OUR HISTORY

Since its inception in 2011, the Arkansas Cornbread Festival has grown from a modest neighborhood gathering into one of Little Rock’s most beloved traditions. Founder Anita Davis hoped simply to “bring people in our community together for good food, music and conversation” and that spirit still drives the festival today.

After a year away, the Arkansas Cornbread Festival returns on November 7, 2026, bringing back the food, music, and community connection that have always made it special, along with the return of fan-favorite traditions like the amateur cornbread contest.

Cornbread has always felt like the right centerpiece for a Little Rock festival. It’s a dish that shows up, in one form or another, in nearly every Southern family’s story. That kind of common ground is exactly what this festival is about: a chance to come together, taste something familiar, and celebrate this community side by side.Since its inception in 2011, the Arkansas Cornbread Festival has exploded in popularity, far exceeding the modest expectations of founder and South Main Street advocate Anita Davis, who hoped to “bring people in our community together for good food, music and conversation.”

Originally hoping for “800 to 1,000 people, we were absolutely thrilled that thousands of people from all over the city and state came to see what makes South Main Street thrive,” Davis says.

Some might ask, “Why cornbread, and why South Main?” Davis has easy explanations. “Cornbread is an integral part of our southern heritage, and we live in a community steeped in history and tradition. It just seems to be a good fit for a festival in Little Rock.”

As for the South Main (SoMa) location, “one of the reasons the festival is important is to bring people to our area who have not seen the changes in our part of the city.” Once people see what’s happening, they want to come back – the changes are happening almost daily at this point. Instead of the somewhat blighted, definitely ignored area of a few years back, SoMa is now hopping, something many people in the city didn’t realize until attending the inaugural Cornbread Festival, which drew 1,600 paying customers (and many more who slipped in unpaid).

The 2012 festival of over 3,000 festival goers has grown! The 2018 incarnation had an even larger turnout, more than 5,000, along with bigger prizes for competitors, covering more blocks that had lots of family activities, lots of artists and makers, SoMa businesses open, and of course lots of cornbread to taste with better crowd flow.

Sustainability has become part of the festival’s culture along the way. Since 2020, the Arkansas Cornbread Festival has partnered with Plastic-Free Little Rock on a Toward Zero Waste effort – favoring paper over plastic, refillable water stations, and a steady reduction of single-use waste each year. We’re continuing that commitment in 2026, and we invite festival-goers to bring a refillable water bottle and join us in it.

We can’t wait to see you in SoMa this November!