Calendar of Events

SATURDAY
11:00 AM Show Open
1:30 PM Reggie Bügmüncher
2:30 PM Heavy Metal Magician Nigel Blackstorm
3:30 PM The Daredevil from Down Under Alakazam
5:00 PM Tattoo Contests
7:00 PM Heavy Metal Magician Nigel Blackstorm
7:45 PM The Daredevil from Down Under Alakazam
8:30 PM Reggie Bügmüncher
9:15 PM Verona Fink Burlesque Sideshow and Suspension
10:00 PM Tattoo of the Day
11:00 PM Show Close

SUNDAY
11:00 AM Show Open
1:30 PM Reggie Bügmüncher
2:30 PM Heavy Metal Magician Nigel Blackstorm
3:30 PM The Daredevil from Down Under Alakazam
5:00 PM Tattoo Contests
7:00 PM Tattoo of the Day and Best of Show
8:00 PM Show Close

Embrace the beauty and culture of the Appalachian Mountains at Hickory Nut Gap Farm in Fairview, NC, in support of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy. Appalachia Day will be held on Saturday, November 4th as a celebration for everything “Appalachia.” Come out and celebrate what you love about the mountains – the raffle, food, music by The Holler Choir, crafts and more!

Appalachia Day invites attendees to immerse themselves in the essence of Appalachia with an array of engaging activities. You can take part in a private farm tour guided by Farm Director Virginia Hamilton, offering insights into the workings of this regenerative farm.
While enjoying the festivities, you can savor delectable offerings from food trucks on-site and cold beers, including the Appalachia Session IPA by Wicked Weed Brewing. What’s particularly noteworthy is that the proceeds from beer sales and a raffle held during the event will also contribute to the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.

Our partnership with Wicked Weed Brewing underscores their commitment to supporting the preservation of local farms, streams, watersheds, mountains, forests, and outdoor recreation areas. They do this through their #BeersThatBuild program, and your participation in this event acknowledges and appreciates their dedication to protecting the places we all cherish in the Appalachian region. We’re also grateful to our friends at Hickory Nut Gap Farm for donating the space for this event.  Their partnership over the years as landowners and as donors to the SAHC has been invaluable. Appalachia Day offers a unique and enjoyable way to immerse yourself in the vibrant culture, natural beauty, and community spirit of the Appalachian Mountains while actively supporting conservation efforts crucial to preserving this treasured region for generations to come.

“This is a great partnership event,” says Membership Director Cheryl Fowler. “The land at Hickory Nut Gap Farm was permanently protected by Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy in 2008 with a farmland conservation easement, and SAHC is grateful to Wicked Weed Brewing for supporting ongoing local conservation efforts as a corporate partner. We look forward to enjoying a great day on the farm with friends and neighbors!”

If you’re interested in being a vendor, there’s still time. Please contact Cheryl Fowler at [email protected] and join the many groups of like minded artists that are participating.

We will also host a hike as part of Appalachia Day – Details TBA!

Have you ever wanted to try your hand at building audio or video files for a production? Magnetic’s Tech Director Abby Auman can help you get started! Join us for this engaging workshop, where you’ll learn how to use Audacity for audio file editing, and QLab, a powerful macOS program for designing and playing back sound, video, light, and show control cues (we’ll be focused on sound for this session).
*Note, you will be expected to download the free version of Audacity and the free version of QLab if you plan to bring your own macOS computer; for those who don’t have a macOS computer, you can still participate!

About the instructor: Abby is the Technical Director of The Magnetic Theatre. She also works as a lighting designer in theaters all over WNC.

Taught by Abby Auman

Have you ever wanted to try your hand at building audio or video files for a production? Magnetic’s Tech Director Abby Auman can help you get started! Join us for this engaging workshop, where you’ll learn how to use Audacity for audio file editing, and QLab, a powerful macOS program for designing and playing back sound, video, light, and show control cues (we’ll be focused on sound for this session).
*Note, you will be expected to download the free version of Audacity and the free version of QLab if you plan to bring your own macOS computer; for those who don’t have a macOS computer, you can still participate!

