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.
Could you be the pick of the patch? The WNC Nature Center is having a virtual costume contest this Halloween! Entering is easy – take a picture of your child, pet, and/or family in their Halloween costume and email it to [email protected]. All submissions are due by November 3. Voting will start November 7 on the Nature Center Facebook
Expanding its commitment to saving lives in local communities and beyond, The Blood Connection (TBC) is now giving blood donors the chance to lower CO2 emissions, create jobs in Africa, and empower women, all while donating blood with their community blood center. In October, TBC will partner with Forestmatic to plant one tree in Northeastern Uganda for every blood donor. TBC is asking for the community’s help to reach the goal of planting 20,000 trees, as part of a national goal in conjunction with other blood centers to plant 160,000 trees total. Twenty-two other blood centers are taking part in this campaign.
The trees included in this initiative will be planted in the Kijani Forest in the northeast region of Uganda by local farmers: 60% of whom are women, which will help create jobs and income for Ugandans. In addition, these trees will provide local communities with long-term access to resources like fuelwood, fruit, and timber, while also preventing soil erosion, increasing water retention, and improving soil fertility in Ugandan communities. For just one year of work, it is projected that participating farmers will see a $3,500 increase in their household income over ten years: a 400% increase compared to existing employment. In addition, it’s estimated that 23,000 trees offsets around 1455.9 tonnes of CO2e.
The attached press release contains more details about the initiative and how donors can see their planted trees. A video demonstration can be found by going to thebloodconnection.org/treeoflife.
Visit Grandad’s for the day and enjoy a variety of family fun activities on a 100-acre family farm and apple orchard located in Hendersonville NC near Asheville. Select pre-picked apples fresh off the trees daily from our bins or enjoy you-pick on select weekends. Starting in late September, in Grandad’s pumpkin patch you will find pumpkins and jack o’lanterns in every size and shape. At Grandad’s Barn and Country Store, you will find a great selection of fall harvest decorations, apple peelers, apple bakers, and other apple gifts. Come by our bakery where we have hot cider donuts all day along with apple pies, cookies, hot cider, apple cider slushies, and many other apple goodies to eat!
The WNC Farmers Market is the premier destination for buying and selling the region’s best agriculture products directly from farmers & food producers to household & wholesale customers in an environment that celebrates the region’s diverse culture, food & heritage.
House of Operation:
WNC Farmers Market: 24/7, 361 days a year market access for farmers
Office: Monday- Friday, 8am-5pm
Market Shops: 7 days a week, 8 am-5 pm
Wholesale and Truck Sheds: 7 days a week
The Justus Family has been growing delicious NC Apples in Hendersonville for more than Four Generations, our Fifth generation is now an active part of Justus Orchard as well. At our NC Apple Orchard, you will find U Pick or We Pick Apples, Blackberries, and Pumpkins Whether you choose to U Pick or We Pick, you can sample, mix and match to make sure go home with your favorite apples for eating or cooking. Review the apple varieties we grow and sell and their usual ripening times here.
We invite you to experience picking your own NC Apples, enjoy a day in the beautiful Western North Carolina Mountains, there is something for everyone and all ages. Tour the orchard picking apples, stop by the pond to see our ducks, visit the farm animals, let the kids take a ride on the Cow Train through the orchard, visit Apple House for pre-picked Apples, Honey, Jams, Jellies and Preserves and other homemade goodies. Visit the Bakery which offers our famous homemade Fried Apple Pies, Apple Cider Donuts, Apple Cider, Cider Slushies, Caramels, Apple Bread and more! You can also find fresh Mountain Cabbage, Sweet Potatoes and other local fall vegetables.
We look forward to having you visit one of the oldest U Pick or We Pick Apple Orchards in Western NC. We guarantee fresh apples, delicious baked good, beautiful views and wonderful hospitality!
Currently picking: Gala, Golden Delicious, Early Fuji, Mutsu, and a few Honeycrisp
Sky Top Orchard has been a family-owned & operated farm since 1967 when father and son duo Everette and David Butler planted the first trees on Mt. McAlpine, in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. For almost 60 years, Apple Dave and his wife Lindsey grew Sky Top from a small roadside tent into what it is today.
Built with love, sweat, and a lot of hard work, Sky Top has grown to include our hayride and bee train, the apple cannon, and of course, our famous apple cider doughnuts. But throughout the years, one thing stays the same: tradition. At Sky Top, we believe family and creating long-lasting memories is the most important part. We look forward to being a place for you to bring your families for years to come.
