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.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 – SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15
It’s during this time of year that the mountains explode with color. Capture photos of the fall season and enter them into our “Find Your Color” Photo Contest. We’ll use the winning entries on our website and Facebook album, and you’ll win some fun prizes. Photos must be taken within the Chimney Rock section of the Park.
GREAT PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO 3 WINNING ENTRIES
Winners will be notified and announced on Chimney Rock’s social media channels. F
Join us for a relaxing ride through quiet countryside on your way to small town life in western North Carolina on the Tuckasegee River Excursion. Departing from Bryson City, this 4 hour excursion travels 32 miles round-trip to Dillsboro and back to the Bryson City Depot. Pass by the famous movie set of The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford!
The Tuckasegee (tuck-uh-SEE-jee) River Excursion includes an 1½ hour layover in the historic town of Dillsboro, where you’ll find more than 50 shops, restaurants, bed and breakfasts and country inns. There is time to shop, snack, and visit the many unique shops before returning to Bryson City.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 – SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15
It’s during this time of year that the mountains explode with color. Capture photos of the fall season and enter them into our “Find Your Color” Photo Contest. We’ll use the winning entries on our website and Facebook album, and you’ll win some fun prizes. Photos must be taken within the Chimney Rock section of the Park.
GREAT PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO 3 WINNING ENTRIES
Winners will be notified and announced on Chimney Rock’s social media channels. F
Wortham Center in collaboration with Hola Community Arts presents
Día de los Muertos Art Installation: Catrinas by Margarita Figueroa
Self-Guided, Physically Distanced Tours
In celebration of Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead, Hola Community Arts presents the work of renowned Mexican artist Margarita Figueroa at the Wortham Center for Performing Arts October 21 – November 2.
Margarita Figueroa sculpts whimsical, life-size Catrinas in the Alambroide technique, which consists of wire-structured figures covered with papier-mâché and painted with acrylic colors.
Catrina, an elegant, skeletal woman made famous by printmaker José Guadalupe Posada in the early 1900s, is one of the most recognizable figures in the Day of the Dead holiday and still permeates and influences Mexican Folk Art today.
The Día de los Muertos holiday has expanded beyond its roots in Mexico to provide comfort and community to those who have lost loved ones in cultures around the world.
“Día de los Muertos is distinctly different from Halloween in origin, celebration and culture. Día de los Muertos is truly a joyous celebration of life and the beauty of remembering those who have come before us,” says Adriana Chavela, executive director of Hola Community Arts. “During this celebration, the dead sort of become a part of the living world, as families tell stories and reflect on memories of them.”
The Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead holiday is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd throughout Latin America, but is more closely associated with Mexico, where it originated.
About Hola Community Arts
Hola Community Arts is building bridges between cultures, embracing diversity and creating more economically vibrant communities. We recognize the power of the arts to challenge and shift perceptions, spark creativity and connect people across cultures. HOLA Community Arts is a registered nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3). Donations are welcome. Learn more at www.holacommunityarts.org.
Join us for a relaxing ride through quiet countryside on your way to small town life in western North Carolina on the Tuckasegee River Excursion. Departing from Bryson City, this 4 hour excursion travels 32 miles round-trip to Dillsboro and back to the Bryson City Depot. Pass by the famous movie set of The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford!
The Tuckasegee (tuck-uh-SEE-jee) River Excursion includes an 1½ hour layover in the historic town of Dillsboro, where you’ll find more than 50 shops, restaurants, bed and breakfasts and country inns. There is time to shop, snack, and visit the many unique shops before returning to Bryson City.
Discover the original Asheville Food Tour. In this premiere tour, taste the unique flavor of Asheville on our guided walking tours of the city’s culinary treasures, in historic downtown Asheville. Eating Asheville one bite at a time never tasted so good!
One of the nation’s premiere food destinations, Asheville boasts some of the most exciting and memorable food in the South. Asheville Food Tours offers a sumptuous glimpse into this exotic world of local Asheville restaurants and gourmet food shops and featuring artisan cheeses and choice meats from local farms, crusty baked breads from local ovens, rich hand-made chocolates, dynamic wine lists and hand-crafted local beer.
