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.

Doors at 5:00pm
Show at 6:00pm
5Point Film
Sierra Nevada is pleased to partner with 5Point Film in an exclusive debut showing of their inspiring outdoor films featuring the 2018 award winners from the renowned film festival in Carbondale, CO.
These outdoor adventure films will inspire you to get outside and appreciate the world around you in exhilarating new ways. 5Point Films are built on five guiding principles: respect, commitment, humility, purpose and balance. We believe these same principles also form the foundation for individuals who lead lives of adventure and connect all of us who share an elemental passion to explore and expand our boundaries.
And in an effort to further the outdoor enthusiasm, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is donating 100% of ticket sales to our Pale Ale for Trails campaign.
Pale Ale for Trails
In 2018, America will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System Act and the creation of our first national scenic trails: The Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail. These great trails symbolize outdoor adventure, provide recreational opportunities, and help people live happy, healthy, and fulfilled lives. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the Pacific Crest Trail Association are planning a joint event to celebrate this major anniversary and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. will proudly be a sponsor of this national milestone.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. believes in sustainable enjoyment of our environment as reflected in these organizations and those who trek the AT & PCT.
Beginning on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22 through Saturday, April 28, Sierra Nevada’s taproom locations in Chico, Mills River, and Berkeley will be donating a portion of proceeds from all Pale Ales served to the National Trails System.
To culminate the Pale Ales for Trails week, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. will be donating 100% of ticket sales from our 5Point Film Festival showings on Saturday, April 28th at our breweries in Mills River, NC and Chico, CA.
So support the trails by coming out for these inspiring films and enjoying a Pale Ale or two!

Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe presents Mike Gunter, Jr. author of “Tales of EcoTourist,” which combines humor and memorable anecdotes from five famous ecotourist destinations that offer a breathtaking backdrop to better understanding climate change. Held at The Collider, doors open at 5:30pm, and the book talk will begin at 6:00pm, following by a short Q&A. Free & open to the public.
Crossing the far corners of the globe, Tales of an Ecotourist showcases travel, from the hot and humid Amazon jungle to the frozen but dry Antarctic, as a simple yet spellbinding lens to better understand the complex issue of climate change. At its core, climate change is an issue few truly understand, in large part due to its dizzying array of scientific, economic, cultural, social, and political variables.
Mike Gunter Jr. is a Cornell Distinguished Faculty member and Arthur Vining Davis Fellow at Rollins College where he serves as Professor and Chair of the Political Science department and Director of International Affairs in the Holt School. He is the author of Building the Next Ark: How NGOs Work to Protect Biodiversity.

Join GreenWorks and The Grailhouse for an exciting new documentary film called The Guardians, which monarch ecologist Dr. Lincoln Brower calls “an eye-opener for conservation advocates.” Mexican poet and conservationist Homero Aridjis describes it as “a moving and compelling portrayal that brings home the confrontation between those who want to preserve the monarch butterfly forest and those who would destroy it for short-term gains.” A portion of ticket sales benefit Bee City USA Asheville.

Join BGA staffer Heather Rayburn as she hosts a special book club in celebration of Pollinator Month. Participants should read Dr. Erica McAlister’s “The Secret Life of Flies” before the event. Refreshments will be served as we discuss the book, review its highlights, and look at some slides about these fascinating insects.
Why this book? Everyone knows about the sexy bee pollinators, but the plant world also benefits from the pollination of other insects, bats, birds, rodents and even lizards. McAlister, a British entomologist, “gets under the wings of these crucial creatures as she ventures into the land of the fly. From hungry herbivores and precocious pollinators to robber flies, danceflies and the much maligned mosquito, she describes the different types of fly, their unique and often unusual characteristics, and the unpredictable nature of their daily life.”
Heather is the creator of www.MonarchLover.org, a website dedicated to promoting the planting of native milkweed to help the endangered Monarch butterfly. She’s worked at the Botanical Gardens for 10 years.
[This book will be available for purchase in the Visitor Center by April 2018. Members get 10% off the retail price.]
