Calendar of Events
Upcoming events and things to do in Asheville, NC. Below is a list of events for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, group meetups and more.
Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.
Hendersonville Ballet Company presents The Nutcracker, an annual tradition since 2019, on Friday, December 20, 2024 at 7pm, Saturday, December 21, 2024 at 3pm and 7pm and Sunday, December 22, 2024 at 3pm at the Thomas Auditorium located on the Blue Ridge Community College campus. Hendersonville Ballet is grateful to be able to put this performance on for the community following the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene.
Located within the wildly-popular and botanically beautiful Southern Appalachian Mountains, The North Carolina Arboretum offers more than 10 miles of hiking trails that connect to many other area attractions such as Lake Powhatan, the Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Visitors of all ages and abilities can enjoy their hiking experience at the Arboretum as trail options include easy, moderate, and difficult challenge levels. All trails are dog-friendly and visitors are asked to adhere to the proper waste disposing procedures for pets.
Part of a running group that would like to use the Arboretum as a starting point or parking location? Please review our Running Group Guidance and email [email protected] with any questions.
From wine and whiskey cups to flasks and goblets, the 6th Annual Vessels of Merriment exhibition at Grovewood Gallery will feature handcrafted drinking vessels by 17 potters from across the country. This ceramic invitational will kick off with an opening celebration on Saturday, November 9, from 2 to 5 pm, where guests can mix and mingle with some of the participating artists and enjoy complimentary offerings served by our friends at Metro Wines. This event is free to attend and open to the public. Vessels of Merriment will remain on view through December 31, 2024.
Find the perfect gift this holiday season for everyone on your list at the 10th annual 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗣𝗼𝗽 𝗨𝗽 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽! Shop local, shop small and support local artists, makers, and vintage collectors.
We’ve decked the halls of the Ideation Lab inside the Center for Craft in Downtown Asheville. Shop over 100 vendors; housewares, handmade jewelry, ceramics, apparel, vintage clothes, ornaments, candles, gifts for our furry friends and more.
WHEN:
Open Nov 29 through Dec 24
10am-8pm daily
WHERE:
The Ideation Lab inside the Center for Craft
67 Broadway St, Asheville, NC 28801
SC Arms Collectors Association Gun & Knife Show – Hall 1 – Parking off Exposition Drive
SCACA ADMISSION
ADULTS: $10.00 | MILITARY: $8.00
12 Yrs. & Under: Free when accompanied by an adult.
Must Show Military ID
Greenville Convention Center Parking
$5.00 Per Vehicle
DATES:
January 20 & 21, 2024
Saturday 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday 10 AM – 4 PM
August 10 & 11, 2024
Saturday 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday 10 AM – 4 PM
December 21 & 22, 2024
Saturday 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday 10 AM – 4 PM
April 20 & 21, 2024
Saturday 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday 10 AM – 4 PM
October 26 & 27, 2024
Saturday 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday 10 AM – 4 PM
UpMarket Gallery, downtown Asheville’s newest gallery and event space, is hosting its inaugural art show– The Totem: Celebrating Family, Spirit & Culture. Ten Asheville artists offer unique interpretations of totems, exploring family, spirit, and cultural themes. Through various mediums and styles, these modern totems invite viewers to reflect on their connections to family and heritage. Runs December 11 – January 31st
We welcome you to experience this captivating show in our newly restored space. Also housed within our thoughtfully updated building is the Dog & Pony Show, a curated collection of distinctive decor and gifts—perfect for your holiday shopping!
American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection features more than 100 works of art by renowned American artists. The exhibition beautifully illustrates distinctive styles and thought-provoking art explored by American artists over the past two centuries. Though many objects from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection have been on view at other museums, ranging from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and Saint Louis Art Museum, this exhibition features the best of the collection brought together in one location. The exhibition begins with Colonial-era portraits by masters, such as Benjamin West, Thomas Sully, and Sarah Miriam Peale, and then moves on to highlight the development of mid-19th-century landscape painting. Viewers will discover works depicting the United States from coast to coast by artists, including Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Jasper Francis Copsey, and even a monumental arctic scene by William Bradford.
Bill Viola’s Moving Stillness: Mount Rainier, 1979 on loan from Art Bridges is an immersive experience that explores the ideas of death and regeneration in nature. In a darkened room, sounds from nature envelop the viewer, as a placid pool of water reflects a projected image of Mount Rainier onto a screen. The water is periodically disturbed, causing the image to dissolve and slowly recompose as the pool settles. As an active volcano at rest, Mount Rainier embodies both quiet beauty and dramatic violence. Using time as both a tool and a theme in his work, Viola visualizes the dualities of nature’s rhythms of renewal, which include moments of both fragility and strength.
