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.
Come celebrate the season at our first Winter Wonderland! Our D Space Gallery, will be adorned with glass ornaments, snowflakes, snowmen, candy canes, and whatever else Asheville area glassblowers dream up. Shop for holiday gifts or festive decor for your home while watching live glassblowing in our studio. Winter Wonderland will be open during our normal gallery hours. The opening of this show coincides with River Arts District Studio Stroll, so there will be plenty to do and see in the area. NCGC is a non-profit glassblowing studio and gallery. Your purchases help to support local artists and our mission of education, exploration, and collaboration in all forms of glass.
You can find our beautiful holiday decorations all over the Grove Arcade; from swinging lights to hanging snowflakes, your eyes will never have a dull moment! Nostalgic holiday music will be resonating through our halls, bouncing off the walls of our merchant’s stores and all of their holiday specials. The holiday season is here at the Grove Arcade! Come by to enjoy the timeless feelings of the holidays, family and home.
Join us any day this season for the most beautiful holiday decorations in Asheville. Featuring weekly events, indoor snow, seasonal promotions, and a percentage of all sales donated to local non-profits.
Here at Mountain Made, we are proud that since 2010 master scientific glass blower, Jason Probstein has been presenting live glassblowing demonstrations here at our art gallery.
And once again we are proud to announce that Jason will be blowing his unique Christmas ornaments here at Mountain Made until December 20th, or until his gas tanks run dry!
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Chimney Rock has become Santa’s favorite place to train for his big night of deliveries. There’s no way he could make it down so many chimneys without practice. What better place to prepare and stay in shape than on one of the world’s largest chimneys at Chimney Rock State Park? Make your list and bring it to Santa, enjoy live holiday music, hot cocoa, cookies and meet live Park animal ambassadors.
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Noir Collective AVL located in the historic Black business district, referred to as The Block, is a Black-owned boutique shop and art gallery featuring Black entrepreneurs. Noir Collective AVL is a community network of wellness warriors, creative activists, and social justice visionaries, cultural keepers and peace makers. We believe that in order to achieve collective liberation, our community needs to focus on opening greater opportunities for access, especially economically, that has been historically denied to African Americans and other people of color. Noir Collective AVL supports Black Liberation through Arts, Culture, and Kinship by featuring the wares of local and regional artists, designers and craftspeople. Our mission is simple, Bringing Black back to the Block.
Entrepreneurs will have products and information on hand:
Jewelry. Original Art. Tea. Shea Butter. Prints. Black Soap. Cards. Books.
& Featured services:
Realty. Exercise & Fitness. Landscaping. Catering. Heritage Tours and more.
We have open spots for Makers and Creatives!
The holiday shop will feature the talents of small businesses specializing in baked goods, beauty products, books, fashion and clothing, home decor, pet-friendly goods, and more. Confirmed businesses include Sea of Sweets, From the Ashes Cultural Arts, Healed Skin & Candle Co., Sweet Abode Soap, Pumpkin Dog, and Winter Magnolia Designs.
Our circle will resume on January 22, 2022.
Ana Estrada is a Quantum Light Practitioner with more than 25 years’ experience of working consciously with Beings of Light and Ascended Masters. Her graduate degrees in Transformative Art and Spirituality took her to the Amazon jungles and the temples of India where she studied shamanic cultures and visionary art making processes. She is certified as an Intuitive Energy Healer in various healing modalities and serves as a channel for the Divine Mother and her sacred Light Language. Ana offers Quantum Light Alignment Sessions privately and at sacred sites around the world.
Donations appreciated and accepted via Paypal at:
[email protected]
To schedule a private Quantum Light Channeling and Alignment Session visit: http://www.QuantumLightPractice.com/private-practice
Show & Tell returns to Rabbit Rabbit in Downtown Asheville for the holiday shopping season with an outdoor winter pop up shop and market! Celebrate and shop local + indie craft, design, and vintage in a great outdoor venue.
WHEN:
Saturdays + Sundays from 12-5pm
Pop Up Shop & Market Vendors
Tuesday – Thursdays from 4-8pm
Pop Up Shop only
Be sure to check our website, facebook, and instagram for any potential closures due to weather.
WHERE:
Rabbit Rabbit
75 Coxe Ave, Asheville, NC 28801
FREE! No admission
Featuring the the best in handmade, vintage and fair trade with 50+ vendors in our curated pop up shop or the market area featuring a selection of in-person vendors. Shop vintage clothes, housewares, handmade jewelry, ceramics, apparel and more.
Grab some tacos from AVL Tacos and a brew from Asheville Pizza & Brewing while you’re there!