Call 828-252-5190 to register and pre-pay

In partnership with the Fine Arts Theatre, we’re celebrating the work of Black Mountain College alumnus Arthur Penn with two screenings of his classic films on the big screen. The films will be preceded by a short talk on Arthur Penn’s legacy in American film, a legacy rooted in his experiences at Black Mountain College.
July 12th – “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967). Arthur Penn’s modern classic was revolutionary in its time, opening the door for the hyper-violent, morally ambiguous films produced throughout the 1970s. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway star as two star-crossed lovers on a doomed crime spree across Depression-era America. They’re Young, They’re In Love, They Kill People.
July 26th – “Alice’s Restaurant” (1969). This film, based on the song by Arlo Guthrie and starring the musician as himself, captures the essence of late 1960’s counter-culture. Starting with a trip to the dump on a fateful Thanksgiving Day, the film follows Guthrie and his friends through a frenetic series of events that lampoon the Vietnam War and American society.

In partnership with the Fine Arts Theatre, we’re celebrating the work of Black Mountain College alumnus Arthur Penn with two screenings of his classic films on the big screen. The films will be preceded by a short talk on Arthur Penn’s legacy in American film, a legacy rooted in his experiences at Black Mountain College.
July 12th – “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967). Arthur Penn’s modern classic was revolutionary in its time, opening the door for the hyper-violent, morally ambiguous films produced throughout the 1970s. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway star as two star-crossed lovers on a doomed crime spree across Depression-era America. They’re Young, They’re In Love, They Kill People.
July 26th – “Alice’s Restaurant” (1969). This film, based on the song by Arlo Guthrie and starring the musician as himself, captures the essence of late 1960’s counter-culture. Starting with a trip to the dump on a fateful Thanksgiving Day, the film follows Guthrie and his friends through a frenetic series of events that lampoon the Vietnam War and American society.
New Belgium Brewing of Asheville and the Center for Cultural Preservation are hosting a special-benefit film-screening and musical performance to help support the Center for Cultural Preservation’s new documentary film: The River Heroes of the South. Music will be performed by acclaimed local singer/songwriter David (da6d) Wiseman following by a screening by the Center’s award-winning film, “Come Hell or High Water: Remembering the Great Flood of 1916”.
Join us for a special evening of music, film and local beer by the area’s leading brewery and help us raise funds for our current project, The River Heroes of the South Film Project.
The Collider hosts a monthly climate and environmental film series, open to the public. This month, along with photo+sphere, we will present The Human Element. Emmy award-winning filmmaker and National Geographic photographer James Balog’s new film is structured around the four elements – earth, air, fire and water – and adds a fifth: the human element. His visually stunning images reveal how environmental problems are affecting the lives of average Americans and reminds us that people can destroy as well as solve our current environmental crisis.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with refreshments provided. The screening begins at 7 p.m.
The same evening, in The Collider’s Overlook Lounge, there will be special installation of Collapse the Distance, a multimedia storytelling project by Mattea Mrkusic and Canyon and Forest Woodward, two brothers from Western North Carolina. Collapse the Distance was recently shown at The Collider’s 2018 ClimateCon conference on the business of climate, and has been exhibited at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival and both Harvard and Yale Universities.
Join local author Jarrett Rutland as he launches his picture book, CHILLY DA VINCI, at the Hop Ice Cream Cafe!
Chilly da Vinci is a self-declared inventor penguin. What does this mean? While others do “penguin” things, Chilly instead builds machines that don’t work…yet! This inventive, funny book encourages young readers to keep on trying even when they encounter failure.
What do the Pillsbury Doughboy, The TRIX Rabbit, Lucky the Leprechaun, The Green Giant, My Little Pony and MTV’s Daria have in common? Creative Director, Animator and Cartoonist, Pat Giles.
Come and meet the man behind some of the best known brand icons in the world.
Pat will be discussing the history and importance of brand characters and how they become the heart and soul of a brand.
Pat was also a designer on seven TV series including Disney’s “Doug,” MTV’s “Daria,” Disney Channel’s “STANLEY,” “JoJo’s Circus,” and “PB & J Otter,” CN’s “Sheep In Big City,” and “Codename: Kids Next Door.” He was the Co-Creator of Sesame Studios web-series “Lili and Torto’s Opposite Show,” and Exec Producer of Starz web-series “Captain Cornelius Cartoon’s Cartoon Lagoon.”