Ceramic artists throughout history have become masters of all four elements—creating clay from a mixture of earth and water to shape their work, drying it in air, and hardening it in fire. Throughout this process, the artist decides which aspects of the work will be tightly controlled, and when the elements can step in to leave nature’s mark. This exhibition traces the historical, stylistic, and conceptual origins of work that either embraces or refuses the element of chance in ceramics, looking at modern and contemporary work made in Western North Carolina.
The Asheville Art Museum is pleased to present Ginny Ruffner’s Reforestation of the Imagination, organized and toured by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibition imagines an apocalyptic landscape of withered plant forms that come to life when activated with augmented reality. In collaboration with animator and media artist Grant Kirkpatrick, Ruffner illuminates the delicate balance between nature and the artificial human-built world around us, putting forth an optimistic hope for the future: that technology can be a means to understand and help save the earth from environmental devastation. Visitors can download the free app “Reforestation” on their phones or use the iPads in the gallery to bring this second reality to life. When the tree rings of a stump are viewed through a device’s camera lens, a hologram of a fictional plant appears to sprout from the sculpture. These imagined fruits and flowers have evolved from existing flora, developing dramatic appendages and skills necessary to flourish in this radically different environment. In Ruffner’s fantastical reality, tulips develop stem flexibility, pears contain windows to the outside world, and flowers take on the form of birds. The installation includes Ruffner’s tongue-in-cheek descriptions of her surreal flora and their remarkable, sometimes humorous adaptations. Used as inspiration for the AR images, 19 original drawings by the artist will also be on view.
Jack’s Bluegrass Brunch kicks off every Sunday at 12 noon — with lively bluegrass tunes courtesy of The Jack of the Wood Bluegrass Brunch Boys from 1-3pm. Sip a Bloody Mary or Mimosa or a warm Irish coffee. Tasty brunch specials alongside our regular menu and 18 taps of rotating craft brews! Sláinte, y’all!
For two decades and counting, this beloved local holiday tradition has brought warmth and light to winter’s darkest days — offering a comforting blend of global folk traditions from the diverse, multidisciplinary artists who call this region home. This year welcomes a charismatic mix of new and returning artists to A Swannanoa Solstice’s seasonal variety show for an evening of music, storytelling and wholesome holiday cheer.
The 2024 A Swannanoa Solstice line-up:
“Klezgrass” duo Zoe & Cloyd
Acoustic musician and storyteller Josh Goforth
Highland bagpiper E.J. Jones & The Piper Jones Band
Roots music duo Newberry & Verch
LatinX indie-folk artist and songwriter M A R
A.C. Reynolds Chorale
Storyteller and emcee Becky Stone
Christmastime in Brevard
December 22, 2024 at 3:00 pm
Celebrate the holidays with the Brevard Philharmonic! All of your favorite holiday tunes, Haydn’s Toy Symphony, “The Night Before Christmas,” and more, with special guest vocalists Jennifer D’Agostino and Michael Roemer.
- 2nd and 4th Sundays – check the calendar on our home page
- 4 pm – 6:00 pm
- Mid-Winter English Country Dance Weekend – Feb 2-4, 2024
- There is also an ECD Wednesday evening from 7:00 pm- 9:00 pm; various callers; and recorded music.
- (This is not an OFB activity) For information contact: [email protected]
Jack’s long-running Traditional Irish Music Session is the perfect way to enjoy the Celtic-influenced sounds of talented pluckers from all over WNC & further afield! Stop in to enjoy a pint or afternoon Irish coffee with the music! Sláinte!
Sippin’ Santa at The Tiki Easy Bar is back from Nov. 18 through Dec. 31. We’re throwing a tropical island-themed holiday party every single day—don’t miss the fun! Along with a curated menu of expertly crafted cocktails and over-the-top holiday decor, Sippin’ Santa’s much sought-after custom mugs and glassware will be available for purchase while supplies last.
Reservations are not required, but if you’d like to book our private room “Cynamon Cove” for 6-10 people, visit: tiki-easy-at-hi-wire-brewing.resos.com/booking.
Throwing a holiday party or a larger gathering? Email [email protected] to inquire.
Monday-Thursday 4-9pm
Friday & Saturday 3-10pm
Sunday 3-9pm
The Tiki Easy Bar is a hidden tropical oasis behind Hi-Wire’s South Slope tap room.
