By Joseph Rousseau.

In November of 2023, the city of Fayetteville closed Dickson Street’s largest parking lot. By December of 2024, a year later, it had been replaced with a wide-open public park and plaza replete with seating and recreational space, places to find shade and more.

The Upper Ramble is at the center of Fayetteville’s entertainment district, at the intersection of Dickson Street and West Avenue. The Razorback Greenway runs directly through its heart, allowing the park to serve as a prominent hub and gathering space from which pedestrians and cyclists can easily connect to the district’s many amenities. Guests have access to picnic tables, swinging seats, a grassy lawn, and a natural spring-fed water feature; all of this is just steps from many of Fayetteville’s most celebrated restaurants, bars, event venues, food-trucks and more.

Since its opening, The Upper Ramble has hosted numerous free, family-friendly public events. On Friday, Sep. 12, it hosted “Weekend Starts,” a weekly series of community-oriented public events put on by Fayetteville’s Department of Parks, Natural Resources and Cultural Affairs. This week’s installment featured live music by Asher Perkins and Friends, a block-printing station organized and led by artist Braxton, and a live painting demonstration by Shay Holloway. Every artist present was local, and all attractions were free to the public.

People of all ages and from all walks of life were drawn to the event for different reasons. Some were art students, there to decorate a free zip-bag or bandana with Braxton; others, like Logistician Eden, came for the promise of free live music. But many just happened to be passing by and decided to stay a while. Alex Christodoulou, professional photographer (and amateur juggler), was on his way home from work and stopped when he heard Asher’s band.

 “I didn’t know it was happening. I didn’t even know what Weekend Starts was,” he said. 

Though he hadn’t planned to attend Weekend Starts, his experience at The Ramble made him a fan. He stated that he intends to return for more events in the near future.

Since its debut in 2022, Weekend Starts has been a success. At a previous week’s installment of the series, Braxton ran a guided terrarium building workshop.

“Before the terrarium event even began, I had a whole line of people waiting to get started,” Braxton said, as they washed off a fox-shaped wooden stamp. 

Braxton’s block-printing station stayed bustling, often with no empty seats, from start to sunset. At the same time, Asher’s band kept a full, enthusiastic audience until the end of their set. The entire park remained busy all evening, from seniors block-printing or enjoying the concert, to young children splashing up and down the water feature; parents, happy to see their kids’ attentions diverted, relaxed and enjoyed one another’s company. All throughout the park, there seemed not to be a single person who wasn’t smiling.

A short walk of some two blocks down the Razorback Greenway brings visitors to the Lower Ramble, the public space along the length of the Greenway between W Center and W Prairie Streets. This space includes the beautiful Fay Jones Woods, as well as a charming little park that bridges Tanglewood Branch Creek. Here, visitors can wade through the creek, experience and learn about the local ecosystem, or attend more free public events.

The Upper and Lower Rambles are two halves of a broader public project known as The Ramble. All put together, they combine into a 50-acre, roughly half-mile corridor of public space that provides safe, convenient walkability between Dickson Street and the newly-developed Prairie Street. According to Fayetteville Arts & Culture Director Joanna Bell, the project aims to help Fayetteville’s general public and creative arts communities grow closer together, so that Fayetteville can more proudly and visibly show off its local character. The Ramble follows a route that connects directly to local cultural institutions like the Walton Arts Center, TheaterSquared and the Creative Community Center; this proximity allows The Ramble to cultivate and expand what Bell calls the heart of [Fayetteville’s] cultural ecology.

According to Bell, The Ramble and the events it hosts are each examples of “public goods.” These are products, services or other resources provided by a government for its people’s use that are non-competitive; one person’s use of a public good does not exclude another person from using it or any other good. 

“Public goods strengthen a place’s sense of community,” Bell said as she dodged out of the way of a high-speed laughing toddler, trailing water behind. “They are what make a place feel like a place.”

What is a city’s responsibility to its people, if not to provide them with as good a place to live as possible? By putting on events meant for people in a space meant for people, rather than for profit, the Parks department is aiming to help Fayetteville strengthen its identity as a city – and it is difficult to argue that they aren not doing a good job. Standing in the middle of a beautiful space, surrounded on all sides by people smiling and laughing together, it may suddenly occur to a person that events like these, looked at from any angle, make Fayetteville a better place to be.

Weekend Starts are only one part of a broader effort by the Parks department to generate public goods through the arts. The Ramble has hosted a multitude of events in the past, including silent discos, light shows, trick-or-treating and much more, and will continue to do so in the future. Weekend Starts’s season will end after their event on Oct. 17, but in the coming weeks The Ramble will host numerous events, such as a ukelele sing-along, a two-night silent disco and lights show, public DJ sets and more.

The event schedule and more information about The Ramble can be found online. Learn more about Asher Perkins and his music on his instagram @asher_perkins. To see the painting Shay produced at the event, as well as other works and more information about her art, follow her on Instagram @artgirlshay. To learn more about Braxton’s art and upcoming events, follow their Instagram @TheRealBraxtonC.