Visit Asheville Outlets for FREE photos with Santa by TapSnap Phototainment from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, November 28, 2021 and Saturdays & Sundays, December 4 & 5, December 11 & 12 and December 18 & 19, 2021. Located in the center circle in front of Nike Factory Store. Visitors will receive one FREE 4” by 6” photo and digital download of a single image (while supplies last). For more information, visit ShopAshevilleOutlets.com.
FREE SANTA PHOTOS
Visit Asheville Outlets for FREE photos with Santa by TapSnap Phototainment from on Saturdays and Sundays, November 27 & 28, December 4 & 5, December 11 &12, and December 18 & 19, located in the center circle in front of Nike Factory Store.
Visitors receive one FREE 4” by 6” photo and digital download of a single image (while supplies last).
-Holiday photobooth designed by Picnic Pop-Up AVL
-Professional photos of pups & families for holiday cards by Hannah Krowka
-Dog & human charcuterie boxes by Urban Graze Co.
-Special treats from Botanical Bones
-Hot cocoa, coffee, & holiday puppuccinos
Drum Major Instinct is an experimental music duo from Asheville, North Carolina. Jeff Arnal plays (mostly) percussion and Curt Cloninger plays (mostly) modular synthesizer. Jeff’s drumming could be described as synco-jazz + free-world, and Curt’s modular synthesis could be described as westcoast doomgaze. But, of course, nothing is ever that straightforward. The resultant music is about waves of force, patterns within patterns (within patterns), sounds from the natural world, spiritual jazz, and running the voodoo down. An intimate performance for no more than 60 audience members.
Calling all audiophiles, foodies, music lovers, and history nerds!
Listen: https://soundcloud.com/drum-major-instinct
Curt Cloninger is an artist, musician, writer, and Associate Professor of New Media at the University of North Carolina Asheville. His art uses an array of media combinations to undermine language as a system of meaning in order to reveal it as an embodied force in the world. His art work has been featured in the New York Times and at festivals and galleries from Korea to Brazil. Exhibition and performance venues include Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Granoff Center for The Creative Arts (Brown University), Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (Chicago), Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (Asheville), and the internet. Curt has been published on a range of topics, including new media and internet art, installation and performance art, experimental graphic design, popular music, and network culture. His fifth and most recent book is entitled, “Some Ways of Making Nothing: Apophatic Apparatuses in Contemporary Art” (Punctum Books, 2021). His essays have been published in Performance Research, Intelligent Agent, Mute, Paste, Tekka, Rhizome Digest, A List Apart, Textshop Experiments, and on ABC World News. His art, music, and writing may be accessed at lab404.com, playdamage.org, and deepyoung.org
“A balletic sense of time and imaginative deployment of colour have combined into a highly original concept” The Wire, UK
Jeff Arnal is an American percussionist, and the Executive Director of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. Arnal studied music at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD. He received his BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Maryland. During the 1990s, Arnal studied with visionary percussionist Milford Graves receiving his MFA in music from Bennington College. From 1997-2012 Arnal was active in the NYC underground music and art community. In 2000 he co-founded Improvised and Otherwise, an interdisciplinary festival for emerging artists in Brooklyn, NY. As a composer and percussionist, he has performed and collaborated with a wide range of musicians and choreographers throughout the U.S. and Europe with appearances at: Ausland (Berlin), Berlin Exploratorium, CBGBs (NYC), deSingel (Antwerp), Issue Project Room (NYC), Knitting Factory (NYC), German Nordwestradio – NDR (Bremen), Hallwalls (Buffalo NY), MATA Festival (NYC), Music Gallery (Toronto), Roulette (NYC), Tonic (NYC) and Vision Festival (NYC). His music can be heard on a number of independent record labels including Clean Feed in Portugal and Leo Records in England. His collaborations with choreographers have been produced at PS 122, Joyce SoHo, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, The Chocolate Factory and Judson Church. Currently he lives in Asheville, NC with his wife, Estelle and their two boys.
Come by Saturday DECEMBER 11 @ 1:30pm for an in-store performance by Drum Major Instinct, an experimental music duo from Asheville, North Carolina. Jeff Arnal plays (mostly) percussion and Curt Cloninger plays (mostly) modular synthesizer. Jeff’s drumming could be described as synco-jazz + free-world, and Curt’s modular synthesis could be described as westcoast doomgaze. But, of course, nothing is ever that straightforward. The resultant music is about waves of force, patterns within patterns (within patterns), sounds from the natural world, spiritual jazz, and running the voodoo down.