Official Menu: sippinsantapopup.com/menu
Mocktails, Frozen Drinks, & Spirits: bit.ly/tikieasysippinsantamenu
Buncombe County Parks & Recreation is ready to make the season a little merrier and a lot brighter with the annual Festival of Lights. Lake Julian Park’s captivating display of thousands of holiday lights begins TONIGHT, Friday, Dec. 6 through Monday, Dec. 23, and will occur nightly from 6 to 9 p.m. This long-time mountain family tradition turns the park into a magical wonderland filled with sparkle and celebration.
Each night, you can stay in the comfort of your own car while oooh-ing and ah-ing at the illumination and listening to your favorite festive tunes. Due to the impact of Tropical Storm Helene, this year’s Festival of Lights will only offer the drive-thru experience.
Admission is $10 per car for personal vehicles, $25 for sprinter vans, trailblazers, and conversion vans, and $50 for buses and motorcoaches. Purchased tickets will be valid for one-time use on any night of the festival; tickets are not date specific. On Tuesdays, Buncombe County residents in their personal vehicles will be given free entry.
A portion of the ticket proceeds will benefit the Special Olympics of Buncombe County.
Winter Lights is a spectacular open-air walk-through light show made from over one million lights! Located at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, North Carolina, this year’s event features favorites like the famously tall 50-foot lighted tree and the Quilt Garden, along with enchanting new details designed to delight and surprise. All prices are per vehicle. No pets allowed.
Winter Lights features live entertainment nightly and food and beverages from the Bent Creek Bistro, the Cocoa Shack and the Cocoa Cabin! Open nightly from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m.
For two decades and counting, this beloved local holiday tradition has brought warmth and light to winter’s darkest days — offering a comforting blend of global folk traditions from the diverse, multidisciplinary artists who call this region home. This year welcomes a charismatic mix of new and returning artists to A Swannanoa Solstice’s seasonal variety show for an evening of music, storytelling and wholesome holiday cheer.
The 2024 A Swannanoa Solstice line-up:
“Klezgrass” duo Zoe & Cloyd
Acoustic musician and storyteller Josh Goforth
Highland bagpiper E.J. Jones & The Piper Jones Band
Roots music duo Newberry & Verch
LatinX indie-folk artist and songwriter M A R
A.C. Reynolds Chorale
Storyteller and emcee Becky Stone
Experience the magic of Christmas with The Many Moods of Christmas Concert! This joyous concert is our gift to the community and the perfect way to celebrate the season.
Sunday, December 22
7:00 PM
First Baptist Church of Asheville
Performers include:
• The First Baptist Church of Asheville Adult Choir
• The Asheville Symphony Orchestra
• The Asheville Youth Choirs
• Craig Verm, Baritone
Tickets are free, but reservations are required. Gather your family and friends for this memorable night of holiday music and community celebration.
The Western Front, Christmas, 1914. Out of the violence a silence, then a song. A German soldier steps into No Man’s Land singing “Stille Nacht.” Thus begins an extraordinary time of camaraderie, music, and peace. A remarkable true story, told in the words and songs of the men who lived it.
“A beautiful musical retelling of a World War I ceasefire
with gifts of music, poetry, and melody.”
-New York Times
Showtimes are 7:30pm for evening performances and 2pm for matinees. Please visit our website for showtimes and tickets. All tickets for all shows are being offered at a sliding scale so that everyone in our community can enjoy professional theatre in the aftermath of Helene. If you cannot afford the lowest tier, please reach out to our box office and we will work with you.
The Western Front, Christmas, 1914. Out of the violence a silence, then a song. A German soldier steps into No Man’s Land singing “Stille Nacht.” Thus begins an extraordinary time of camaraderie, music, and peace in a spontaneous ceasefire during World War 1. A remarkable true story, told in the words and songs of the men who lived it.
“A beautiful musical retelling of a World War I ceasefire
with gifts of music, poetry, and melody.”
-New York Times
A personalized trip through PARI for you and your party guided by at PARI scientist!
The Gallery Tour starts with a look at the Electromagnetic Spectrum, where we discuss how light is used to reveal qualities of objects in space. We’ll use examples and hands-on activities of how we collect and use this information to learn about the universe around us.
Next, we’ll visit the Operations Center, where our telescopes, antennas, and earth science instruments are controlled. How they point, move, and what their data looks like will be revealed. Visitors will learn how 3D Printers use data to create tactile models of the terrain of other planets and examine what a crater on the Moon or a volcano on Mars feels like. We’ll also discuss how robots, like rovers and orbiters, help gather the data used to explore the places humans can’t safely go.