About the instructor:

Abby is the Technical Director of The Magnetic Theatre. She also works as a lighting designer in theaters all over WNC.

– ALL AGES
– STANDING ROOM ONLY
– LIMITED VIP TICKETS AVAILABLE

It’s back! Tacos & Tequila Throwdown makes its triumphant return on November 4 at The Outpost. Enjoy live music and tacos from Asheville’s best restaurants + tequila of all varieties. Stay tuned for participating restaurants …

National Novel Writing Month is here and West Asheville Library has you covered!
We’ve set aside a quiet space for all our aspiring novelists to come work towards their word count goals. So come spend an hour or two with us and get into the creative flow.

WELCOME TO MUSICAL COMEDY HEAVEN!

Featuring one of the most iconic scores of all time by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, an updated book from Harvey Fierstein based on the original classic by Isobel Lennart, tap choreography by Ayodele Casel, choreography by Ellenore Scott, and direction from Michael Mayer, this love letter to the theatre has the whole shebang!

The sensational Broadway revival dazzles with celebrated classic songs, including “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star,” and “People.” This bittersweet comedy is the story of the indomitable Fanny Brice, a girl from the Lower East Side who dreamed of a life on the stage. Everyone told her she’d never be a star, but then something funny happened—she became one of the most beloved performers in history, shining brighter than the brightest lights of Broadway.

Join Tori the Tortoise, in this Appalachian retelling of Aesop’s “Tortoise & the Hare” as she stands up for her beloved town, Fable Farms, and races a big city hare with even bigger plans. In this musical for all ages, Tori and her friends, Ruben the Rooster and Bea the Bee, must learn to embrace what makes them unique and the importance of community.

The Appalachian mountain dulcimer is a fretted stringed instrument of the zither family. It’s closest European ancestor is felt to be the German scheitholt. The mountain dulcimer was “born” in the Appalachian Mountains in the early 1800s. It was, and remains, a major contributor to the development and spread of traditional music of the Southern Appalachians.

The Asheville Dulcimer Orchestra is a group of 18 Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer players. Come hear the group play a varied program that includes music from many classical periods, as well popular and traditional music.

NOVEMBER 4 & 5 – Flat Rock, NC (AVL) at Blue Ridge College 10a-6p
49 E Campus Dr, Flat Rock, NC 28731, USA

THE PREMIER PSYCHIC & HOLISTIC EXPO OF THE SOUTHEAST! Join your spiritual community for a weekend of Aura Photography, Henna, Healing Therapists, Intuitive Consultants, Health Professionals, Psychics, plus an array of crystals, jewelry, & gifts! The perfect opportunity to experience it all!

CONVENIENTLY LOCATED TO ASHEVILLE, GREENVILLE & HENDERSONVILLE!

Daily admission is $6 cash (kids under 12 free) includes amazing lectures & free raffles!

Unlock the Secrets of Modern Day Alchemy: A Healing Experience:
Saturday, Nov. 4 @ 4:00pm

In this collective experience, you will immerse yourself in a deep understanding of each of the five pillars of modern alchemy. You will be guided, step-by-step, on how to apply these principles to your everyday life, empowering you to embark on your own journey of self-discovery, healing, and transformation. You will personally experience a healing activation in the Love Frequency.

The Love Frequency is a healing presence that draws you into an inward journey in remembrance that the greatest power within you is held within your heart. This combination of practical knowledge and energetic experience will serve as a compass for those who wish to unlock their inner potential and lead a more authentic and abundant life.

*Each presentation attendee will receive an Adora formulated essential oil for experiential and eBook: The 4 Tools for Spiritual Growth.

Visit our booth for other free goodies.

