How we pick

The rules we hold to

We check the source

Every place and date in a guide is checked against the organizer's own website, ticket page or city calendar, not a roundup or a repost. When an organizer hasn't posted this year's date, we say so instead of guessing from last year.

Every guide carries its date

The top of each guide says when we last checked it. Dates, hours and prices are as the organizer posted them on that day, and they change, so we recheck before each season and whenever a reader tells us something moved.

Nobody pays to be picked

A spot in a guide, a newsletter pick, or a place in a list's order can't be bought. Inclusion is an editorial call: is it real, is it open, is it worth your evening.

No ratings, no reviews

We don't score places or collect star ratings. We tell you the specific things that help you decide: the price, the hours, where to park, who it's good for.

What is paid, and how you can tell

NWA Today is free to read because some businesses pay for labeled space. Here's all of it:

Featured events

Organizers can pay to feature an event. It's marked Featured · Sponsored and sits in its own row above the list. The calendar's date order and our picks never change because of it.

Newsletter sponsors

A sponsor's message runs in its own block marked Sponsored or Advertisement, in the sponsor's approved words, never inside the picks.

Trusted pros

Home-service pros on our directory pay for their placement, and every one of those pages says so. What we check before listing them is in our verification standards.

The full policy is on our advertising disclosure page.