In the NASA gallery, visitors will tour a selection of objects from throughout the history of space exploration–including a NASA-built model of the Apollo Lunar lander; the ATS6 satellite, responsible for the first satellite television; and an actual Redstone rocket engine that was one of the first to carry humans to space.
We’ll then move on to our galleries which feature meteorites from all over the world, including some from the Moon and Mars—and one that is thought to be the rarest meteorite in existence. Our impressive collection of gems, fossils and minerals from different parts of North Carolina are also on display, including a 15.3 carat emerald, a sample of radioactive uranium ore, rubies and amethyst, garnets, quartz and mica. You can even touch a dinosaur egg!
To complete the tour, we enter a dark domain to discover the hidden secrets of fluorescent minerals. These rocks look normal under light from the sun or a bulb, but reveal something entirely different when illuminated with varying frequencies of ultraviolet light.
Located within the wildly-popular and botanically beautiful Southern Appalachian Mountains, The North Carolina Arboretum offers more than 10 miles of hiking trails that connect to many other area attractions such as Lake Powhatan, the Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Visitors of all ages and abilities can enjoy their hiking experience at the Arboretum as trail options include easy, moderate, and difficult challenge levels. All trails are dog-friendly and visitors are asked to adhere to the proper waste disposing procedures for pets.
Part of a running group that would like to use the Arboretum as a starting point or parking location? Please review our Running Group Guidance and email [email protected] with any questions.
Find the perfect gift this holiday season for everyone on your list at the 10th annual 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗣𝗼𝗽 𝗨𝗽 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽! Shop local, shop small and support local artists, makers, and vintage collectors.
We’ve decked the halls of the Ideation Lab inside the Center for Craft in Downtown Asheville. Shop over 100 vendors; housewares, handmade jewelry, ceramics, apparel, vintage clothes, ornaments, candles, gifts for our furry friends and more.
WHEN:
Open Nov 29 through Dec 24
10am-8pm daily
WHERE:
The Ideation Lab inside the Center for Craft
67 Broadway St, Asheville, NC 28801
Explore Asheville with the whole family!
Age Restrictions
All Ages Welcome!
(Content is geared towards ages 5-12 years old)
Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Children 3 and under do not need a ticket if they are sitting in an adults lap.
Duration
60 Minutes
What’s Included
Crazy funny guide
Off-bus characters
Fun facts about Asheville
Age-appropriate jokes
About
Now’s your chance to bring the whole family on the big purple bus! Educational and entertaining, LaZoom’s Kids’ Comedy tour features a perfect blend of Asheville information and kid-centric comedy. Geared specifically towards the 5-12 year old crowd, you’ll learn about our city’s history and see the sights in true LaZoom style – complete with our famously outlandish tour guides, hilarious comedy skits, and all sorts of special appearances! Perfect for birthday parties or school field trips, it’s the best thing to do with your kids in Asheville. It’s a show on wheels!
The tour is 60 minutes long and includes no stops. The tour is hosted by a zany tour guide, and along the way other characters will hop on the bus and perform kid-centric sketches (Candy Pirate, Ninja, and a Levitator) The tour is not only fun – it’s educational! Kids and adults will learn new and interesting facts about Asheville along the way. There must be 1 adult for every 4 children. We do not allow any unaccompanied children. Children 3 and under do not need a ticket if they are sitting in an adults lap.
Waitlist
If your desired time and availability is full, then please give us a call to be added to the waitlist.
Pieces made from nylon fabric ripstop, which keeps tears from spreading, invite viewers into created, fantastical worlds, only to highlight the complex—even impossible—architectures of their construction. Before the pandemic, Adrian primarily focused on personal experiences and interrogations of queerness, identity, and sexuality. Since then, the work has zoomed out in its scope, still centering identity but placed in larger infrastructure and surveillance systems that mediate, manipulate, and control desire.
