Arkansas's outdoor festival season will get underway in March, as four South Arkansas locations -- Camden, Historic Washington State Park, Bradley and Rison -- host annual events that have developed loyal followings by celebrating spring flowers and the state’s pioneer heritage, including its first governor. 

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   Camden's 14^th annual Daffodil Festival starts off the season March 9 and 10, and will feature tours of four local gardens, historic homes, a log cabin village and a host of other activities. 

   The festival's main site will be open from 9 a.m. - 7:30 p.m., Friday and from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday. General admission is free.  

   Shuttle buses from downtown will visit each tour site every 30 minutes. Admission at each of the tour homes and the village is $5 for adults, $2 for ages six to 12 and free for children under six. Admission for the garden tours is $10 for adults and $6 for ages 6-12, which includes all three gardens. For $25 for adults and $15 for kids 6-12, visitors will be able purchase admission to all of the tour sites. Those tickets and the garden-tour tickets must be purchased downtown. 

   Open for the home tours will be the 1847 McCollum-Chidester House, which features furnishings dating from 1863 and which served as a Civil War headquarters for both Confederate and Union forces. 

   Also on the festival agenda are antique dealers, sales of garden-related crafts and other arts and crafts, live music, an encampment of Civil War re-enactors, interpretive Confederate Cemetery walks featuring costumed re-enactors, sales of daffodil blooms and bulbs, a quilt show and food vendors. Special activities include a steak cook-off, a turkey-calling contest and a 5K run/walk.  

   The festival brochure will contain a map detailing a self-guided driving tour of Camden, indicating the locations of the tour homes for those who wish to drive to them. 

   For additional festival information, visit www.camdenfestival.com. Information on the festival and on Camden's other attractions and lodging may be obtained by phoning the Camden Area Chamber of Commerce at (870) 836-6426. 

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   The 39th annual Jonquil Festival will take place at Historic Washington State Park in the town of Washington. Timeframes for the festivities will be Friday, March 16 and Saturday, March 17 from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., and Sunday, March 18 from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

   While showcasing thousands of blooming jonquils, the festival will feature more than 100 arts and crafts vendors marketing their wares around the 1874 Hempstead County Courthouse and inside the 1940 WPA gymnasium; regional acts performing bluegrass, folk, gospel and other music; games for children; food vendors and a lunch buffet to be served in the park's Williams Tavern restaurant from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m., each day.  

   Some added highlights include the Bear Creek Boys. Among the members of this music group are two Arkansas legislators, Dwayne Mack and T Powers. They will be performing from 2 - 4 p.m., Saturday. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will also be on site for the weekend with their Aquarium.

   Guided tours of historic homes, a 19^th-century kitchen, the park's print and weapons museums and the 1836 Hempstead County Courthouse that served as the state's Confederate capitol from 1863-65 will be available. Special historic programs along with demonstrations in the blacksmith and candle shops will add an interesting dimension to the tours. Tickets including all tour sites will be $8 for adults and $4 for children. Lesser admissions will be charged for visiting individual sites. General festival admission will be free, with a $4 fee charge for parking.  

   One of Arkansas’s earliest towns, Washington became a gathering place in the 1830s for those plotting to free Texas from Mexico and was frequented by such figures as Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin and Davy Crockett. The southwest Arkansas community later became a jumping off point for volunteers headed to the Mexican-American War. Washington is also the place where James Black forged the Bowie Knife. 

   Historic Washington State Park, a restoration village preserving one of Arkansas’s most prominent 19^th-century towns, is located on US 278 nine miles north of Hope and can be reached by taking Exit 30 off Interstate 30. For more information visit www.HistoricWashingtonStatePark.com or call (870) 983-2684.

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   Events scheduled for the 22^nd annual Governor Conway Days festival in downtown Bradley March 30-31, include an arts and crafts show, live performances of country music, an antique car show, a motorcycle show and a team bass tournament.

   Admission will be free. The festival is named after Arkansas's first governor James Sevier Conway, who is buried in the 11.5-acre Conway Cemetery Historic State Park located 2.5 miles west of Bradley.  

   The local fire department will serve breakfast each morning at 6 a.m. There will be live country music both days, including Obie and the Boys from 10 a.m. -2 p.m., Saturday and Nighthawk from 2:30-6:30 p.m. There will be a parade at 2 p.m., and carnival set up in the downtown area that is open both nights. A monster truck show will take place all day Saturday.  

   The bass tournament will be conducted March 31 on Lake Erling, a 7,100-acre lake located about eight miles west of Bradley. It will begin at 6 a.m., and end with a 3 p.m. weigh-in at which cash and other prizes will be awarded.  

   Bradley is located six miles from Arkansas's border with Louisiana, 38 miles southwest of Magnolia via U.S. 371 and Ark. 160 and 45 miles southeast from Texarkana via U.S. 71 and Ark. 160. For more festival information and to inquire about RV campsite reservations and other area accommodations, phone Mollye McCalman at (870) 894-3554.  

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   The 36^th annual Pioneer Crafts Festival in Rison will feature arts and crafts sales, demonstrations of frontier skills and crafts and foods such as molasses cookies, homemade fried pies, teacakes and barbecue. 

   The festival starts Saturday, March 24 at Pioneer Village, a collection of historic log and wood-frame buildings preserving architecture and furnishings typical of 19th- and early 20th-century Arkansas. 

   Admission will be $2 for adults, $1 for youth ages 11-18 and free for children 10 and under. 

   Frontier skills to be demonstrated will include blacksmithing, the making of lye soap, tatting, basket weaving, chair caning and spinning. Other festival highlights will include a general crafts show, the Arkansas Dutch Oven Cook-off and country and gospel music throughout the day.  

   Rison is located just off U.S. 79 between Pine Bluff and Fordyce. To reach Pioneer Village, take Ark. 35 (left if southbound on U.S. 79, right if northbound) about half a mile to Yaney Street. Turn right on Yaney, proceed 0.2 miles and turn left on Mockingbird Lane.  

   For more festival information, contact festival director Betty Lisemby at (870) 325-7289.