But wait – there’s more!
In addition, AdClub WNC will be hosting our annual Toy Drive during this event, in support of The Saint Nicholas Project, an initiative hosted by Eblen Charities. They collect toys for all age groups, and ask that toys be new and unwrapped.
The Saint Nicholas Project provides Christmas gifts, clothes, food, and other items to children and families in our community to help ensure that their Holidays are a bit brighter and provide hope for the coming year.
If you are able to donate a toy, we encourage you to bring one of your favorite Characters!
Member tickets: $5 | with promotional code that was emailed to you.
Non-Member tickets: $20 | please visit adclubwnc.org/join to become a member to get the discounted rate.
Student tickets: $5 | Must present valid student ID at check in.
What happens when fossil fuels run out? How do communities and cultures survive?
Central Appalachia and south Wales were built to extract coal, and faced with coal’s decline, both regions have experienced economic depression, labor unrest, and out-migration. After Coal focuses on coalfield residents who chose not to leave, but instead remained in their communities and worked to build a diverse and sustainable economy. It tells the story of four decades of exchange between two mining communities on opposite sides of the Atlantic, and profiles individuals and organizations that are undertaking the critical work of regeneration.
The stories in this book are told through interviews and photographs collected during the making of After Coal, a documentary film produced by the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University and directed by Tom Hansell. Considering resonances between Appalachia and Wales in the realms of labor, environment, and movements for social justice, the book approaches the transition from coal as an opportunity for marginalized people around the world to work toward safer and more egalitarian futures.
Tom Hansell is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work has been broadcast on public television and screened at international film festivals. Hansell has more than two decades of experience working with coalfield residents to create collaborative media projects. He began his career at the Appalshop media arts center, and he currently teaches at Appalachian State University.
Join The Collider for inspiring evening, featuring an exciting adventure-travel documentary from award-winning producer & director Garrett Martin. “Unbounded: A Journey into Patagonia” follows a young, unaided crew of four as they hike and packraft for four months into the infinite region known as Patagonia.
The event will be held at The Collider in downtown Asheville on January 31, 2019, with proceeds benefiting our Thomas R. Karl Internship Program. Doors open at 6:30pm, and the film will begin at 7:00pm. The 70 minute film follows with a panel discussion with Martin, founder of video production company VentureLife Films, an Asheville-based independent film production and environmental media company. Other panel guests will be announced soon.
Tickets are $20 per person, $15 for active Friends of The Collider*, or free with the purchase of a one-year Friends of The Collider gift. Tickets for those with a valid student ID are $10. *Active Friends of The Collider must email [email protected] or call at 214-796-1494 for an exclusive discount code.
The crew’s journey in “Unbounded” is based along the Greater Patagonian Trail, a relatively unknown route that is now the longest continual trail in South America. The film focuses on discovering the indescribable factors of the regions, learning the history and culture of people living amongst the Andes Mountains, and bringing to light the incredible beauty of the area – all in an effort to help raise awareness of the need to preserve this untamed, but delicate, environment. Despite the crew’s lack of experience and support, they manage to document awe-inspiring landscapes and people of the region, interviewing top environmentalists across Chile, and trekking across 700 km of one of the roughest and most unforgiving regions in the world.
The Thomas R. Karl Internship Program was established in honor of Tom Karl upon his retirement as Director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. This program provides semester-long internships for undergraduates seeking to enter this growing field. All proceeds of this event directly benefit this internship program and will fund more opportunities for students to work with the climate solution providers that are members of The Collider.
“Drunken Angel” (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1948). Toshiro Mifune bursts onto the screen as a volatile, tubercular criminal who strikes up an unlikely relationship with Takashi Shimura’s jaded physician. Set in and around the muddy swamps and back alleys of postwar Tokyo, “Drunken Angel” is an evocative, moody snapshot of a treacherous time and place. Doors open at 7:30 / Film begins at 8:00 pm. Come on in, get comfortable, have some refreshments and enjoy great films from around the world every Friday! Open donation.