Listen 
soundcloud.com/drum-major-instinct
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Curt Cloninger is an artist, musician, writer, and Associate Professor of New Media at the University of North Carolina Asheville. His art uses an array of media combinations to undermine language as a system of meaning in order to reveal it as an embodied force in the world. His art work has been featured in the New York Times and at festivals and galleries from Korea to Brazil. Exhibition and performance venues include Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Granoff Center for The Creative Arts (Brown University), Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (Chicago), Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (Asheville), and the internet. Curt has been published on a range of topics, including new media and internet art, installation and performance art, experimental graphic design, popular music, and network culture. His fifth and most recent book is entitled, “Some Ways of Making Nothing: Apophatic Apparatuses in Contemporary Art” (Punctum Books, 2021). His essays have been published in Performance Research, Intelligent Agent, Mute, Paste, Tekka, Rhizome Digest, A List Apart, Textshop Experiments, and on ABC World News. His art, music, and writing may be accessed at lab404.com, playdamage.org, and deepyoung.org
Jeff Arnal is an American percussionist, and the Executive Director of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. Arnal studied music at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD. He received his BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Maryland. During the 1990s, Arnal studied with visionary percussionist Milford Graves receiving his MFA in music from Bennington College. From 1997-2012 Arnal was active in the NYC underground music and art community. In 2000 he co-founded Improvised and Otherwise, an interdisciplinary festival for emerging artists in Brooklyn, NY. As a composer and percussionist, he has performed and collaborated with a wide range of musicians and choreographers throughout the U.S. and Europe with appearances at: Ausland (Berlin), Berlin Exploratorium, CBGBs (NYC), deSingel (Antwerp), Issue Project Room (NYC), Knitting Factory (NYC), German Nordwestradio – NDR (Bremen), Hallwalls (Buffalo NY), MATA Festival (NYC), Music Gallery (Toronto), Roulette (NYC), Tonic (NYC) and Vision Festival (NYC). His music can be heard on a number of independent record labels including Clean Feed in Portugal and Leo Records in England. His collaborations with choreographers have been produced at PS 122, Joyce SoHo, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, The Chocolate Factory and Judson Church. Currently he lives in Asheville, NC with his wife, Estelle and their two boys. Hear more in this 2021 radio interview with Mike Watt (Minutemen/Firehose) on the Watt from Pedro show: www.twfps.com/past-episodes/on-air-jeff-arnal-from-asheville-nc-via-skype
Start your new holiday tradition with LaZoom! Our top rated Hey Asheville Tour gets an extra dose of holiday cheer for the season. We’ll laugh all the way as the purple bus roams the historical streets of Asheville as you learn new holiday traditions, and meet colorful characters that are sure to bring joy to the world.
Historical and hysterical, The Hey Asheville tour features outrageously entertaining tour guides, outlandish comedy skits complete with special appearances and loads of Asheville information. You’ll get to see the best of downtown Asheville and the rarely seen but stunningly beautiful Montford neighborhood, not to mention the burgeoning River Arts District! You’ve never had a ride like this. It’s like a vaudeville show on wheels!
Find out what makes Asheville so unique on LaZoom’s City Comedy Tour. It’s the perfect mix of history, comedy, and entertainment. Our guides are trained professional actors working with an original script. It’s like a theatre on wheels! The tour highlights downtown Asheville, historic neighborhoods, the South Slope, and the River Arts District.
A Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas
Please note: Proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test and masks will be required at the performance. For more information on our COVID-19 safety protocols, please click here.
The tradition continues on the Rock after going virtual! Bring the whole family to this dazzling holiday celebration, Playhouse-style! An all-new show with the same great spirit and quality, A Playhouse Christmas 2021 will feature many seasonal classics along with several new adaptations and medleys. Showcasing a cast of Flat Rock favorites, this song and dance revue is sure to bring you great holiday joy!
This event will allow you to explore the holiday season globally.
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December 10, 11, 17, 18, and 19th.
The Winter Wonder Walk transports you inside a winter storybook where our actors bring to life the wonderful world of Winterland, and set you on a quest to find Jack Frost. Your senses will be dazzled by this completely immersive experience. After the Winter Wonder Walk Trail, a warm cozy festival tents welcomes you back to Mrs. Clause’s Kitchen with Cookies For A Clause, kids activities, a stocking stuffer market with local vendors, and concessions.
For more information, visit www.winterwonderwalk.com.
Our Memories Making Meals program will donate 4 meals to MANNA Foodbank from each ticket. Memories Making Meals is a continuation of The Haunted Trail’s BOO To Hunger program which has donated 38,400 meals in 2 years. Have a memorable family friendly night out while supporting MANNA Foodbank!
The Winter Wonder Walk is produced in collaboration with Asheville Plays!, the creators of The Haunted Trail, The Conundrum, and The Adventure Center of Asheville. We are excited to bring you another treasured part of your family’s holiday tradition.
For more information, visit www.winterwonderwalk.com.
Join Dianne Boes & Greg Candle for an evening of holiday spirit mixed with classic country, old blues, originals & duelettes…humorous & heartfelt songs…and storytelling!
