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.
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact: (800) 438-5800
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock n’ roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8:00 pm, show starts at 9:00 pm.
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock ‘n roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8pm, pianos begin at 9pm.
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact: (800) 438-5800
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock n’ roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8:00 pm, show starts at 9:00 pm.

Cheers to 10 years of Health & Wellness
Throughout the month of May you are invited to toast De La Terre Skincare’s achievements while experiencing some of the most celebrated skin therapies developed by Anne C. Willis owner and founder of the company.
Open house every Friday in May from 4-6 at the De La Terre Skincare Showroom located at 47 Haywood Rd. Asheville, NC 28806
Sip a De La Terre Skincare Health & Wellness Tea or a cocktail infused with one of the companies unique herbal blends while receiving one of these signature treatments FREE:
-Herbal Food Soak
-Facial Hydrotherapy
-Eye Treatment
To schedule your complimentary treatment call the De La Terre Skincare showroom at 828-252-8400
The 30th anniversary season of Downtown After 5, presented by Prestige Subaru, kicks off Friday, May 18 from 5-9pm. Downtown After 5 takes place the 3rd Friday of the month May – September and is held on North Lexington Avenue. Events are free and open to the public.
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact: (800) 438-5800
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock n’ roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8:00 pm, show starts at 9:00 pm.
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock ‘n roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8pm, pianos begin at 9pm.
Join us for a Smokies Social at The Wine & Oyster in Asheville! The evening is a benefit for Friends of the Smokies and 15% of sales will support projects and programs in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact: (800) 438-5800
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock n’ roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8:00 pm, show starts at 9:00 pm.
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact: (800) 438-5800
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock n’ roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8:00 pm, show starts at 9:00 pm.
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock ‘n roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8pm, pianos begin at 9pm.
Creating a modern-day version of an American rock-n-roll album is no easy task in today’s world of ProTools and multiple producers, but Awolnation were up to challenge when the multi-platinum rock act set out to record their third studio album. Released February 2, 2018, Here Come the Runts(Red Bull Records) sees founding member Aaron Bruno once again at the helm producing, writing and recording. “With this record I really wanted to make a rock n’ roll/pop album,” says Bruno. “And I say ‘pop’ how I grew up listening to it, in the sense of Dire Straits or Born In The U.S.A or The Cars or Tom Petty.”
awolnationmusic.com
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact: (800) 438-5800
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock n’ roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8:00 pm, show starts at 9:00 pm.
Sign up at door, or you can reserve a spot and/or get more info spot by emailing:
[email protected]
The Flat Rock Playhouse is ready to celebrate summer by transporting the beach to the mountains with upcoming Music on the Rock Concert, Carolina Shag!
Celebrating the musical phenomenon that developed in the early 50’s on the Carolina Coasts, Carolina Shag will feature upbeat beach music from artists such as The Embers, The Tams, Chairmen of the Board, The Drifters.
Join in the party and dance the night away with a “one-and-two” to hits including Carolina Girls, My Girl, My Guy, Under the Boardwalk, Be Young Be Foolish Be Happy…and of course I Love Beach Music!
June 1st through June 10th at the Playhouse Downtown in Hendersonville.
Click on the link below to get your tickets, or call 828.693.0731.
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact: (800) 438-5800
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock n’ roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8:00 pm, show starts at 9:00 pm.
On their sixth album LA Divine, Cold War Kids pay tribute to Los Angeles and all its strange glory. The follow-up to 2014’s Hold My Home — featuring the gold-certified single “First” — the band’s latest is slightly tongue-in-cheek in its title. “In many ways LA is the least divine city, the most hedonistic and irreverent and disconnected from history,” says Cold War Kids singer/guitarist/pianist Nathan Willett. Still, LA Divine embodies the Long Beach-bred band’s endless fascination with their adopted hometown. “LA’s so massive, I feel like I’m always finding something new in it,” says bassist Matt Maust. “It’s an incredibly weird place, and I’m happy to have made a record that totally honors that weirdness.”
A feeling of infinite discovery instills much of LA Divine, the band’s most expansive and ambitious effort so far. With Cold War Kids having recently marked the 10-year anniversary of their acclaimed debut Robbers & Cowards (a 2006 release that spawned their breakthrough single “Hang Me Up to Dry”), the album channels the kinetic energy of a newly revitalized band. “The excitement I have about this new album — it feels so much like the way I felt back when our first record came out,” notes Maust.