Bio:
Adora is a distinguished Modern Alchemist, author, visionary Founder of The Soul Institute, and co-author of “Detox Nourish Activate: Plant & Vibrational Medicine for Energy, Mood, and Love” and The Love Frequency:A Modern Alchemist Guide to Thriving in Sacred Purpose to be released Spring 2024
(Balboa Press) Having nearly three decades of experience as a facilitator, educator, formulator, and entrepreneur, she holds certifications in vibrational medicine and aromatherapy from the renowned Barbara Brennan School for Healing and Rutgers University.

Dreaming Stone Arts and Ecology Center is excited to announce “Ritual of Remembrance”, a performance and evening of remembrance for our loved ones that will take place on Nov 4th starting at 5pm. This offering features the Chicken Bank Collective, a group of six artists from the US and Mexico who weave communities across borders through the art of movement. After their performance, the Mexican members of the CBC will share cultural traditions associated with Día de los Muertos, including the delicious pan de muerto and Mexican hot chocolate. We will lift up the holy days within various cultures and traditions that dedicate these fall days to honoring those who have gone before.

The evening begins with a site-specific land based performance, “Memories and Murmurations”, where the audience migrates through natural terrain and encounters the land’s dreams, embodied. These murmurations echo legacies lodged within the land, within our bodies, and within our collective imaginations.

After sharing a potluck, our “Ritual of Remembrance” will be a collective act of beauty making, honoring those we have lost, and is an annual tradition of Dreaming Stone’s. All who gather are welcome to share stories of deceased loved ones. All are invited to add to a communal ‘ofrenda’, with pictures of those you want to remember. The evening encourages all to contribute to a practice of collective meaning making.

Space is limited, so you must register in advance. Participants are encouraged (not required) to bring a potluck dish and pictures of those you want to remember. Wear shoes for walking on uneven surfaces. Dress warm, wear layers, bring a chair.

To attend, RSVP at https://dreamingstone.org/events/chicken-bank-collective/. Donations from this event (suggested amount of $20 per person) go to supporting the Chicken Bank Collective’s local residency, which includes music and mural painting downtown, and offerings within Rutherford County schools.

Wanna hear the best local music ​and​ drink the best local beers? Hop aboard LaZoom’s Purple Bus and rock out with a local band while we take you on a journey to Asheville’s premiere local breweries.

Using a unique form of painting involving pouring acrylic paints directly on the canvas, Safi Martin conveys a celebration of FLOW, both in art and in life.
Opening reception & artist talk to be held at the Flood Gallery Fine Art Center in Black Mountain for Safi Martin, a woman of varied interests. She has taught in the public school system, worked in the mental health field, and is a serious gardener. Heavily involved in her partner DeWayne Barton’s various projects which include Hoodhuggers International, Hood Tours, The Urban Peace Garden and most recently the Blue Note Junction, Martin stays busy. She has had a life-long interest in the arts and has recently begun creating her own art using a unique form of painting involving pouring acrylic paints directly on the canvas. She creates a wide variety of shapes using not only water but other additives on the wet canvas. Some images are strong. In contrast, others are soft and flowing. Martin explains her art stating “paint pouring challenges the traditional norms of control and perfection in art, and instead embraces the beauty of imperfection. It reminds us to let go and trust in the flow of life, rather than trying to control every outcome.” Exhibit runs through January 7.
Like all events at the Flood Gallery, this exhibition is free and open to the public. Light refreshments and food will be served. Flood Gallery Fine Art Center is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization, and educates, encourages, challenges and inspires the community through music, film, literary, and contemporary art.

Celebrate three-quarters of a century of art and culture in style. Join us for a night of drinks, dancing, silent auction, and nostalgia as we commemorate 75 years of artistic excellence at the Asheville Art Museum. The party promises to be a blast from the past, so get ready to don your best ’70s attire and get your dancing shoes on! We’ve lined up an array of treats to make this night truly unforgettable.

Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 4, 2023, from 7 to 11 pm, as we celebrate three-quarters of a century of art and culture in style. The party promises to be a blast from the past, so get ready to don your best ’70s attire and get your dancing shoes on.

