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.

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.

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.

Please join us on Christmas Eve for a Mini-Concert presented by the UU Asheville Choir and Dr. Les Downs at 7:00pm, prior to the Candlelight Service.

The concert will include both sacred and secular carols, some familiar and some new. There will also be opportunities for the congregation to join in the singing. We hope to lift everyone’s spirits with the beautiful music of the season.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

Ring in the New Year with an unforgettable ABBA tribute show featuring Direct From Sweden backed by your Asheville Symphony! Grab your shiniest disco boots and let’s take a chance on 2025 the way old friends do. Dance your way into the New Year with hits like “Mamma Mia,” “Waterloo,” “Fernando,” “Dancing Queen,” and more!

Join us every Thursday from 6:30pm – 8:30pm for music, poetry, comedy and stories performed by our favorite local artists! Feel free to bring your own food/drinks or anything you’d like to share!

Sign up begins at 6pm, show begins at 6:30pm. Each performer will have twelve minutes, and the show is always livestreamed on our Facebook account.

GRAMMY winner Mike Farris brings his raw and heavenly rock/blues sound to Asheville!

Mike Farris is a Grammy, Americana and Dove Music Award winner with multiple solo recordings, including his last full length release; “Silver and Stone.” His iconic personal appearances include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert honoring Aretha Franklin.

He was featured on Patty Griffin’s Grammy-winning “Downtown Church,” and appeared with Griffin on Austin City Limits. He shared the stage with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Double Trouble on the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame special and made his Grand Ole Opry debut in 2018.

An amalgamation of the spiritual and the earthly, of gospel and rock ‘n’ roll, of faith and fire, Mike Farris will bring what Rolling Stone Country describes as a “supersized voice filled with the electricity of Saturday night and the godly grace of Sunday mornings.

Start your New Year off with self love by immersing in the healing vibrations of a Sound Bath!

Join your host Kristin Hillegas, for a one-hour Serenity Sound Bath and experience a deeply immersive, full-body sound and vibrational experience. A sound bath can cleanse your soul, restore your balance, surround you with peace and tranquility and stimulate healing.

Note: Please bring a yoga mat/pillow/blanket since you will be lying on the floor. Wear warm, comfortable, and flexible clothing.

The Sound Bath will take place upstairs in the Education Building. Choose your space starting at 1:00 PM, doors close promptly at 1:15 PM.

This service is being offered on a Love Offering basis.(Suggested Value $25) Donations allow us to continue to provide these immersive experiences.

Accessible parking is available in the Center for Spiritual Living Asheville upper parking lot. The entrance to the upper parking lot is off of S. Bear Creek Rd between Science of Mind Way and Sand Hill Rd.
There is a boardwalk walk-way from the upper parking lot to the building entrance.

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!

Every Monday, Ivy Rozen, Senior Editor of The Black Mountain Press, will host a poetry-specific open mic from 6:30pm-9pm. Each poet will be able to share 2-3 poems, and occasionally we will have local celebrity poets close out our night with a featured reading (email Ivy at [email protected] if you’d like to be a featured poet)!

NC Writers Network & The Brandy Bar + Cocktails feature author Tony Robles as the next poet in their series “In the Company of Writers.” The program offers a series of personal and conversational dialogues featuring guest writers/poets followed by an open mic forum. These inspirational gatherings will elucidate and entertain those attending. The guest author speaks from 7-8 PM with an open mic from 8 -9 PM. The Chicago blues music of “Hollywood Johnny Cosgrove” (accompanied by Charlie Wilkinson) welcomes you, continues during intermission, and closes the evening. Sign-ups for the open mic are available at the entrance.

Born in San Francisco, Tony Robles now makes his home in Hendersonville. His latest poetry collection, Where the Warehouse Things was published in late 2024 by Redhawk Publications in Hickory, NC. This book focuses on masculinity, set against the backdrop of mechanical parts, tools, and the rough language of men. This, his fourth poetry collection, follows the 2023 collection Thrift Store Metamorphosis (Redhawk Publications). Among his honors, Tony was short-listed for Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 2017, named Carl Sandburg Writer in Residence by the Carl Sandburg Historic Home in 2020 and twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is working on his first novel.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban™ in Concert

Peace Concert Hall
Saturday, January 11 at 1:00 pm
Saturday, January 11 at 7:00 pm
Sunday, January 12 at 2:00 pm

The Greenville Symphony will perform this magical score live from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban™ while the entire film plays in high-definition on a 40-foot screen.

Relive the magic of your favorite wizard in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban™ in Concert. The thrilling tale is accompanied by the music of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra as Harry soars across the big screen. From the moment Harry uses the Marauder’s Map to when the Patronus Charm bursts from his wand, you’ll be transported back into the world you love.

GUEST
Bruce Kiesling, conductor