For Cold War Kids — whose lineup also includes drummer Joe Plummer, multi-instrumentalist Matthew Schwartz, and guitarist David Quon — that rejuvenation follows a creative rebirth of sorts. As Willett explains, the band took a more pop-informed and decidedly inventive approach to the making of LA Divine. “From the start of the band, our tastes have always been very backward-looking in terms of the tones and sounds and instrumentation we’re working with,” he says. “On this album we wanted to embrace something more modern, because in many ways the most creative sounds happening right now are coming from the world of pop and out of that influence we’ve ironically created what sounds like our most rock record yet ”
coldwarkids.com

Isis Music Hall welcomes House of Hamill, featuring Brian Buchanan of Enter the Haggis and Rose Baldino of Burning Bridget Cleary.
Their music has been described as “Radiohead meets Riverdance”; Celtic-inspired, exciting, eclectic and unpredictable. House of Hamill’s music occupies a space between sophisticated indie/pop and traditional Irish music.
House of Hamill Band bio:
Rose Baldino and Brian Buchanan met 10 years ago, late one night backstage at a theatre in rural Pennsylvania.
Brian’s band Enter the Haggis and Rose’s group Burning Bridget Cleary were sharing a stage that evening, and the two bonded over a love of Irish fiddle tunes, Radiohead, and 4 AM whiskey. Their paths crossed a dozen times over the next decade on the road, but it wasn’t until the Folk Alliance 2014 conference in Kansas City that they finally became musical collaborators.
Burning Bridget Cleary’s guitarist and drummer had their flights canceled at the last minute, and Rose (in desperation) asked Brian to grab a guitar and join her onstage. The two performed with virtually no rehearsal for over an hour, and their connection was powerful and immediate. A few months later Brian moved from Canada to Philadelphia, and as a tribute to the first tune Rose ever taught Brian, House of Hamill was born.
Both Baldino and Buchanan are accomplished traditional fiddle players and classical violinists, with over 25 years of writing and performance experience between them. Together, they write unusual new fiddle tunes and exciting, unpredictable original songs while breathing new life into traditional and contemporary songs. Both are confident and unique lead vocalists, and the blend of their two voices in harmony is hypnotic and irresistible.
Whether House of Hamill is playing songs from their debut album “Wide Awake” or stomping through a set of original jigs and reels, their chemistry onstage is always engaging and often hilarious. You’ll leave with tired feet, a huge smile, and a new appreciation for the versatility of folk instruments in a modern context. House of Hamill is on the bleeding edge of a new generation of traditional musicians.
“Their songs are always on the edge of traditional and innovation as they clearly enjoy what they play . . . their performances are electrifying”.
– Sarah MacArthur, Highlander Radio
Blue Jean Ball is MANNA’s annual “party for a purpose,” with all proceeds benefitting MANNA’s daily work to provide food to thousands of families across Western North Carolina that are struggling to make ends meet. With every dollar raised, MANNA can provide the food for 3.5 meals… your very presence is valuable! So, come party with us. Whether you dress for our theme, wear jeans, or dress like a queen, you can have a great time knowing you are helping provide the most basic necessity in life: food!
Hang Loose with Friends at the Best Outdoor Party of the Year
This annual sell-out event on the sunny shores of MANNA’s waterfront campus along the Swannanoa River features small plate grazing from 20 favorite local restaurants, an open bar with great selections of beer and wine from Empire Distributing, and an amazing live band that keeps the dance floor packed all night long! Tickets move fast, so don’t wait!
Grab your Longboard and catch a wave to MANNA!
NewSong Music and Blue Ridge Public Radio (BPR) are proud to present the ‘NewSong Sanctuary Sessions,’ a three part weekly concert series and fundraiser for BPR, featuring some of North America’s most talented emerging songwriters. These intimate concerts will be held in the beautiful and acoustically stunning Sanctuary of downtown Asheville’s Central United Methodist Church.
Singer-songwriter Beth Snapp might be considered pop infused roots, but her appeal has little to do with the box of a genre. It’s a connection. She flits around and between folk, bluegrass, pop, early R&B and jazz to create a unique sound with one purpose – to serve a story. Beth highlights the complex emotions that fall on every day moments, and reels the listener in with an “I’ve been there before” kind of sensation.
Her new album “Write Your Name Down”, set to be released early 2017, recounts the introspection and growth of a new chapter in life. Produced by Grammy winning bluegrass guitarist Tim Stafford, this album features a number of acclaimed artists as well as Beth’s talented band, whose members bring diverse backgrounds to further ingrain her detour from standard classifications of music. Regardless of style, Beth hovers where modern meets tradition, to create an experience that speaks to the listener.
bethsnapp.com
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock ‘n roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8pm, pianos begin at 9pm.
Parquet Courts began their 2014 release Content Nausea with the repeated refrain, “everyday it starts – anxiety!” And while that track left off at just its start, Human Performance dives in, picking apart the anxieties of modern life with the band’s most innovative and emotional collection of songs to date. Not that that’s the whole story.
“The final product of this album is Exhibit A that we made it through the shit, solved the problem, had the chuckle, took the piss, made up with the other guy, and got home in one piece,” laughs bassist Sean Yeaton.