But that’s not all! We’ve lined up an array of treats to make this night truly unforgettable. Satisfy your taste buds with delectable delights from food truck Bun Intended offering a mouthwatering fusion of flavors in the plaza outside. DJ Erik Mattox will be spinning all your favorite ’70s dance tunes, ensuring the dance floor stays electric all night long. And for those looking to score some unique treasures, don’t miss our silent auction, featuring incredible items that will make you want to bid with enthusiasm.

Join us for a night of drinks, dancing, and nostalgia as we commemorate 75 years of artistic excellence at the Asheville Art Museum. Stay tuned for more updates as we gear up for this milestone celebration!

Modelface Comedy presents Eyes Up Here Comedy at Ginger’s Revenge!

Eyes Up Here Comedy is a night featuring all femme comedians and this month we have a special show featuring comedians from Asheville and around the South East. Hosted by local favorite Erin Terry.

ages 18+

doors at 7:30pm, show at 8pm

The project of Jamie Stewart and Angela Seo, Xiu Xiu confronts difficult emotions with music ranging from harsh to tender. Using an intense mix of post-punk, synth pop, folk, Asian percussion music, experimental music, noise, modern composition, and more, the group explores the complexities of love, sex, death, and injustice. From the beginning, Xiu Xiu combined these sounds in striking ways, whether on their brass and percussion-dominated 2002 debut album Knife Play or the hushed electro-acoustic experiments of 2003’s A Promise. Starting with 2004’s Fabulous Muscles, their pop elements became more prominent, but Xiu Xiu’s viewpoint — and Stewart’s impassioned vocals — remained uncompromising. While they often expressed alienation brilliantly, Stewart and Seo frequently worked with artists such as Mary Halvorson, Merzbow, and Charlemagne Palestine. Over the years, the band’s music spanned the rousing synth pop of 2012’s Always to the cathartic darkness of 2019’s Girl with a Basket of Fruit. In the 2020s, the empowering collaborations of 2021’s Oh No and the stark dualities of 2023’s Ignore Grief reaffirmed that Xiu Xiu’s emotional honesty was still as genuine as ever.

Ignore Grief is a record of halves.

Angela Seo sings on half of the record. Jamie Stewart sings on half of the record.

Half of the songs are experimental industrial. Half of the songs are experimental modern classical. Half of it is real. Half of it is imaginary.

The real songs attempt to turn the worst life has offered to five people the band is connected with into some kind of desperate shape that does something, anything, other than grind and brutalize their hearts and memory within these stunningly horrendous experiences. The imaginary songs are an expansion and abstract exploration of the early rock and roll “Teen Tragedy” genre as jumping off point to decontaminate the band’s own overwhelming emotions in knowing and living with what has happened to these five people.

Old friend and new member David Kendrick (Sparks, Devo, Gleaming Spires) joins Angela Seo and Jamie Stewart through whatever this may be and whatever it may mean and why ever it may have occurred. The point of aesthetic examination is to see if there is any way to come out the other side or if there is even any reason. In either case there may not be but to simply turn away would be yet a further act of destruction.

Secret Shame

The members of Secret Shame are driven by their collective passion for creativity, experimentation, and the understanding that some feelings can only be expressed through music.

They’re not decidedly comfortable with those feelings- but no longer afraid of them.

https://secretshame.bandcamp.com/album/autonomy

This is an 18+ event

By: Henrik Ibsen

Director: Patricia Sands

Approximate Run Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Rating: G

Written in 1879 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House is about a housewife who becomes disillusioned and dissatisfied with her condescending husband. The play raises universal issues and questions that are applicable to societies worldwide, including gender inequality, materialism, and corruption. Presented in a reader’s theater format, actors don’t memorize scripts but read them to the audience while using their voices and upper bodies to convey the roles they are playing.