“Sawdust and Tinsel” (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1953). Bergman presents the battle of the sexes as a ramshackle, grotesque carnival. The story of the charged relationship between a turn-of-the-century traveling circus owner (Ake Grönberg) and his performer girlfriend (Harriet Andersson), the film features dreamlike detours and twisted psychosexual power plays that presage the director’s Smiles of a Summer Night and The Seventh Seal, works that would soon change the landscape of art cinema forever. Doors open at 7:30 / Film begins at 8:00 pm. Come on in, get comfortable, have some refreshments and enjoy great films from around the world every Friday! Open donation.
Mark Warren, owner of Medicine Bow Wilderness School in Dahlonega, GA has been teaching the survival skills of the Cherokee for more than 45 years. Finally, all those years of teaching have culminated into his highly anticipated series of books called “Secrets of the Forest.”
Mark believes today’s society can — and should — learn some valuable lessons and skills from the Cherokee people who inhabited the southeastern part of the United States hundreds of years before European explorers ever landed on its shores. He will be discussing how some of the most common native plants and trees were used by the Cherokee for food, medicine, shelter and fire and he will bring along a few of his handmade crafts.
Quote from Mark, “All of us who live in the Southern Appalachians reside on land that once belonged to the Cherokees. While these native people led lives of intense daily interaction with their natural surroundings, most folks today have reduced nature to a backdrop of scenery. The great deficit in this scenario is our lack of understanding that we still depend upon nature. That dependency is largely hidden to us, especially to the new generations that come along to take over the ‘rules’ of how we behave with nature — air to breathe, water to drink, energy to consume for our daily actions. These are commodities that are easy to take for granted. If taken for granted, humans will have no reason to respect and conserve the pieces of the puzzle we call ecology”
Mark wrote the “Secrets of the Forest” books with three purposes in mind:
1) To provide clear instructions in primitive survival skills for anyone wanting to better his/her self-sufficiency in wilderness . . . by learning the old Indian ways of living comfortably in the forest.
2) To offer parents, teachers, scout leaders, and outdoor educators a guide to engage their students in Nature . . . at a time when our young ones so desperately need this connection, as does Nature itself.
3) To win over a new generation of environmental advocates who will look after this world.
Praise for “Secrets of the Forest”:
“If you’ve ever wondered how to transfer lost knowledge and skills to our next generation, this book series is your guide. Mark is no newcomer in the world of primitive skills and nature study. He’s been passing on his knowledge to young and old for over a half century. I’ve had the pleasure of attending several of his classes in Dahlonega, Georgia. Mark is a walking encyclopedia of earth-lore and the skills required to call Nature home.” ~ Todd Walker from Survival Sherpa
“Secrets of the Forest is an invaluable teaching tool for my staff at Buffalo Cove Outdoor Education Center. Countless times, I have seen them visit our library in the office and pull this volume off the shelf to aid them in planning classes. The structure and phrasing of Mark’s work really speaks to the experiential educator. The content, and breadth of knowledge, contained within the pages is a true gift to anyone seeking a greater understanding of the natural world and really nurtures a connection with the earth!” ~Nathan Roark, Executive Director Buffalo Cove Outdoor Education Center
“Mark Warren is an authentic educator who links his vast knowledge of plants and animals to skills necessary for survival, a combination that creates an active and exciting experience for children and adults. The series has begun to take our school in directions we never imagined possible.”~O.J. Morgan, Head of School at The Bright School, Chattanooga, Tennessee
“Through Mark Warren’s Secrets of the Forest, educators, leaders, stewards, interpreters, learners, and students of connecting with and through nature have access to his spirit, insight, and generosity. These [books] are a ‘must have’ for anyone wanting to inspire, and to be inspired by, ancient wisdom and knowledge based in a deep reverence for the Earth.” ~Joseph A. Pate, PhD Department Chair – Outdoor Leadership Assistant Professor Young Harris College
Check out this review for Secrets Volume 1 by Survival Sherpa: https://survivalsherpa.wordpress.com/2017/08/09/secrets-of-the-forest-the-best-outdoor-education-book-ive-read/
The “Secrets of the Forest” book series will be available for purchase and signing at the event as well as “Two Winters in a Tipi” a memoir, and his historical fiction series “Wyatt Earp, An American Odyssey.”
