What's on around Little Rock

Downtown Little Rock turns its Christmas tree on at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Main Street on Monday, November 23. Five days before that, two tribute bands spend an evening at the Robinson Center arguing about whether the Beatles or the Rolling Stones had the better catalog. Out at the zoo, the lanterns are already up and running on select nights, and Conway lights its own square on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

November in Central Arkansas runs on four dates: the election on the 3rd, the 50th Festival of Trees from the 12th to the 14th, Bright the Night downtown on the 23rd and Illuminate in Conway on the 28th.

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in Arkansas through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work out of Bluffton, South Carolina, and I have not been to any of these myself. Every date below comes from the organizer, the venue, the city or the state office that runs it, as each one has published it for 2026. Anything I could only find on a previous year's listing was left out of the dated list, and the ones I had to leave out are named near the bottom. I checked all of it on October 26, 2026. If you are looking at homes anywhere from west Little Rock out to Conway or down to Bryant this fall, the Central Arkansas buyer's guide covers the six counties here and the cities inside them.

Election day is Tuesday, November 3

Four issues are on the Arkansas ballot this year, and all four were referred by the General Assembly rather than by petition. The Secretary of State's notice for Issue 1 carries HJR 1018, called the Citizens Only Voting Amendment, which would limit voting to United States citizens who meet Arkansas's qualifications for an elector and would add photo identification requirements. Issue 2 is SJR 11, which would amend Article 2, Section 5 of the state constitution on the right to keep and bear arms. The University of Arkansas extension service's 2026 ballot-issues voter guide carries all four with the numbers the Secretary of State assigned them.

Issue 3 is SJR 15, on economic development districts inside cities, counties or multi-county regions, and the Secretary of State's notice carries it as Issue No. 3 for this election. It would take effect on January 1, 2027. Issue 4 is the one that would not amend the constitution. It asks whether the state may issue up to $500 million in general obligation bonds for water and related infrastructure. No more than $165 million of that could go to irrigation facilities, and no more than $60 million could be issued in any two-year period without further legislative approval. The initiatives and referenda page from the same office lists no citizen initiative certified for this general election.

Polls are open from 7:30 in the morning to 7:30 in the evening, which the state's voting page and its election calendar both give. The general runoff for county and municipal races, where one is needed, is December 1. Your county clerk handles your registration and your polling place, and in this metro that is six different clerks, in Pulaski, Faulkner, Saline, Lonoke, Grant and Perry counties.

You may hear about Issue 3 again later if you buy here. An economic development district would be a new tool for a city or county to fund growth, and the Arkansas Senate's own write-up says the details of how the districts would work are left to legislation in next year's session. The county and the city an address is in decide the tax bill and which utility serves it. The buyer's guide linked above walks through that city by city.

Beetlejuice closes at the Robinson Center on the 1st

Celebrity Attractions' season page for Little Rock runs Beetlejuice at the Robinson Center from October 30 through November 1, so the Sunday performance is the last one. The Wiz is the next show in the same Broadway season, and it comes in January 2027 rather than this fall. The Robinson Center ticket office is at 426 West Markham.

Glitz and Garland fills the Benton Event Center, November 5 to 7

The City of Benton's event listing and the Benton Area Chamber of Commerce both put Glitz and Garland at the Benton Event Center on Thursday, November 5 through Saturday, November 7, a chamber event presented by Everett Buick GMC. Thursday evening is Girls Night Out, from 5:30 to 8:30, ticketed on its own. Friday and Saturday open with private shopping from 8:30 to 11 in the morning, then public shopping from 11 in the morning, until seven in the evening on Friday and five in the afternoon on Saturday. Tickets are sold for each session, and the chamber's page has the current prices.

Saline County is the Benton and Bryant half of this metro, down I-30 from Little Rock, and the Benton Event Center is on the interstate at the north edge of town.

SoMa After Dark is Friday the 6th

The SoMa district's own page runs SoMa After Dark on the first Friday of the month, which makes it Friday, November 6 this time, from four in the afternoon until ten at night along South Main Street. The visitors bureau's listing gives the same hours and puts the footprint between 12th and 29th Street. The December one falls on the 4th.

SoMa is the South Main district, running south from where Main Street meets Interstate 630. It is one of the parts of Little Rock where new homes are being built above shops rather than out on a new street, and the buyer's guide covers what that means for an address there.