R.Carlos Nakai, of Navajo-Ute heritage, the world’s premier performer of the Native American flute, joins pianist/composer Peter Kater for two evening performances, possibly their last live performance together. Piano and Native American Flute, however an unlikely combination of instruments, when performed by two of the worlds most sensitive performers of those instruments, produces a powerful and profound musical chemistry, of an almost spiritual nature, and unlike any two instruments ever played together! Their music has been described to be of a sacred quality. Kater with two recent Grammy wins for best New Age album, produces a sound on piano often described as hypnotic and healing. Nakai approaches each performance in a ceremonial manner, singing ancient Navajo chants while playing his flutes and blowing his Eagle Bone whistle. “Every concert they have played together in Asheville, leaves audiences in absolute awe. The chemistry of these two musicians and their instruments does something to us all that is impossible to describe in words”. They have numerous recordings together over the last 30 years and have performed in Asheville 10 previous times to always SOLD OUT audiences. Their recording “Improvisations In Concert” was recorded live at their breathtaking 1995 performance at Diana Wortham Theatre. You can find samples of their music on Spotify and Amazon. Their award winning albums, Migration, Natives and Improvisations in Concert are great examples of the music you will experience at their performances.

The Heat Is On is an explosive yet moving solo musical production which celebrates and reveals the woman behind the “Love Goddess,” Rita Hayworth.

Join Tori the Tortoise, in this Appalachian retelling of Aesop’s “Tortoise & the Hare” as she stands up for her beloved town, Fable Farms, and races a big city hare with even bigger plans. In this musical for all ages, Tori and her friends, Ruben the Rooster and Bea the Bee, must learn to embrace what makes them unique and the importance of community.

Written and Performed by Paula O’Brien
Accompanied by Steve Sensenig

Singing has always been one of Paula’s first loves. After attending a cabaret show at the Irish Arts Center in NYC, she thought, “I could do that” and went about putting together what would become Who Does She Think She Is?: one woman’s journey from Ireland to WNC, with many stops along the way. The show includes original songs (from the songwriting part of the journey) as well as many favorites that tie in with Paula’s stories. It’ll be an evening of caint, ceoil, agus craic (stories, music and fun)! There may or may not be guitar playing. There will most definitely be a keyboard!

WELCOME TO MUSICAL COMEDY HEAVEN!

Featuring one of the most iconic scores of all time by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, an updated book from Harvey Fierstein based on the original classic by Isobel Lennart, tap choreography by Ayodele Casel, choreography by Ellenore Scott, and direction from Michael Mayer, this love letter to the theatre has the whole shebang!

The sensational Broadway revival dazzles with celebrated classic songs, including “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star,” and “People.” This bittersweet comedy is the story of the indomitable Fanny Brice, a girl from the Lower East Side who dreamed of a life on the stage. Everyone told her she’d never be a star, but then something funny happened—she became one of the most beloved performers in history, shining brighter than the brightest lights of Broadway.

For the making of his fourth album If I Were a Butterfly, Rayland Baxter holed up for over a year at a former rubber-band factory turned studio in the Kentucky countryside—a seemingly humble environment that proved to be something of a wonderland. “I spent that year living in a barn with the squirrels and the birds, on my own most of the time, and I discovered so much about music and how to create it,” says the Tennessee-bred singer/songwriter. “Instead of going into a studio with a producer for two weeks, I just waited for the record to build itself. I’d get up and go outside, see a butterfly and connect that with some impulsive thought I’d had three months ago, and suddenly a song I’d been working on would make sense. That’s how the whole album came to be.”

The follow-up to 2018’s critically acclaimed Wide Awake, If I Were a Butterfly finds Baxter co-producing alongside Tim O’Sullivan (Grace Potter, The Head and the Heart) and Kai Welch (Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull), slowly piecing together the album’s patchwork of lush psychedelia and Beatlesesque pop. In addition to working at Thunder Sound (the Kentucky studio he called home for months on end), Baxter recorded in California, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington, enlisting a remarkable lineup of musicians: Shakey Graves, Lennon Stella, several members of Cage the Elephant, Zac Cockrell of Alabama Shakes, Morning Teleportation’s Travis Goodwin, and legendary Motown drummer Miss Bobbye Hall, among many others. In an especially meaningful turn, two of the album’s tracks feature the elegant pedal steel work of his father, Bucky Baxter (a musician who performed with Bob Dylan and who passed away in May 2020). Thanks to the extraordinary care and ingenuity behind its creation, If I Were a Butterfly arrives as a work of rarefied magic, capable of stirring up immense feeling while leaving the listener happily wonderstruck.