Open from Friday, September 30th through Sunday, October 30th on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Fridays: 3pm-7pm Saturdays: 9am-7pm Sundays: 10am-6pm
Featuring
Corn Cannons
Spider Climber
Custom Corn Maze
Lawn Games
Hay Rides
Slides
Scheduled Face Painting
Pumpkins for Purchase
Scheduled Food Trucks
& MORE!
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30
10am – 2pm
Our urban trees in Asheville are at a critical moment. Over the past decade, we have seen a tremendous increase in development in our area — trees, and ultimately our residents, are paying the price.
The math is simple. The more trees we keep around us, the more protected we are from the uncertainties of extreme weather and a changing climate. We know that we are losing too many trees to development. That’s why we offer private landowners the opportunity to adopt trees we grow in our nursery, as part of GreenWorks’ broader effort to protect and restore our urban forest. This tree adoption event is for Buncombe County residents to receive 1 tree to be planted on private residential property.
GreenWorks relies on financial support from our community to offer trees to Buncombe County residents for adoption. You can reserve your tree with a donation of any amount starting at $10 — if cost is a barrier to your participation, please call us at (828) 254-1776. It costs us roughly $100 annually and 3-4 years to grow each tree to the point it can be planted with the best chance to grow and thrive. On average, your future tree has received 100 hours of hands-on care by volunteers every year, since the time it was potted up as a seedling to the day you take it home with you! Your donation today helps to sustain nursery operations so that we continue to have trees for Buncombe County residents to adopt for generations to come, and it bolsters our capacity to work with low-wealth communities and communities of color who are disproportionately affected by tree loss, pollution and climate change.
Get ready for an all new production of Mamma Mia!
New sets! New costumes! New cast!
You’ll be dancing in the aisles to this familiar favorite dressed up in a brand new way!
| With the arrival of the fall, we’d like to announce the launch of our 2022 Fall Festivities! In the mountains of Western NC, the air is already growing cooler and crisper each day, and the leaves are beginning to change.
Each weekend in September and October, we’ll be hosting our community for a variety of seasonal offerings. Bring the whole family to our Home Farm in Fairview, NC for a festive experience :
Admission and most activities are FREE! Proceeds from the Pony Rides will benefit Project HNG – a neighborhood non-profit organization that focuses on community enrichment in WNC. |
Eliada’s Annual Corn Maze and Fall Festival is the agency’s single largest fundraiser. Through your volunteer support, you are directly impacting the lives of vulnerable children in our community.
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Limited Capacity: 12 Guests per Tour
A truly memorable experience featuring rare photo opportunities, this exclusive guided tour offers a behind-the-scenes look at the design and construction of Biltmore House in areas unavailable on the regular house visit. Imagine yourself a Vanderbilt (or cherished Vanderbilt guest) as you take in stunning views seen only from the house’s rooftop and balconies.
Advance reservation required. Tour includes 250 stairs with no elevator access. Wheelchairs, strollers, and baby backpacks are prohibited. Backpacks are not allowed on any guided tours. Guests are required to leave backpacks in a locker or in their vehicle. To participate in this tour, guest must have a daytime ticket, a Biltmore Annual Pass, or a stay at one of the estate’s splendid overnight properties.
Asheville Gallery of Art presents Judy Rentner’s rich, colorful paintings, during the month of October, in an exhibition titled ‘Nature’s Gems’. The opening reception will be held on Friday, October 7th from 5:00-8:00pm.
Of all of the seasons of the year, fall is the crescendo, the last burst of beauty before nature’s tones soften and become quiet in the winter months. Autumn colors are like precious gems: topaz, sapphires, emeralds, rubies…, an endless sparkling array of brilliance. Although an artist cannot compete with God’s creations, she can capture the awe-inspiring essence of a moment in time to share with her viewers. Judy is such an artist.
Judy Rentner has been painting the landscapes of Western North Carolina for 23 years and they continue to inspire her. Having lived in 10 different states from coast to coast, she still considers North Carolina one of the most beautiful. Although she has been painting most of her adult life, it was here that she found her creative style. Painting in oils, with a palette knife, enabled her to achieve the essence of a scene in light and color. Everything about the creative process is personal and many viewers find themselves drawn to Judy’s unique, inviting style.