Hot Wheels, a Christian tour and Monday Night RAW at Simmons Bank Arena

The arena's own page has Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Glow-N-Fire three times across the weekend: Saturday, November 7 at 11:30 in the morning and again at 6:30 in the evening, then Sunday the 8th at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Third Day, Chris Tomlin and TobyMac are touring together and reach North Little Rock on Sunday, November 22 at seven in the evening. WWE Monday Night RAW closes the month there on Monday, November 30 at 6:30. All three are on the Argenta side of the river, a short walk from the Broadway and Main Street bridges.

Two Bears home games in Conway, on the 7th and the 21st

The University of Central Arkansas's own 2026 schedule has West Georgia at First Security Field at Estes Stadium on Saturday, November 7. Austin Peay comes to the same field on Saturday, November 21, for Senior Day and a Salute to Service game. The school has not published a kickoff time I could read for either one, and the national listings disagree, so that is one to read on the athletics schedule before you set your day around it. The road game in between is at Eastern Kentucky on the 14th.

A Saturday home game fills the streets around campus and the parking on Donaghey Avenue. If you are touring homes in Conway on either of those Saturdays, you'll want to look at what the traffic does around Dave Ward Drive before you set the appointment.

The Veterans Day ceremony is at the Capitol on Wednesday the 11th

The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs' events page has a Veterans Day Ceremony in the State Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday, November 11, from 11 in the morning until noon. The Capitol is at 500 Woodlane Street. North Little Rock city offices are closed that day, which the city's holiday calendar confirms.

Little Rock Air Force Base is up I-57 at Jacksonville, and this metro carried 1,321 VA purchase loans in 2024, from the FFIEC's HMDA data for that year. If you are buying with a VA loan here, how VA loans work in Arkansas covers entitlement, the funding fee and what the base's housing allowance does and does not do for the income a lender can count.

CARTI's Festival of Trees turns 50, November 12 to 14

CARTI's own events page puts the Festival of Trees in the Wally Allen Ballroom at the Statehouse Convention Center from Thursday, November 12 through Saturday, November 14. 501 LIFE's September 28 report describes the 50th year opening with a father-daughter Sugar Plum Ball on the Thursday, the Festival of Fashion runway show on the Friday and the Tux 'n Trees black-tie gala on the Saturday. Designer-decorated trees are auctioned, with mobile bidding open through Saturday night, and tickets went on sale September 29 at CARTI.com.

Last year's festival ran November 6 to 8, so the dates moved. If you are working from a 2025 flyer, you will be a week early.

The symphony plays Beethoven on the 14th and 15th

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's events page has Beethoven and Blue Jeans at the Robinson Center on Saturday, November 14 and Sunday, November 15 at 7:30 in the evening, with Geoffrey Robson conducting. The program is Rossini's William Tell Overture, Shuying Li's Coping Cadences and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.

Violin Voices follows on November 17 and 18 at the Stella Boyle Smith Music Center on East 3rd Street, which is the orchestra's chamber series rather than the Robinson Center. The program is violin sonatas by Beethoven, Martinu, Ravel and Szymanowski, played by its own musicians. The same page lists a Family Concert, Holiday Brass, on the 21st and 22nd without naming the hall, so that is one to read on the orchestra's own calendar before you drive in.

Little Rock Hall has three nights this month

The Hall is on West 9th Street downtown, and it is a cashless room, so cards only at the bars and the box office. Tab Benoit's listing has him there on Sunday, November 15 as a seated show with Jesse Dayton opening, doors at six and music at seven, all ages.

Bodysnatcher brings the Hell Is Here, Hell Is Home Tour on Tuesday, November 17, with Gideon, PSYCHO-FRAME and Volatile Ways, doors at six and music at seven. Zoso plays Saturday, November 21, with doors at 6:30 and music at eight.

Four more nights at the Robinson Center

Beatles VS Stones: A Musical Showdown is on Wednesday, November 18 at seven in the evening, with Abbey Road playing the Beatles against the Rolling Stones tribute band Satisfaction. Desi Banks brings Your Favorite Cousin on Saturday, November 21 at seven.

A Celtic Christmas, from the company A Taste of Ireland, is on the venue's calendar and the company's own tour page for Sunday, November 22 at four in the afternoon. Mojo Brookzz takes Black Friday, November 27, with two shows, at 7:30 and at ten in the evening.

Bright the Night lights the downtown tree on Monday the 23rd

The Downtown Little Rock Partnership's events page has Bright the Night on Monday, November 23 at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Main Street. The partnership has not posted a 2026 start time where I could read it. In past years the evening has opened at 5:30 with the tree lighting at six, so that is worth checking on their page before you go. The 2025 event was called off for weather, and the partnership has not posted any change to this one.