Adrian counts queer fiber art, BDSM and kink culture, theatre, camp horror, puppetry, and drag among his many influences. Works in RIPSTOP, like the modernist bounce house sculpture A Fallible Complex (2021), evoke spaces for play, beckoning visitors in through their alluring aesthetic and then blocking their entrance or revealing structural instabilities, like missing floors. Others, like The Sensational Inflatable Furry Divines (2017-19), use sensual materials, like faux fur, spandex, and pleather, which connect to theatrical performance and counterculture. The materials “play on people’s initial associations and serve as a gateway into greater conversations about identity construction, performance, desire, and technology,” he shares.Pieces also nod to the history of quilting, including the AIDS Memorial Quilt, another influence on Adrian’s work. “Even when pieces aren’t explicitly making quilt references, I want the history of quilting and sewing-based craft to be part of the conversation of the work,” he says. “Craft is so much about the processes and histories behind materials. It’s about connecting with communities of people who practice those techniques. It’s about material and technique being a doorway into a greater relationship with an object.”
Themes of transformation—of structures, identities, and bodies—run throughout the show. “What I love about drag and puppetry is the sense of transformation and play, specifically with bodies,” Adrian says. “Within these art forms, a body can become mutable and capable of performing and becoming in unexpected states.” The sculptures also transform throughout viewers’ experiences, going through stages of inflation and deflation and existing in many different states.
RIPSTOP’s constant interplay between surface and depth, assumption and reality, are all a part of what Adrian describes as “looking behind the curtain,” which they trace back to the theatre. “When I’m thinking about systems, and the systems desire fits into, I’m thinking of stage construction, the backstage, the things that go on behind the show, and performance of our desires,” they explain.
As a craft artist, Adrian’s philosophy “comes down to having an intentional relationship with material, process, and technique,” he says. “Those aspects of art making are just as – if not more – important than an intellectualized concept being illustrated by an artwork.”
“Broadened definitions of craft that highlight communities of practice are foundational for the Center for Craft’s new strategic direction,” explains Executive Director Stephanie Moore. “Max Adrian’s work in RIPSTOP exemplifies the expansive and meaningful forms craft can take.” The Center for Craft is an institution Adrian credits for their professional growth. “The Center for Craft has felt like such a supporting institution for me specifically and for so many other craft artists I know,” they note. “To be able to bring this amount of work to Asheville is pretty cool.”
See Max Adrian: RIPSTOP at the Center for Craft Beginning July 26. A reception will be held on August 15. RIPSTOP is organized by Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and curated by Sarah Darro.
Sippin’ Santa at The Tiki Easy Bar is back from Nov. 18 through Dec. 31. We’re throwing a tropical island-themed holiday party every single day—don’t miss the fun! Along with a curated menu of expertly crafted cocktails and over-the-top holiday decor, Sippin’ Santa’s much sought-after custom mugs and glassware will be available for purchase while supplies last.
Reservations are not required, but if you’d like to book our private room “Cynamon Cove” for 6-10 people, visit: tiki-easy-at-hi-wire-brewing.resos.com/booking.
Throwing a holiday party or a larger gathering? Email [email protected] to inquire.
Monday-Thursday 4-9pm
Friday & Saturday 3-10pm
Sunday 3-9pm
The Tiki Easy Bar is a hidden tropical oasis behind Hi-Wire’s South Slope tap room.
Official Menu: sippinsantapopup.com/menu
Mocktails, Frozen Drinks, & Spirits: bit.ly/tikieasysippinsantamenu
Buncombe County Parks & Recreation is ready to make the season a little merrier and a lot brighter with the annual Festival of Lights. Lake Julian Park’s captivating display of thousands of holiday lights begins TONIGHT, Friday, Dec. 6 through Monday, Dec. 23, and will occur nightly from 6 to 9 p.m. This long-time mountain family tradition turns the park into a magical wonderland filled with sparkle and celebration.
Each night, you can stay in the comfort of your own car while oooh-ing and ah-ing at the illumination and listening to your favorite festive tunes. Due to the impact of Tropical Storm Helene, this year’s Festival of Lights will only offer the drive-thru experience.
Admission is $10 per car for personal vehicles, $25 for sprinter vans, trailblazers, and conversion vans, and $50 for buses and motorcoaches. Purchased tickets will be valid for one-time use on any night of the festival; tickets are not date specific. On Tuesdays, Buncombe County residents in their personal vehicles will be given free entry.
A portion of the ticket proceeds will benefit the Special Olympics of Buncombe County.
Winter Lights is a spectacular open-air walk-through light show made from over one million lights! Located at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, North Carolina, this year’s event features favorites like the famously tall 50-foot lighted tree and the Quilt Garden, along with enchanting new details designed to delight and surprise. All prices are per vehicle. No pets allowed.
Winter Lights features live entertainment nightly and food and beverages from the Bent Creek Bistro, the Cocoa Shack and the Cocoa Cabin! Open nightly from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m.