BENTONVILLE -- White tents popped up between Lawrence Plaza and Compton Gardens.
Three Cinetransformers -- mobile theaters -- are in place on Northeast Third, Northeast B and North Main streets.
Signs with the Bentonville Film Festival logo are scattered throughout downtown.
Final preparation for the Bentonville Film Festival were made Monday with the festival beginning today and continuing through Sunday.
The ticket office on West Central Avenue was active with people picking up tickets and checking out merchandise Monday. A schedule board has marked which events and films still have tickets available for advance purchase.
"It's been packed this morning," said Chris Blankenship, senior vice president of sales for ARC Entertainment, the company that puts on the festival with Geena Davis. "It's been a steady stream of people, which has been really exciting."
A few doors west, Meteor Guitar Gallery owner Les Key was prepping his space for the week's activities.
On Monday morning crews worked to stage the VIP area that will be in the balcony. The stage and floor would be prepared this morning, Key said.
There will be concerts at The Meteor each night tonight through Saturday. Tickets are $25 for each show and can be bought at 9 p.m. at the door each evening.
"It'll transform it into another level of venue," Key said of The Meteor being a part of the festival.
Visit Bentonville staff assisted with putting up last-minute signs and delivering printed festival maps around downtown Monday, said Blair Cromwell, Visit Bentonville vice president of marketing and communications.
Visit Bentonville paid for the design and production of the map, which includes an event schedule, list of festival films, venue addresses and shuttle information on the back.
A committee with representatives from the festival and various city departments, such as fire and police, met Monday morning to go over last-minute details, said Kevin Boydston, deputy fire chief. The group will meet each morning during the festival, like it did last year, to discuss any issues.
One of the main differences from last year's festival is it's more concentrated in and around the downtown square so travel layouts, access routes and alternative routes for emergency personnel were a focus, Boydston said.
"Last year, we really didn't see anything that caused us to be alarmed," he said.
Preparation at the Police Department was finished about two weeks ago and have been tweaked as needed, said Capt. Mike Smith. He explained the committee with representatives from different agencies has been meeting once a month.
Resources and personnel can be more efficiently used with the festival being more condensed to downtown rather than being spread out, like it was last year, he said, adding the only unknown is what traffic will be like.
"It's not an unknown," he said, correcting himself. "It's going to be terrible. You just don't want to hit any road going to the square."
Festival and city officials encourage festival attendees to use the free parking and shuttle service that will be offered.
Shuttles will run about every 20 minutes from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. today and from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
Shuttle stops include Lawrence Plaza at 214 NE A St., Four Points by Sheraton at 211 SE Walton Blvd. and First Presbyterian Church at 901 NE J St. The Presbyterian Church stop will only be available between noon and 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, according to a news release. There will also be a "Drop and Go" stop at 108 S. Main St., where the shuttle will not wait.
NW News on 05/03/2016