A graduate of Ohio University, Judy Rentner did not pursue art until years later when she took workshops, in watercolor, from various artists. This was a pivotal time of discovery as she learned the skills needed to express her ideas in paint. She then experimented with different mediums producing work that was both realistic and abstract. Moving to North Carolina, she placed her work in galleries and taught classes in watercolor, acrylic, and oil. Currently, her passion lies in painting landscapes, with a palette knife, in oils. This technique has given her freedom of expression, using color to its fullest extent.
Judy’s work is represented in several galleries. Check out her website at www.judyrentner.com and be sure to drop by Asheville Gallery of Art this October to view her outstanding autumn paintings. The gallery is open from 11:00am until 6:00pm Monday through Sunday.
Her Painting Titles and writeup:
1. “Crossing into light”….My daughter, a photographer, went to Duke Gardens to “chase the light”. Normally I paint from my own sketches and photos, but this was so striking a scene, that it inspired me to capture it in oil.
2. “Sun Rise in the Mountains” was a combination of many scenes I have painted in our beautiful Smokey Mountains.
3 “Fall Treasure” This is a scene I captured in the Smokey Mountain National Park. Almost every fall I drive through the mountains of Western North Carolina searching for the right landscape. I do not have to go far as this is a painter’s paradise.
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| Richard Misrach, Wall, Jacumba, California, 2009, pigment print, 60 × 80 inches. Courtesy the Artist. © Richard Misrach, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.. |
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Capacity is limited.
Tasting room by reservation only. Make reservations in-person on the day of your Winery visit.
To participate in this activity, guest must have a daytime ticket, a Biltmore Annual Pass, or a stay at one of the estate’s splendid overnight properties.
Reservations are required for all wine tastings and must be made on the day of your visit. Because our complimentary wine tastings fill up quickly, we recommend you reserve your tasting when you arrive for your visit.
Natural Collector is organized by the Asheville Art Museum. IMAGE: Christian Burchard, Untitled (nesting bowls), 1998, madrone burl, various from 6 × 6 × 6 to ⅜ × ⅜ × ⅜ inches. Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2021.76.01.
Natural Collector | Gifts of Fleur S. Bresler features around 15 artworks from the collection of Fleur S. Bresler, which include important examples of modern and contemporary American craft including wood and fiber art, as well as glass and ceramics. These works that were generously donated by contemporary craft collector Bresler to the Asheville Art Museum over the years reflect her strong interest in wood-based art and themes of nature. According to Associate Curator Whitney Richardson, “This exhibition highlights artworks that consider the natural element from which they were created or replicate known flora and fauna in unexpected materials. The selection of objects displayed illustrates how Bresler’s eye for collecting craft not only draws attention to nature and artists’ interest in it, but also accentuates her role as a natural collector with an intuitive ability to identify themes and ideas that speak to one another.”
This exhibition presents work from the Collection representing the first generation of American wood turners like Rude Osolnik and Ed Moulthrop, as well as those that came after and learned from them, such as Philip Moulthrop, John Jordan, and local Western North Carolina (WNC) artist Stoney Lamar. Other WNC-based artists in Natural Collector include Anne Lemanski, whose paper sculpture of a snake captures the viewer’s imagination, and Michael Sherrill’s multimedia work that tricks the eye with its similarity to true-to-life berries. Also represented are beadwork and sculpture by Joyce J. Scott and Jack and Linda Fifield.
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Rebel/Re-Belle: Exploring Gender, Agency, and Identity | Selections from the Asheville Art Museum and Rubell Museum combines works, primarily created by women, from two significant collections of contemporary art to explore how artists have innovated, influenced, interrogated, and inspired visual culture in the past 100 years.
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About Southside Community Farmers Market
Southside Community Farm hosts a farmers market featuring all BIPOC vendors on the first Sunday of every month (except our July 17th market), May-Oct. from 12-3 PM. Come enjoy delicious patties, hot sauces, veggies, fruit, flowers, medicines, and more!
Susan McChesney, Flower 17.19, 2019, petals on paper, 7 × 5 inches. © Susan McChesney, image courtesy the Artist.
Registration deadline: October 15th
Experience the art of Oshibana: creating art with pressed flowers and leaves. Discover techniques in pressing, un-pressing, storing, collaging, and sealing plant material. Explore perspective, value, and composition in the galleries, then return to the studio to make your own contemporary take on this historical art form.