Whereas other Parquets Courts albums were recorded in a matter of days or weeks, for Human Performance the band took an entire year; it’s the first LP that finds all four band members contributing songs.
Human Performance brings expansive sonic experimentation and shining melodic introspection onto matters of the heart, matters of humanity, of identity. “I told you I loved you, did I even deserve it when you returned it?” singer/guitarist Andrew Savage wonders on the title track. It’s also their most pop-oriented collection yet, coming only months after the release of the largely instrumental Monastic Living EP; a record that was actually made at the same time.
“In a way, Monastic Living was like a palate cleanser for us as a band,” explains singer/guitarist Austin Brown, who produced the entire record, and mixed it in Austin at Jim Eno’s Public Hi-Fi, “maybe a return to our roots of improvising together, and being a bit more free, and seeing what kind of new sounds we could make.”
The recording sessions started at Justin Pizzoferrato’s Sonelab in Western Massachusetts. Some of it was also made with Tom Schick and Jeff Tweedy at The Loft, Wilco’s visionary studio in Chicago, but the majority of Human Performance was made at Dreamland Studios, a massive upstate NY pentecostal church where records have been made by The Breeders, Dinosaur Jr, and the B-52s (including “Love Shack”). They spent three weeks straight there, writing by day and recording with Pizzoferrato by night.
The result is a record with a palpable sense of fragility. “The process of writing and recording Human Performance, for me, was a fairly uncomfortable confrontation with my emotions,” Savage says. “Emotions I don’t think I’ve fully explored in my life, artistic or otherwise.”
Human Performance is fittingly laced with as much static as softness, with tight-wound percussion pushing along meandering, wistful melodies. There are dazed and disoriented earworms, echoing group chants, downtempo ballads with wired riffs. Lovers leave, existential confusion replaces them, weeks pass, the J train rolls by.
The record leads with “Dust”, a 4-minute opener that takes the mundane daily duty of sweeping the floor and turns it into a frantic, obsessive call for action. “Dust is everywhere … Sweep!” they drolly repeat, before their cyclic back beat gives way to explosive, everyday city sound of car horns.
Savage says “Human Performance” is his most personal song on the record, a solemn musing on love drifting away, a picture-perfect memory of the beginning of things and a hazier recollection of the ending. “It didn’t feel right to be shouting, barking,” he says, reflecting on his tendency to really sing for this first time on this album. “I think a lot of people are attracted to a sort of cerebral side of Parquet Courts, in the lyricism. There has always been the emotional side of our band, which I think has always been an important balance, but Human Performance marks a point where the scales have tipped. I began to question my humanity, and if it was always as sincere as I thought, or if it was a performance. I felt like a malfunctioning apparatus. Like a machine programmed to be human showing signs of defect.”
Across six years, four full-length albums, and two EPs, Parquet Courts have always littered their lyric sheets with question marks, interrogating the outside world to varying degrees. Light Up Gold considered peanuts versus Swedish Fish, an introduction of their sharp, young wit and language of mundane, everyday NYC imagery. Sunbathing Animal channeled that language into noisy punk philosophy, raising wide-view questions about agency versus captivity, choice versus freewill. Content Nausea wondered about anxiety and emotional deterioration under the age of big data, in an aptly self-aware way: “And am I under some spell? And do my thoughts belong to me? Or just some slogan I ingested to save time?” And with Human Performance—their fifth album and second for Rough Trade—the question marks get turned on themselves more than ever.
“There is a lot of darkness, and general anguish being worked out on this record,” Brown adds. “But it ends kind of peacefully, kind of accepting that you can’t do much about it.”
parquetcourts.wordpress.com
Property: Omni Grove Park Inn
Event Type: Hotel Event
Event Category: Couples,Entertainment
Contact: (800) 438-5800
Contact Phone: (800) 438-5800
Link: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/elaines-dueling-piano-bar
Join the non-stop, rock n’ roll, sing-along party show at Elaine’s! Doors open at 8:00 pm, show starts at 9:00 pm.
Like many great Southern storytellers, singer-songwriter Tyler Childers has fallen in love with a place. The people, landmarks and legendary moments from his childhood home of Lawrence County, Kentucky, populate the 10 songs in his formidable debut, Purgatory, an album that’s simultaneously modern and as ancient as the Appalachian Mountains in which events unfold.
The album, co-produced by Grammy Award winners Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson, is a semiautobiographical sketch of Childers’ growth from wayward youth to happily married man, told in the tradition of a Southern gothic novel with a classic noir antihero who may just be irredeemable. Purgatory is a chiaroscuro painting with darkness framing light in high relief. There’s catharsis and redemption. Sin and temptation. Murder and deceit. Demons and angels. Moonshine and cocaine. So much moonshine and cocaine. All played out on the large, colorful canvas of Eastern Kentucky.
tylerchildersmusic.com

Join thousands of animal lovers for a celebration of compassionate living in one of the top vegan-friendly cities in the country: Asheville, NC! Brother Wolf Animal Rescue’s 4th annual Asheville VeganFest, will take place June 8-10th. This year’s tagline “save the animals, save the earth” will focus on animal agriculture as the #1 cause of climate change, mass species extinction, and animal cruelty.
