NWA food festival will celebrate diversity

Golf fans and others will have plenty of NWA food and drink to sample during the three-day BITE NWA festival.

What's happening: The annual food festival that takes place alongside the Walmart NWA Championship on the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour will feature a new theme this year: Each of the three days will focus on restaurants and cuisines from underrepresented communities.

• Festival organizers are working with Northwest Arkansas Equality to bring LGBTQ-owned restaurants to the event on its first day. The second day will focus on Black-owned businesses, and the third will highlight Hispanic heritage, the tournament director, Rachel Reece, told Axios.

Zoom out: The women's golf tourney is spread over nine days starting Sept. 23, and includes several community events, like a 5K, a guided bike ride and a women's empowerment summit.

• Overall, organizers expect about 15,000 attendees.

What they're saying: "Not everyone likes golf, but most people like to eat and drink, so we feel like it's a fun way to get people out to the golf tournament who otherwise may not have made their way out," Reece said of BITE.

Details: The festival will include about 45 NWA food and drink vendors. Everything is sample size. A $45 one-day ticket buys you unlimited samples plus entrance into the LPGA tournament. Saturday tickets are almost sold out.

• Proceeds go toward Northwest Arkansas Food Bank and a scholarship fund for NorthWest Arkansas Community College's culinary school, Brightwater.

Eat and drink: Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers. Get tickets.