Illuminate lights the Conway square on Saturday the 28th

The City of Conway's 2026 events calendar has Illuminate on November 28, from three until seven in the evening, and the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce lists the same date. November 28 is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The chamber's event page for it still shows last year's November 29 date, and it points you to conwaychristmas.com for the current schedule. It is held at Rogers Plaza, the arched plaza at Oak and Van Ronkle that the city opened in 2014 as the entrance to historic downtown. Past years have included a Ferris wheel, children's activities and pictures with Santa.

GloWILD runs select nights at the zoo all month

The zoo's own GloWILD page runs the lantern festival on select nights from October 29, 2026 through January 3, 2027, from five in the evening until nine, with last entry at 8:30. Which nights those are is not published as a fixed weekly pattern, and the zoo's GloWILD questions page says the event is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Tickets are sold for it.

The zoo's own events calendar also carries a GloWILD Opening Weekend on November 5 to 7, a week after the season start date, and a New Year's Eve party on December 31. You'll want to pick your night from the zoo's own calendar rather than from the season dates, because the two do not quite line up.

The farmers markets in November

Hillcrest is the one that stays open. Its listing runs Saturday mornings from eight until eleven between October and April, on the front sidewalk of Pulaski Heights Baptist Church at 2200 Kavanaugh and around the corner on Cedar Street. That makes the November Saturdays the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th. The market closes for snow and ice.

The big downtown market is done for the year. The visitors bureau's 2026 season release has the Little Rock Farmers Market running in the River Market pavilions on Saturdays from May 16 through August 1, its 52nd year. The West Little Rock Farmers Market at Breckenridge Village ran Saturdays from April 18 through October 31, so its last morning is the Saturday before this month starts.

Four holiday dates land in December instead

Four holiday dates land just after this month ends. The visitors bureau has the Little Rock Holiday Parade on Saturday, December 5. Festivities start at two in the afternoon and run until 5:30, with Santa at the Statehouse Convention Center, and the parade steps off at three from Broadway and West Markham and heads east toward Interstate 30. The Arkansas State Capitol lighting ceremony follows at 5:30, with its own tree lit around 6:15.

Down in Saline County, the City of Benton has its Small Town Christmas tree lighting on Sunday, December 6 at 5:30 in the evening in downtown Benton. MySaline's registration notice has the Saline County Christmas Parade on Monday, December 7 at six. The next SoMa After Dark is Friday, December 4.

Events I could not confirm for this year

Eight things that turn up on November lists around Central Arkansas are not in the dated list above, because the organizer had not published this year's date where I could read it on October 26.

A Veterans Day parade is first on that list. The state ceremony at the Capitol is confirmed and it is in the list above. Neither Little Rock nor North Little Rock has a 2026 parade or city ceremony posted. A 2024 local guide describing an 11 o'clock ceremony at the Arkansas State Veterans Home is the most recent dated version I found.

Sherwood's Enchanted Forest Trail of Lights has no 2026 opening date up. The drive-through trail enters at the Sherwood Sports Complex, 420 Dee Jay Hudson Drive, and exits on West Maryland Avenue. Last year it opened on the Friday after Thanksgiving, November 28, and ran nightly through December 30, which would put a repeat of that pattern in the last days of this month. Sherwood will post the opening date on the city's parks pages.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock men's basketball is not in the list either. A national listing carries four November home games, but I could not read the home schedule on the athletics department's own pages, so I left it out rather than print a date and a venue from a third party. You can read the home schedule and confirm the Jack Stephens Center on the team's own page.

The remaining five are quicker to go through. The Argenta Farmers Market in North Little Rock has listings that disagree about its address, its hours and whether it runs past October. The Bernice Garden market in SoMa is described as running through November, with no final Sunday given. Conway has no 2026 Christmas parade date posted. The Candlelight Gala at the Historic Arkansas Museum on East 3rd Street has no 2026 date up. The Fall Artisan, Trade and Vendor Expo on West Markham appears only on ticket aggregators.

New around Central Arkansas this year

Eaton is building a million-square-foot plant in North Little Rock. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission's September 2 release puts the investment above $242 million and the hiring at 1,200 jobs. Eaton's own release says the plant will build customized electrical enclosures for its Fibrebond business, serving data centers and utilities, and that it expects to double the company's United States capacity for them. The release describes manufacturing, electrical and operations roles with training and advancement paths. Eaton's own hiring page puts the start of operations in 2028, so this is a plant to watch rather than a payroll to move for this winter. The city, the commission and the Metro Little Rock Alliance all had a hand in bringing it here.