Baxter’s debut release as a producer, If I Were a Butterfly bears a dazzling unpredictability that has much to do with his limitless imagination as a collector and collagist of sound. “Sometimes the bullfrogs in the pond outside would pulse in a certain tempo and I’d apply that to a song, or I’d hear a bird chirping and it would inspire me to add harmonica in a particular place,” he says. “I could be walking around this massive building in the middle of the night and the air-conditioning would turn on, and it’d give me the idea to include a synth part that holds a similar note. I’d wait for those moments to happen and whenever I tried to force anything, the music usually rejected it.”

A perfect introduction to If I Were a Butterfly’s elaborate sonic world, the album-opening title track begins with a recording of a Baxter singing at age four, then drifts into a delicately sprawling reverie ornamented with so many lovely details (lavish flute and cello melodies, radiant horns, the hypnotic harmonies of Lennon Stella and Baxter’s girlfriend, Sophia Rose). “I liked the idea of the first voice on the record being me as a little kid, not knowing where I’d be today,” notes Baxter, who embedded newly unearthed audio clips of himself and his older sister Brooke all throughout the album. Graced with the combustible guitar work of his bandmate Barney Cortez, “Billy Goat” kicks up a potent tension with its restless grooves and hot-tempered gang vocals. “It’s a breakup song about being with someone who’s on a different life path—one side wants to influence the other, and inevitably you part ways,” says Baxter. From there, the album takes on a feverish momentum with “Rubberband Man,” a delightfully frenzied track channeling a wild and giddy freedom. “There’s rubber bands all over the property at Thunder Sound—in the earth, in the concrete, used as insulation for the studio,” says Baxter. “I took a mishmash of images in my head and it turned into a song about staying flexible, rolling with the punches.”

In its searching reflection on love and loss and striving for transcendence, If I Were a Butterfly reaches a quietly glorious intensity on “Tadpole”: a piano ballad threaded with childhood memories at turns oddly tender (catching frogs and crawfish in a nearby toxic creek) and nightmarish (hearing the gunshot when an across-the-street neighbor took her own life). And on “My Argentina,” If I Were a Butterfly closes out with a piano-driven and painfully raw outpouring, its starkness intermittently broken by soulful strings and gospel-esque harmonies. “One time at the studio I stayed up all night and played that song maybe 100 times; we ended up using the last take, which was recorded at about five in the morning,” says Baxter. “It’s a song that represents the thoughts one might have about a perfect love life, and I love how it ends the album in a big angelic cloud of reverb.”

For Baxter, the act of self-producing such a sonically and emotionally expansive body of work proved both exhilarating and arduous. “It really wore me out to spend all that time alone at the studio, editing the hell out of this record; my heart definitely suffered,” he says. “But I also had the guidance of my dad, who was in my dreams all the time—if I was moving too fast, I’d hear him telling me to slow down.” Another profound influence on the album-making process: the 2018 deaths of Baxter’s close friends Billy Swayze (a musician whose parents owned the rubber band company that became Thunder Sound) and Tiger Merritt (the vocalist/guitarist for Morning Teleportation, who worked with Swayze in constructing the studio). “Billy and Tiger had been going up there since 2015, and finally they turned it into a legit recording studio,” he says. “It’s a very special place to me, so they’re two of the four angels I decided to dedicate this record to.”

Even in its most somber moments, If I Were a Butterfly wholly fulfills Baxter’s mission of imparting a certain purposeful joy. “It’s been a weird few years, but I think the big picture is for us to just exist and find love and be loved, and try to see that all the daily bullshit is simply bugs on the windshield,” says Baxter. “I hope that this album makes people feel the way I do whenever I listen to my favorite records, and that it gives them a platform to dream on.”