The Candleers consist of Dianne Boes and Greg Candle. They love to play John Prine, Hank Williams Sr., classic country, old blues and folk, as well as their own originals. Dianne played music at her church while raising a family and working as a pharmacist. Greg taught for twenty years before spending fifteen years performing his original stories and songs on the banquet circuit. When they met they discovered they both had an affinity for roots and original music.
This concert is free and open to the public; donations are encouraged to support the musicians and sound people. Please wear a mask. Livestreamed on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/FloodGallery
Photos by Mark Kirby
Tickets must be purchased online this year. Your ticket is valid for a one-time use any night of the festival; tickets are not date-specific.
- $10 for personal vehicles (standard cars/vans)
- $25 for sprinter vans, trailblazers, and conversion vans
- $50 for buses and motorcoaches
- 20% of the proceeds benefit Special Olympics Buncombe County
Lake Julian Festival of Lights has become a tradition for many mountain families and visitors. Visitors are invited to watch the lights twinkle over the lake and listen to their favorite seasonal tunes while driving through the magical wonderland.
Lake Julian Festival of Lights takes place nightly from December 1-23 from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Please check our Facebook page for information on closings due to winter weather.
Winter Lights returns to the gardens November 19-January 1
Tickets are now sold PER VEHICLE, not per person.
We are thrilled to announce that the 2021 Winter Lights holiday event will welcome members and guests back into the gardens as it returns to the traditional outdoor walk-through open-air show format. The famously tall 50-foot lighted tree and the Quilt Garden will be back, outfitted with new designs in lights, while throughout the gardens, popular arrangements will mingle with ones never seen before.
You can find everything you need to know about Asheville’s Brightest Holiday Tradition at the tabs above, and be sure to secure your tickets now.
We hope you will join us this holiday season!
Winter Lights is the Arboretum’s largest annual fundraiser, and supports many parts of its mission driven programming.
Our best rising stars are still going and are bringing you this seasonal classic. This year it’s the Moppets own interpretation of Dickens’ well-known story, and they are keen to bring you something that’s great fun for the whole family. This year, a cast of 10 youth actors will randomly draw their roles for each performance just before showtime, giving every audience a fresh take on the heart-warming holiday tale every time! This one’s going to be GREAT!
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Adeem Maria (they/them/theirs) is a seventh-generation Carolinian, a makeshift poet, singer-songwriter, storyteller, and blue-collar Artist. They began toiling at their instrument in 2002 when their family relocated to Syracuse, NY and used songwriting as a vehicle to process the ensuing culture shock, their faith, and later their journey through apostasy.
Blending a homegrown affection for Country Music with the emotional ballyhoo of alternative folk in the early aughts, they have created a unique brand of Americana that pays homage to John Prine and John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats) in equal parts.
Over the course of the last year, they’ve appeared for the first time on the Americana Charts with their single “Pandemic Days” as well as receiving praise from American Songwriter & Rolling Stone. On Cast-Iron Pansexual, they weave a rich tapestry of words with humor and wit; exploring identity across coalescing subcultures. Traveling to Carolina to get their Tarot read while straddling the duality of being a “blue collar boy” who is a “complicated dame,” Adeem excavates unwonted stories of the forgotten south.
Come enjoy an evening of live music, food and drinks in the Isis Music Hall Lawn. Reservations are highly recommended.
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FACE COVERINGS REQUIRED ONBOARD AT ALL TIMES.
Highlights
- Hop on board the Holly Jolly Christmas Trolley for a fun and festive celebration of the season featuring the sights and sounds of the holidays!
- This seasonal favorite features an entertaining blend of holiday storytelling and traditional Christmas caroling. Enjoy stories of local lore and holiday traditions, then join-in with our on-board musician singing classic carols and songs of Christmas. And all the while the Holly Jolly Trolley is rolling past festive holiday decorations in downtown Asheville, Biltmore Village and the Montford and Grove Park neighborhoods.
- This has all the makings of a jolly good family tradition!
Good to Know
- Haven’t been caroling in a while? Not to worry! Songbooks will be provided for use during the tour.
- Please note, you will see Christmas lights on this tour, however, it is not a “lights tour.” Caroling and storytelling take center stage on the Holly Jolly Trolley.
- Trolleys are heated and enclosed with clear vinyl roll-down curtains.
Exclusions
- Gratuities
2022 HOLIDAY SHOW
By Skyler Goff
From the deviant minds that brought you Spanko: A Tex-Mex Commedia Musical, in partnership with The Magnetic Theatre comes a paranoid, bawdy, and morbid retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic. More information to follow!
December 2 – 17, 2022
Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30pm
Sundays at 4pm
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