A job that starts or moves changes which documents go on your loan file. For a salaried position, please provide your offer letter and your pay stubs covering the last 30 days, please. If you will be working for yourself once you get here, please provide your complete income tax returns, all pages and schedules, please. We will need the past two years for you personally and for any business that you may have an interest in. Pre-approval in Arkansas covers what gets reviewed before anybody writes a letter, and self-employed mortgages in Arkansas covers the returns side of it.

The Highway 5 interchange in Cabot is a two-year job and the ramps have already moved. ARDOT closed the Highway 5 entrance ramp to Interstate 57 southbound on the evening of June 22 so a new ramp could be built. Its June release gives the detour as John Hardin Drive and a temporary signal. The May release puts the project at $53.9 million, awarded to Weaver-Bailey Contractors, rebuilding the interchange as a single point urban interchange, which puts all of the turns through one signal, with completion expected around mid-2028.

ARDOT crews were setting bridge girders at the Highway 5 overpass through the second half of October. The October 16 notice gives nightly closures of I-57 there from nine in the evening until five in the morning, southbound October 18 to 22 and northbound October 25 to 29, with a detour at the Exit 16 ramps.

Cabot and Ward are up that corridor, and part of what a home there costs you is the drive into Little Rock. If you are comparing a home in Cabot with one in Sherwood or Jacksonville, you'll want to drive both at the hour you would normally make the trip, while this work is going on.

A home that changes hands in Arkansas gets reassessed without the cap the previous owner had. Amendment 79 limits how fast a home's taxable value can climb after a countywide reappraisal, and that limit does not carry over to you. The assessor values the home again at the next assessment date after the transfer, and a new owner cannot claim a limitation on assessed value until the second assessment date after the sale. On a home somebody has owned for years, please budget from the full value rather than from the current owner's bill. What happens to your property taxes after you buy explains how a sale reaches the assessment. The Arkansas homestead credit covers the credit you claim on the home you live in, and who pays the Arkansas transfer tax covers the tax you and the seller split at closing.

Common questions

When is the downtown Little Rock Christmas tree lighting in 2026?

Monday, November 23, at Capitol Avenue and Main Street. The Downtown Little Rock Partnership lists the date for Bright the Night but has not posted a 2026 start time where I could read it. In past years the evening has opened at 5:30 with the tree lighting at six. The Little Rock Holiday Parade is a separate day, Saturday, December 5, stepping off at three in the afternoon from Broadway and West Markham.

Is the Little Rock Zoo's light festival open in November?

Yes, on select nights. The zoo's GloWILD page runs the festival from October 29, 2026 through January 3, 2027, five in the evening until nine, with last entry at 8:30. The zoo publishes it as select nights rather than a fixed pattern, and its questions page says the event is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. You'll want to pick your night from the zoo's own calendar.

Are the farmers markets open in November around Little Rock?

One of the big ones is. The Hillcrest market runs Saturday mornings from eight until eleven through the winter at 2200 Kavanaugh, which makes the November Saturdays the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th. The downtown River Market season closed on August 1 this year, and the West Little Rock market at Breckenridge Village closed on October 31.

Are all of these events in Little Rock itself?

They are spread across three counties. Bright the Night, the Festival of Trees, the Robinson Center shows, the Hall and the zoo are in Little Rock in Pulaski County. Simmons Bank Arena is across the river in North Little Rock, also Pulaski. The two Bears games and Illuminate are in Conway in Faulkner County, and Glitz and Garland is in Benton in Saline County. The metro has six counties in all, and Cabot, in Lonoke County, is the one the roadwork above runs through. The county and the city limits an address is in decide its tax bill, its utility and its school district. A mailing address does not tell you which city limits a home is inside, so both are worth looking up on the address itself. The Central Arkansas buyer's guide goes through that place by place.

I am moving to Central Arkansas this winter. Where should I start?

You'll want to start with which county and city the address is in, because that decides the tax bill, the water and sewer utility and the school district. Those three can change from one side of a road to the other in this metro. The second thing is the reassessment: your tax bill will likely be higher than the seller's, because the Amendment 79 cap on taxable value does not pass to a new owner, so please budget from the full value. Arkansas also charges a real property transfer tax at closing, and by statute it is paid half by the seller and half by you unless your purchase contract says otherwise. The Arkansas page covers that tax and the rest of the state's closing rules. Then please give me a call and tell me which cities you are looking in, and I can walk you through what your numbers look like in each one.