Downtown Food Tour – $55
West Asheville Tour – $60
International Tour – $60
Food Fan Foot Tour – $65
Saturday Brunch Tour – $65
Night Tour – $85
Gift Certificates – $55 and up.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 – SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15
It’s during this time of year that the mountains explode with color. Capture photos of the fall season and enter them into our “Find Your Color” Photo Contest. We’ll use the winning entries on our website and Facebook album, and you’ll win some fun prizes. Photos must be taken within the Chimney Rock section of the Park.
GREAT PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO 3 WINNING ENTRIES
Winners will be notified and announced on Chimney Rock’s social media channels. F
Wortham Center in collaboration with Hola Community Arts presents
Día de los Muertos Art Installation: Catrinas by Margarita Figueroa
Self-Guided, Physically Distanced Tours
In celebration of Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead, Hola Community Arts presents the work of renowned Mexican artist Margarita Figueroa at the Wortham Center for Performing Arts October 21 – November 2.
Margarita Figueroa sculpts whimsical, life-size Catrinas in the Alambroide technique, which consists of wire-structured figures covered with papier-mâché and painted with acrylic colors.
Catrina, an elegant, skeletal woman made famous by printmaker José Guadalupe Posada in the early 1900s, is one of the most recognizable figures in the Day of the Dead holiday and still permeates and influences Mexican Folk Art today.
The Día de los Muertos holiday has expanded beyond its roots in Mexico to provide comfort and community to those who have lost loved ones in cultures around the world.
“Día de los Muertos is distinctly different from Halloween in origin, celebration and culture. Día de los Muertos is truly a joyous celebration of life and the beauty of remembering those who have come before us,” says Adriana Chavela, executive director of Hola Community Arts. “During this celebration, the dead sort of become a part of the living world, as families tell stories and reflect on memories of them.”
The Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead holiday is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd throughout Latin America, but is more closely associated with Mexico, where it originated.
About Hola Community Arts
Hola Community Arts is building bridges between cultures, embracing diversity and creating more economically vibrant communities. We recognize the power of the arts to challenge and shift perceptions, spark creativity and connect people across cultures. HOLA Community Arts is a registered nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3). Donations are welcome. Learn more at www.holacommunityarts.org.
Virtual Visits for Students
Groups of pre-K–12 students are invited to schedule an interactive Virtual Visit to the Museum! Led by volunteer docents with Museum staff, our inquiry-based, conversational Virtual Visits introduce the Museum’s galleries with a 3D tour and challenge students to hone their observation skills. All pre-K–12 Virtual Visits make connections to the NC Standard Course of Study.
Virtual Visits for pre-K–12 groups are $50 for 5–25 participants from one or multiple devices through Zoom or Google Meet. Virtual Visits are available Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm, and last 30–45 minutes. At least two weeks’ advanced notice is required.
For more information about Virtual Visits for adults, college, and university students, click here. For Virtual Visits for family and friend groups with children, click here.
Join us for a relaxing ride through quiet countryside on your way to small town life in western North Carolina on the Tuckasegee River Excursion. Departing from Bryson City, this 4 hour excursion travels 32 miles round-trip to Dillsboro and back to the Bryson City Depot. Pass by the famous movie set of The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford!
The Tuckasegee (tuck-uh-SEE-jee) River Excursion includes an 1½ hour layover in the historic town of Dillsboro, where you’ll find more than 50 shops, restaurants, bed and breakfasts and country inns. There is time to shop, snack, and visit the many unique shops before returning to Bryson City.
The eighth annual CiderFest NC fundraiser will be held in a brand-new format this fall that offers loyal guests the chance to celebrate, sample and savor cider safely and responsibly.
While the large annual festival will not be offered this fall in light of current health concerns, the event will continue this year through CiderFest Tours: small-group curated tours of three Asheville cideries that are being offered in partnership with local business Leap Frog Tours.
The tours will allow participants to visit three of Asheville’s cideries — Noble Cider, Urban Orchard Cider Company – West and TreeRock Social Cider House & Mead Bar — for intimate, small-group tasting sessions to sample unique takes on the craft beverage on each of the locations. Proceeds will be shared between Leap Frog Tours, the three participating cideries and Green Built Alliance.
To offer the largest number of people the opportunity to participate, the four-hour tours will be offered from 3 to 7 p.m. on every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday in October.
Tours can be reserved for groups of 2 to 14 individuals, and bookings open up today. To prioritize safety in light of COVID-19, all tours will be private without combining reservations from separate parties. (Visit our website or Leap Frog’s booking page for a full list of COVID-19 precautions being taken for the tours.)