On Friday and Saturday, speakers from around the country will tackle the latest vegan issues at The Orange Peel. Speakers include Jane Velez-Mitchell (of Jane Unchained), Dr. Garth Davis (featured in Forks Over Knives, and medical director of Mission Hospital Weight Management Center), Sailesh Rao (co-producer of Cowspiracy), Earthling Ed (co-founder and co-director of Surge, a creative grassroots animal rights organization), and more!
This year during VeganFest weekend, Brother Wolf will also be hosting two nights of entertainment at The Orange Peel, featuring comedian Lee Camp on Friday and afrobeat musical guests Antibalas on Saturday. Tickets, starting at $14, can be purchased at www.theorangepeel.net. All proceeds will benefit the Brother Wolf Animal Sanctuary and the work Brother Wolf is doing to save thousands of animals each year.
On Sunday, enjoy an outdoor festival at Pack Square with over 75 vendors showcasing vegan food, beer, lifestyle products, educational speakers, and more!
Asheville VeganFest events are free and open to the public, except for ticketed benefit shows on Friday and Saturday nights.
All proceeds from Asheville VeganFest will benefit Brother Wolf Animal Rescue’s tireless work to promote Uncompromised Compassion and build No-Kill communities.
Visit www.veganfest.bwar.org for a full schedule of the weekend’s events, speakers, and vendors.
About the Festival:
Asheville VeganFest is a celebration of compassionate living in one of the country’s top-rated vegan-friendly cities. Now in its fourth year, Asheville VeganFest is better than ever, with a broad and diverse mix of A-list speakers and a great line-up of night time entertainment! Over 15,000 visitors from all walks of life are expected to attend this free, family-friendly, inspiring (and not to mention delicious) 3 day long celebration!
About Lee Camp:
From Redacted Tonight, Comedian & Writer Lee Camp comes to The Orange Peel to perform during Asheville VeganFest to Benefit Brother Wolf Animal Sanctuary. Lee is the head writer and host of the national TV show Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp on RT America. He’s a former contributor to The Onion, former staff humor writer for the Huffington Post, and his web series
“Moment of Clarity” has been viewed by millions. He’s toured the country and the world with his fierce brand of standup comedy, and George Carlin’s daughter Kelly said he’s one of the few comics keeping her father’s torch lit. Bill Hicks’s brother Steve said Lee is one of only a handful with Bill’s “message and passion.” For more go to LeeCamp.net.
“An incredibly funny man.” –John Oliver
“An amazing writer and a great political thinker. He’s the change you and I want to see.” -Janeane Garofalo
“Imagine Jon Stewart if he gave a damn. He’s like Howard Zinn after 12 beers.” -David Swanson

The Opal String Quartet presents Beethoven’s monumental Quartet in C# minor, opus 131, at the Masonic Temple in downtown Asheville on Friday, June 8 at 8 pm.
Beethoven’s opus 131 quartet, one of his last and most experimental works, is performed in seven continuous movements without pause. The piece (featured in the film The Late Quartet starring Philip Seymour Hoffmann and Christopher Walken) begins with a brooding fugue and blooms into soaring melodies, an expansive theme and variations movement, a quirky, satirical scherzo, and ferocious finale.
The Opal String Quartet, comprised of four of WNC’s finest professional string players, is the only local ensemble of its kind, performing masterpieces of the string quartet literature with a fiery intensity and voluptuous tonal palette. This rare performance by the Opal String Quartet (well loved by local classical music fans) is the culmination of studying Beethoven’s opus 131 for the better part of a year.
OSQ is dedicated to bringing the art of chamber music to diverse audiences by performing in a wide variety of venues, from schools, bars, and art galleries to street corners and concert halls. They have performed throughout WNC, appearing on several chamber music series and making frequent collaborations with local chamber ensembles Pan Harmonia and AmiciMusic. Quartet members include Mariya Potapova and Karen Pommerich on violin, Kara Poorbaugh on viola, and Franklin Keel on cello, all of whom perform extensively throughout the region, most often with the Asheville, Greenville, and Charlotte Symphonies. The quartet has been featured numerous times on WCQS, and recently recorded an album with the world music trio Free Planet Radio. Opal serves as Artists-in-Residence for the educational outreach programs of the Asheville Chamber Music Series, the Asheville Symphony Guild, and the Brevard Philharmonic. For booking inquiries, fan mail, or existential musings, please contact [email protected].
https://www.facebook.com/opalstringquartet/