Mark Warren is also a Western historian,and has researched the Frontier West and especially the life of Wyatt Earp for more than 63 years. His trilogy, Wyatt Earp, An American Odyssey,” has met with the approval of a discerning group of Western historians as well as lovers of the historical fiction genre.
Synopsis for “Born to the Badge:”
In Wichita, Kansas, Wyatt Earp answers his most innate calling and returns to law enforcement, where he excels by sheer force and an utter lack of fear. When town leaders become disenchanted with his hardline methods, he moves to a place where an iron-rule is needed – Dodge City. With him comes Mattie, a runaway prostitute, who, like Wyatt, is searching for a chance at a new life.
As assistant marshal in Dodge, Wyatt stands at the center of a volatile arena, which pits celebratory cowboys against the economic security of the merchants. Wyatt’s performance as a proficient officer earns him respect among the citizens, but it does not provide the social standing he desires.
After a disappointing venture into the gold fields of Deadwood, Dakota Territory, Wyatt returns to Dodge to find no marshal’s job waiting for him. Mattie has fallen back into prostitution. Regressing to foot-soldier status, Wyatt takes a job as detective for the A.T. & S.F. Railroad to hunt down train robbers. Heading south from Kansas he once again tries to outride his failures.
In Texas he meets a man whose name will be forever linked with his own. Doc Holliday is a testy, Southern ex-dentist turned gambler, who is dying from tuberculosis. By giving Wyatt information about the train robbers, Doc offers the first thread in an unlikely friendship that will weave the two men’s lives into a common story that will be told through the ages.
READ CHAPTER ONE of “Adobe Moon” for free, now! www.wyattearpanamericanodyssey.com
Reviews:
“In 1896, Ed Colburn, who had been a Dodge City attorney during that town’s turbulent early years, remembered Wyatt Earp: ‘While there (Dodge City), I saw Wyatt Earp do things you wouldn’t undertake for a million dollars, and yet he did it every day just as a street car conductor rings up fares or a banker receives deposits.’ In Born to the Badge Mark Warren follows Earp through the Kansas cow-towns where he first makes a name for himself. They still talk about Wyatt Earp in Wichita and Dodge City. After reading this book, you’ll understand why.” ~Jeff Morey, Historical Consultant for the movie “Tombstone.”
Mark Warren is the first writer to illuminate the Earp story from the inside. Adobe Moon and Born to the Badge show you why Wyatt Earp became a legend and what that legend was born out of. ~Allen Barra, author of Inventing Wyatt Earp, his Life and Many Legends.
“Not every writer understands that the most important line in any book is the hook – that opening sentence which grabs your attention and makes you eager to read on. Born to the Badge opens with the following line: ‘Wichita, Kansas,was hell in the making…’ and there I went – engrossed for hours…Warren is able to convey scenes with a cinematic clarity. In this way, I can see the store room lit by the warm glow of a single lantern; and the prairie crossing at night, guided solely by the stars above and the subtle shapes of the land smudged on a distant horizon” ~Peta Stevalli, New Zealand Booklovers
“Warren’s novel paints a vivid picture of the lawlessness of the American Frontier…Although this book is a fictionalized account, its dedication to facts will keep history buffs satisfied, and its colorful similes will put a smile on any genre-fiction lover’s face.” ~ Booklist
“Historian Mark Warren’s second volume in his trilogy on the life and times of Wyatt Earp is an excellent story of Earp’s adventures and misadventures in Kansas, the Dakotas, and Texas. The dialogue is virtually true to life and gives the feeling the author must have been present when the words were originally spoken. This volume has been anticipated and meets all expectations. Whether one is new to the story of Wyatt Earp or a seasoned historian of the Wild West, there is something here for everyone who loves stories of adventure, law and order, and life on the western frontier of the 1870s. A most worthwhile contribution to the story of “Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp, Brave, Courageous, and Bold!” ~ Roy B. Young, author and Western historian, Wild West History Association
