The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History will host the Air National Guard Band of the Southwest, also known as the 531st Air Force Band, for an outdoor concert on Wednesday, July 2.  The band is part of the Texas Air National Guard and is attached to the 136th Airlift Wing, a C-130 unit based in Fort Worth, Texas.  The free concert will occur behind the museum, located at 503 E. 9^th St., and will start at 7:00 p.m.  In case of inclement weather, it will be moved to the Children’s Theater at the Arkansas Arts Center, also in MacArthur Park.

The concert will feature the band’s most popular ensemble, its 40-member concert band, which performs a variety of Americana selections including Sousa marches, Broadway show tunes, big band jazz, and patriotic favorites.  The band performs for military ceremonies, music festivals, state fairs, military balls, and community events across the country, promoting Air National Guard units from Arizona to Arkansas.  In recent years the Air National Guard Band of the Southwest has given overseas concerts in Barbados, Bolivia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Nicaragua, Trinidad, Vanuatu and stateside concerts in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin.

The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History relates the military heritage of Arkansas and its citizens to a diverse and widespread audience. Located in the historic Arsenal Building in MacArthur Park – one of Central Arkansas’s oldest surviving structures and the birthplace of one of the country’s foremost military heroes – the museum collects, preserves, and interprets the state’s rich military past from its territorial period to the present.   For more information call 501-376-4602 or visit the museum website at www.ArkMilitaryHeritage.com. The museum is a program of Little Rock Parks and Recreation.