The cost is $85 per person. The price includes a tasting at each cidery, a souvenir CiderFest tasting glass, and transportation by Leap Frog Tours from Aloft Hotel in downtown Asheville.
Since the event has sold out in recent years, people are encouraged to book their tours early. For more information and to book a tour, visit www.ciderfestnc.com.
GHOSTED: COMEDY WALKING TOUR
COVID has postponed our bus tours, but it won’t stop us from laughing! Our brand new experience is an up tempo theatrical walking tour of haunted Asheville. You and 13 others will depart from the LaZoom Room and follow an undead guide through Asheville’s creepy streets in search of window into the past. Along the way, we’ll encounter real ghosts that will have you jumping out of your skin. Not really! Or really? Take the tour and find out!
Beginner’s workshop lesson at 7:30 P.M., then 8-11 P.M. Contra Dance with Country Waltzing at the break and the final dance. This is a partner dance but it’s not necessary to come with a partner. We have different live bands and callers.
GHOSTED: COMEDY WALKING TOUR
COVID has postponed our bus tours, but it won’t stop us from laughing! Our brand new experience is an up tempo theatrical walking tour of haunted Asheville. You and 13 others will depart from the LaZoom Room and follow an undead guide through Asheville’s creepy streets in search of window into the past. Along the way, we’ll encounter real ghosts that will have you jumping out of your skin. Not really! Or really? Take the tour and find out!
Discover the original Asheville Food Tour. In this premiere tour, taste the unique flavor of Asheville on our guided walking tours of the city’s culinary treasures, in historic downtown Asheville. Eating Asheville one bite at a time never tasted so good!
One of the nation’s premiere food destinations, Asheville boasts some of the most exciting and memorable food in the South. Asheville Food Tours offers a sumptuous glimpse into this exotic world of local Asheville restaurants and gourmet food shops and featuring artisan cheeses and choice meats from local farms, crusty baked breads from local ovens, rich hand-made chocolates, dynamic wine lists and hand-crafted local beer.
Downtown Food Tour – $55
West Asheville Tour – $60
International Tour – $60
Food Fan Foot Tour – $65
Saturday Brunch Tour – $65
Night Tour – $85
Gift Certificates – $55 and up.
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Though apple picking outings, leaf peeping, and pumpkin spice in everything define the autumn season for many in the North Carolina mountains, scarecrows are a notable symbol of farms and the fall harvest in Buncombe County. The annual Scarecrow Festival returns to Lake Julian Park in October 23–November 1. Buncombe County residents are invited to construct scarecrows as an individual, family, group, school, business, club, or organization. There is no cost to enter. Entries will be judged on originality/creativity, design, and workmanship. First, second, and third place winners will be announced in the categories of Traditional, Recycle and Reduce, and Funny. Prizes will be awarded for Judges’ Best of Show and People’s Choice. All entries will receive one vehicle admission to Festival of Lights, the immensely popular nocturnal display of winter scenes that has become a mountain tradition. |
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 – SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15
It’s during this time of year that the mountains explode with color. Capture photos of the fall season and enter them into our “Find Your Color” Photo Contest. We’ll use the winning entries on our website and Facebook album, and you’ll win some fun prizes. Photos must be taken within the Chimney Rock section of the Park.
GREAT PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO 3 WINNING ENTRIES
Winners will be notified and announced on Chimney Rock’s social media channels. F
Wortham Center in collaboration with Hola Community Arts presents
Día de los Muertos Art Installation: Catrinas by Margarita Figueroa
Self-Guided, Physically Distanced Tours
In celebration of Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead, Hola Community Arts presents the work of renowned Mexican artist Margarita Figueroa at the Wortham Center for Performing Arts October 21 – November 2.
Margarita Figueroa sculpts whimsical, life-size Catrinas in the Alambroide technique, which consists of wire-structured figures covered with papier-mâché and painted with acrylic colors.
Catrina, an elegant, skeletal woman made famous by printmaker José Guadalupe Posada in the early 1900s, is one of the most recognizable figures in the Day of the Dead holiday and still permeates and influences Mexican Folk Art today.
The Día de los Muertos holiday has expanded beyond its roots in Mexico to provide comfort and community to those who have lost loved ones in cultures around the world.
