke the threshold , tell

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me more about 2024 .

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Oh , threshold , we're so excited . We

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are doubling down on our music at the momentary

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in 2024 . Just last

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year we had six live on the green concerts

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and you can expect 12

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next year , but we're not

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telling you who that is quite yet

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. But for the first time ever

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, we've started an indoor winter

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music series in the Road

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House the Road House series

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and we have 14 amazing

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artists that are coming up that

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you'll enjoy . So I'm going

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to Alan , we're going to play a little quiz

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here .

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Okay , I love

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that .

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What is your favorite genre of

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music for a live concert ?

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That's hard because I

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love country . I came up in country

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, I love country , music shows and

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country to me has like five genres in it

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. I also absolutely

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love heavy metal , classic

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rock and I

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, oddly enough , enjoy classical music

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and jazz . So I have

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a pretty wide , wide palette , grab

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your .

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okay , everyone grab your pencils . So on January

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27th , alan , you need

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to be here at the momentary for

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Junior Brown .

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Nice In the Road .

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House , classic country , classic

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country . It's going to be really exciting and

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if you're into the New Orleans

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Jazz Ensembles , astral

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Project the night before on January

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26th is your place to be , and

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we have so many other genres

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from electronic

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dance music .

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EDM is really cool .

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It is . It's really cool . You

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should . Momentus is coming in March

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, which is a an entire

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electronic dance festival , a

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music festival here at the momentary .

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Very cool , and that's so there

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are .

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there are so many things that are happening that

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you're not going to want to miss . We actually

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we also have some um , um

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his sp , some Spanish speaking singers

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come into the momentary , so , um

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, we know that that's going to be popular in our community

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.

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Very , very cool Now , as

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the new director , which is really

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really cool , you got to be really looking forward

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to a very busy 2024 .

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We are . So we've actually been

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. We've been really busy this summer , um , and just

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through this fall , gearing up with a new

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look for the momentary . So

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we have refreshed our spaces . So if you

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haven't been here a while , if you haven't

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been here , you have to come . We've added

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a lot of color to our spaces

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. As you might remember , alan , we

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are a former craft

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cheese plant and we have

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an a very industrial look here inside the momentary

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. We decided to add some extra

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splashes of color . So if you come into

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our lobby and into our store

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, you are not going to really

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recognize the space as you did before . Um

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, we um are um

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having um this actually

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this weekend . We are having

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a house party all

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day um on November

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18th and we have things going

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on all across this space and

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it's really to reintroduce the community to the

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momentary , because we've changed and we've

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got a lot of new things coming . So , um , if

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you're around town this um tomorrow on November

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18th , come by the momentary . We have

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a wine and beer garden . We

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have dance parties all day long , a brand

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new visual arts exhibition that is the

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most gorgeous , vibrant photography

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of the Amazon that you have ever

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seen , and so much more .

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Very very cool . Now is

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that what is the one thing you're most

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excited about this weekend's event ?

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Well , it's the first day of the new visual arts exhibition

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, so so there is a

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one thing . That's . I mean , there's not one thing . But

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yeah , you have to come by , and you

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have to come by and decide for yourself .

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That's totally fair and I'm absolutely looking forward

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to it . So we will see you out

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there this weekend and then so many things

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coming in 2024

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. You've , oh , and you told me about it

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. You told me about a couple of things , but that was all in January

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, so we're really looking forward

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to a big year at the

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momentary .

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Absolutely . We have , um , we have so many

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wonderful food programs through

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our taste maker series and we have

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incredible live arts performances

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there is . There's so much to

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do at the momentary , or just

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to come by and hang out in our

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Onyx coffee lab and it's

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just your place to be placed

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to do whatever you'd like to do .

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That's what I really kind of recommend . Obviously

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you want to come see a show there because it is a beautiful

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vibey place . It's really cool

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. I actually love the industrial setting

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out there . But

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to just cause you could just drive

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by and get a little sense of it and then to go

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into Onyx there , enjoy a cup of Joe

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and really get a feel for it . You'll

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get very excited about the shows that appeal

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to you .

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That's . That is absolutely right . I would say there's

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always something happening

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here . Be a member , be the first to be able

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to hear about the shows that are coming , get

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discounts on tickets and just come by and see

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us .

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Where do I find stuff like a schedule on

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the on the web ? Do you have a website ? Of course

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we do the momentaryorg .

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It was a dumb question the momentaryorg .

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The momentaryorg .

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Okay , very good , and will I ?

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when will I be able to know

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a little bit more about your 2024 lineup ? You

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just keep watching for the big

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announcement .

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Ah , you're going to be cagey .

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We build up the suspense .

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All right , well , I just thought I'd get

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an inside .

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you know , it's just between us . Oh

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, yes , yeah .

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Yeah , All right Well thank you , jill .

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I really appreciate your time today . Thanks

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to everyone listening . Remember you

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can catch all of the new American town

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podcast episodes on streaming channels , following

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our social platforms or going to visit Bentonvillecom

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. Don't forget

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to follow visit Bentonville on Facebook , instagram , twitter

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, linkedin , youtube and Tik Tok . We've

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got tons of exciting events coming to Bentonville in 2023

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. Check out our event

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calendar and plan your trip today , and might want to plan

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a trip around the momentary schedules . Thanks for

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tuning in . Thanks for tuning in . We're

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going to see you next time .