Hot Springs is adding a major new event to Arkansas’s outdoor festival calendar with the launch of the Birding Festival of the South, scheduled for October 8 through 10, 2026 in and around the city. The festival will highlight bird watching opportunities across the region, tapping into Hot Springs’s location amid diverse natural habitats including Hot Springs National Park, Ouachita National Forest and area lakes. The timing is intentional to coincide with fall migration when birds not commonly seen locally move through the region.
To kick off planning, Visit Hot Springs will host an initial meeting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, January 6 in Room 205 of the Hot Springs Convention Center. The meeting will be open to birding enthusiasts, community partners, volunteers and businesses that want to help shape the inaugural event.
Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison emphasized the importance of community expertise in shaping the festival. “While all of us who live here are impressed every year by the huge variety of birds we see each fall, we here at Visit Hot Springs recognize that we need actual birding enthusiasts to tell us what we need to know about putting together the first-ever Birding Festival of the South for our city.”
Marketing Director Bill Solleder said the January meeting will be a general-interest gathering for organizations interested in partnering, volunteers, businesses interested in sponsoring and anyone who wants to serve on the festival committee. “We really want to hear from people who know and love birds about the things that we need to know and include to make this initial event a success for the city and for the bird enthusiasts who will attend.”
Special Events Manager Alexis Hampo added “We really just want to hear some ideas from real-deal birders and get the community involved in this event. I imagine Hot Springs is prime for bird watching. I’m thinking about the National Park, Lakes Ouachita, Degray and Catherine, the Northwoods Trails, the list goes on.”
The event will be designed around the interests of a wide range of participants including beginners, novice birders and serious enthusiasts. Cultural arts events inspired by birding will also be part of the festival. National data shows bird watching has grown rapidly as a pastime with participation nearly doubling in recent years.
John Simpson, president of the Diamond Lakes Arkansas Master Naturalists Chapter, invited the public to get involved saying, “The Birding Festival will be a great opportunity to share seasonal Arkansas birding with Hot Springs’ famous hospitality. Join us.”
Organizers hope the festival will not only celebrate the natural beauty of the region but also strengthen local tourism by drawing visitors to Hot Springs in early October.
Birding is not only a popular outdoor activity but also a powerful economic driver across the country. In 2022 birders in the United States spent more than $107 billion on activities related to bird watching including trips, food, and lodging gear and equipment such as binoculars, cameras, and feeders which supports hotels restaurants retailers and guide services while generating significant consumer demand and tax revenue. National estimates show this activity helps support more than 1.4 million jobs and contributes tens of billions of dollars in labor income and broader economic output each year. Applying these patterns to Hot Springs suggests that a well-organized birding festival timed with fall migration could attract visitors from across the region whose travel and event spending would boost local businesses increase lodging occupancy and elevate spending in restaurants shops and outdoor recreation services while reinforcing Hot Springs’s reputation as a destination for nature tourism.
For more information contact Alexis Hampo at 501-321-2027.
This article was originally published on ArkansasOutside.com, your trusted source for outdoor news and updates in The Natural State. Unless otherwise credited, all photos included in this piece are the property of Arkansas Outside, LLC. We take pride in sharing the beauty and adventures of Arkansas through our lens—thank you for supporting our work!