“Día de los Muertos is distinctly different from Halloween in origin, celebration and culture. Día de los Muertos is truly a joyous celebration of life and the beauty of remembering those who have come before us,” says Adriana Chavela, executive director of Hola Community Arts. “During this celebration, the dead sort of become a part of the living world, as families tell stories and reflect on memories of them.”
The Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead holiday is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd throughout Latin America, but is more closely associated with Mexico, where it originated.
About Hola Community Arts
Hola Community Arts is building bridges between cultures, embracing diversity and creating more economically vibrant communities. We recognize the power of the arts to challenge and shift perceptions, spark creativity and connect people across cultures. HOLA Community Arts is a registered nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3). Donations are welcome. Learn more at www.holacommunityarts.org.
Virtual Visits for Students
Groups of pre-K–12 students are invited to schedule an interactive Virtual Visit to the Museum! Led by volunteer docents with Museum staff, our inquiry-based, conversational Virtual Visits introduce the Museum’s galleries with a 3D tour and challenge students to hone their observation skills. All pre-K–12 Virtual Visits make connections to the NC Standard Course of Study.
Virtual Visits for pre-K–12 groups are $50 for 5–25 participants from one or multiple devices through Zoom or Google Meet. Virtual Visits are available Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm, and last 30–45 minutes. At least two weeks’ advanced notice is required.
For more information about Virtual Visits for adults, college, and university students, click here. For Virtual Visits for family and friend groups with children, click here.
Take a driving tour through the myths and legends of the Swannanoa Valley! This approximately two hour tour will take you to some of the most haunted, historical and mythological places in the Valley. Learn about the ghosts who haunt the windows of Black Mountain homes, the mystery skeleton of the McKoy Building, the Spanish Flu pandemic and much much more. Small car caravans will follow the lead car to each stop on the tour to see a ghostly scene from the past unfold before them. The drive will be accompanied by an audio tour, downloadable as an app for smartphones.
Taking place the evenings of Friday, October 23rd and Saturday, October 24th. Tours starting at 5:00pm, 5:30pm, 6:00pm, 6:30pm, 7:00pm, 7:30pm, and 8:00pm. Attendees will drive their own cars.
Roads can accommodate minivans and SUVs. As many people as wished may ride in registered vehicles.
GHOSTED: COMEDY WALKING TOUR
COVID has postponed our bus tours, but it won’t stop us from laughing! Our brand new experience is an up tempo theatrical walking tour of haunted Asheville. You and 13 others will depart from the LaZoom Room and follow an undead guide through Asheville’s creepy streets in search of window into the past. Along the way, we’ll encounter real ghosts that will have you jumping out of your skin. Not really! Or really? Take the tour and find out!
Discover the original Asheville Food Tour. In this premiere tour, taste the unique flavor of Asheville on our guided walking tours of the city’s culinary treasures, in historic downtown Asheville. Eating Asheville one bite at a time never tasted so good!
One of the nation’s premiere food destinations, Asheville boasts some of the most exciting and memorable food in the South. Asheville Food Tours offers a sumptuous glimpse into this exotic world of local Asheville restaurants and gourmet food shops and featuring artisan cheeses and choice meats from local farms, crusty baked breads from local ovens, rich hand-made chocolates, dynamic wine lists and hand-crafted local beer.
Downtown Food Tour – $55
West Asheville Tour – $60
International Tour – $60
Food Fan Foot Tour – $65
Saturday Brunch Tour – $65
Night Tour – $85
Gift Certificates – $55 and up.
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Buncombe County is diverse. Playgrounds should be, too. The spirit of inclusion is straightforward in a recent partnership that has brought swing access for persons of all abilities to the three largest parks in the County’s Recreation Services system.
With support from Dogwood Health Trust, Sand Hill Lions Club, and the citizens of Buncombe County, wheelchair swings can be found at Buncombe County Sports Park, Charles D. Owen Park, and Lake Julian Park that adhere to Americans with Disability Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design. Front and rear ramps allow easy access onto and off a 32 inch wide platform (the same as standard doorway entries). Wheelchairs can easily navigate on specially engineered mulch that also acts as a safety feature in case a user should fall.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 – SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15
It’s during this time of year that the mountains explode with color. Capture photos of the fall season and enter them into our “Find Your Color” Photo Contest. We’ll use the winning entries on our website and Facebook album, and you’ll win some fun prizes. Photos must be taken within the Chimney Rock section of the Park.