After 24 years in the Education Department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Susan McChesney traveled from city to country and sea to mountains, settling in WNC and pressing flowers to create artwork. Collaging the petals “like strokes of paint” in imagery evoking the local landscape, she also presses Special Occasion Bouquets on commission, true Heart work. Now represented at Flow Gallery in Marshall, she is exploring making larger scale work in the Japanese Oshibana tradition.
Please note:
- This Adult Studio class is held indoors in the Museum’s John & Robyn Horn Education Center.
- Space is limited to small groups of students.
- Students follow the Museum’s temporary COVID-19 safety precautions; click here for more information.
Jazz Sunday at One World Brewing West is a modern jazz jam held every Sunday afternoon from 1-4pm. Previously known as Jazz Monday, the jam has been running non stop since July, 2018 at the West Asheville brewery and is hosted weekly by The Fully Vaccinated Jazz Trio, consisting of Ray Ring on guitar, Jason DeCristofaro on drums, piano and vibraphone, and Connor Law on bass. Jazz Sunday typically features a guest artist for a short set and then welcomes jazz musicians of all levels to sit in for the remainder of the afternoon on One World’s spacious outdoor stage.
Directed by Mark Jones
In this multiple Tony Award-winning theatrical tour-de-force, Assassins explores the lives of nine men and women who either killed (or tried to kill) one of the Presidents of the United States. Stephen Sondheim’s intelligently, stunning lyrics and beautiful music effortlessly combine with a bold, disturbing and alarmingly funny book by John Wiedman. Assassins is a journey into the dark side of the American Dream, looking at our nation’s culture of celebrity and the violent means some will use to obtain it.
Mature audiences only, not suitable for all ages.
In this multiple Tony Award-winning theatrical tour-de-force, Assassins explores the lives of nine men and women who either killed (or tried to kill) one of the Presidents of the United States. Stephen Sondheim’s intelligently, stunning lyrics and beautiful music effortlessly combine with a bold, disturbing and alarmingly funny book by John Wiedman. Assassins is a journey into the dark side of the American Dream, looking at our nation’s culture of celebrity and the violent means some will use to obtain it.
Mature audiences only, not suitable for all ages
Flat Rock Playhouse is bringing the ever-popular Mamma Mia! back to The Rock for an Encore Performance! Mamma Mia! is the mega-hit Broadway show about a daughter’s dream, a mother’s secret and a trip down the aisle you will never forget. Featuring songs like “Dancing Queen,” “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!,” “Thank You for the Music,” and “Honey, Honey,” you already know it’s a show you’re going to love! Bring your best friends, strap on your dancing shoes, dust off your vocal chords, and get ready to sing and dance along with us for an exuberant night of pure fun and awesome music!
Join the Asheville Storytelling Circle for a Wickedly Spooky afternoon of storytelling for families. Tellers Zane Chait, Kyra Freeman, and Kirsten Mitchell will entertain audience members of all ages with these scary tales. Kathy Gordon is joining as Emcee.
Doors will open at 1:30 for this 2pm performance. Online ticket sales stop at 12pm the day of the show. Tickets may still be available, call the BMCA office to find out! 828.669.0930.
Book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin; Music by Matthew Sklar; Lyrics by Chad Beguelin; Directed by Michael Jorizzo
Emma just wants to go to the prom – with her girlfriend Alyssa! But the PTA is not having it. A duo of vain Broadway actors who happen to be in town catch wind of the drama, and they want to improve their public image after some justified bad press. After stumbling across Emma’s dilemma, they team up with a Julliard grad, an overlooked Chorus girl, and Emma to protest the PTA and regain their popularity. With the help of fun musical numbers, the self-centered actors and Emma try to convince the PTA and town that her love deserves to be celebrated, not hidden away!
Watch this cast of 13-17-year-olds light up the stage!
YPC: The Prom
Book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin; Music by Matthew Sklar; Lyrics by Chad Beguelin; Directed by Michael Jorizzo
Emma just wants to go to the prom – with her girlfriend Alyssa! But the PTA is not having it. A duo of vain Broadway actors who happen to be in town catch wind of the drama, and they want to improve their public image after some justified bad press. After stumbling across Emma’s dilemma, they team up with a Julliard grad, an overlooked Chorus girl, and Emma to protest the PTA and regain their popularity. With the help of fun musical numbers, the self-centered actors and Emma try to convince the PTA and town that her love deserves to be celebrated, not hidden away!
Watch this cast of 13-17-year-olds light up the stage!