Many moons ago, at a party in Rogers, the Hillberry Harvest Moon Festival was unknowingly conceived.

“Our first event was a private party,” explains Jon Walker of Deadhead Productions. “We had about 200 people come out. The second year was the same way but double the number of people. By the third one, we’re like, ‘Oh, shoot, maybe we should take this thing public.’”

Now in its eighth year, Hillberry Harvest Moon Festival, which runs Sept. 29-Oct. 1, will be at the Farm in Eureka Springs.

“This year, our lineup is a little bit different. We’ve actually expanded the genres a little bit. In the past, we’ve been very heavy on the bluegrass and jam grass,” says Walker. “We’ve got some other acts to kind of break that mold a little bit [such as] Oteil & Friends, — Oteil [Burbridge] is in the band Dead and Company — coming out. I think people are excited about Cory Wong. He was from the band Vulfpeck. He’s got an incredible new album that he just recently put out. It’s really interesting. It starts as a funk album and kind of turns into a bluegrass album. He’s done like sit-ins with Billy Strings and Del McCoury.” He adds that beloved bassist Victor Wooten will also be returning to the festival this year.

“We have a lot more local acts this year,” he adds. “We have so much musical talent in Northwest Arkansas. It’s really incredible. We really wanted to try to expand on that and give a showcase for a lot of the up-and-coming local bands. So in order to do that, we started programming earlier. We have music kicking off at noon Thursday, and music will run all the way through till the wee hours of Sunday morning.”

Walker adds that the festival starts early this year on Sept. 29 with local band Danny Spain Gang.

He says that he’s looking forward to hearing Arkansauce, a band which played at previous festivals.

“They are rapidly gaining steam. They’re emerging as more and more of a regional band and not so much of a local anymore,” he says, adding “Opal Agafia, out of Eureka Springs. She is also doing a great job. She’s been rising quite a bit and getting a lot of fanfare, so it’s good to have [her and her band] back.” He adds that he’s excited about performances by The Gravel Yard and Country Jesus and other local acts including…