GREAT PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO 3 WINNING ENTRIES
Winners will be notified and announced on Chimney Rock’s social media channels. F
Wortham Center in collaboration with Hola Community Arts presents
Día de los Muertos Art Installation: Catrinas by Margarita Figueroa
Self-Guided, Physically Distanced Tours
In celebration of Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead, Hola Community Arts presents the work of renowned Mexican artist Margarita Figueroa at the Wortham Center for Performing Arts October 21 – November 2.
Margarita Figueroa sculpts whimsical, life-size Catrinas in the Alambroide technique, which consists of wire-structured figures covered with papier-mâché and painted with acrylic colors.
Catrina, an elegant, skeletal woman made famous by printmaker José Guadalupe Posada in the early 1900s, is one of the most recognizable figures in the Day of the Dead holiday and still permeates and influences Mexican Folk Art today.
The Día de los Muertos holiday has expanded beyond its roots in Mexico to provide comfort and community to those who have lost loved ones in cultures around the world.
“Día de los Muertos is distinctly different from Halloween in origin, celebration and culture. Día de los Muertos is truly a joyous celebration of life and the beauty of remembering those who have come before us,” says Adriana Chavela, executive director of Hola Community Arts. “During this celebration, the dead sort of become a part of the living world, as families tell stories and reflect on memories of them.”
The Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead holiday is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd throughout Latin America, but is more closely associated with Mexico, where it originated.
About Hola Community Arts
Hola Community Arts is building bridges between cultures, embracing diversity and creating more economically vibrant communities. We recognize the power of the arts to challenge and shift perceptions, spark creativity and connect people across cultures. HOLA Community Arts is a registered nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3). Donations are welcome. Learn more at www.holacommunityarts.org.
Virtual Visits for Students
Groups of pre-K–12 students are invited to schedule an interactive Virtual Visit to the Museum! Led by volunteer docents with Museum staff, our inquiry-based, conversational Virtual Visits introduce the Museum’s galleries with a 3D tour and challenge students to hone their observation skills. All pre-K–12 Virtual Visits make connections to the NC Standard Course of Study.
Virtual Visits for pre-K–12 groups are $50 for 5–25 participants from one or multiple devices through Zoom or Google Meet. Virtual Visits are available Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm, and last 30–45 minutes. At least two weeks’ advanced notice is required.
For more information about Virtual Visits for adults, college, and university students, click here. For Virtual Visits for family and friend groups with children, click here.
On exhibit Saturdays and Sundays from 12 – 4 p.m. (weather permitting), Rocky Cove Railroad is a G-Scale (garden scale) model train that demonstrates the coming of trains to western North Carolina at the turn of the 20th century. The exhibit is located below the Grand Garden Promenade.
The eighth annual CiderFest NC fundraiser will be held in a brand-new format this fall that offers loyal guests the chance to celebrate, sample and savor cider safely and responsibly.
While the large annual festival will not be offered this fall in light of current health concerns, the event will continue this year through CiderFest Tours: small-group curated tours of three Asheville cideries that are being offered in partnership with local business Leap Frog Tours.
The tours will allow participants to visit three of Asheville’s cideries — Noble Cider, Urban Orchard Cider Company – West and TreeRock Social Cider House & Mead Bar — for intimate, small-group tasting sessions to sample unique takes on the craft beverage on each of the locations. Proceeds will be shared between Leap Frog Tours, the three participating cideries and Green Built Alliance.
To offer the largest number of people the opportunity to participate, the four-hour tours will be offered from 3 to 7 p.m. on every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday in October.
Tours can be reserved for groups of 2 to 14 individuals, and bookings open up today. To prioritize safety in light of COVID-19, all tours will be private without combining reservations from separate parties. (Visit our website or Leap Frog’s booking page for a full list of COVID-19 precautions being taken for the tours.)
The cost is $85 per person. The price includes a tasting at each cidery, a souvenir CiderFest tasting glass, and transportation by Leap Frog Tours from Aloft Hotel in downtown Asheville.
Since the event has sold out in recent years, people are encouraged to book their tours early. For more information and to book a tour, visit www.ciderfestnc.com.
October is one of the best times of year to be stargazing at Grandfather Mountain. The air is cool and clear, and the summer constellations are still very prominent, with some early winter sights making their appearance later in the evening. This course is also during the time of the Orionid meteor shower, so hopefully some of these celestial fireworks will grace our skies during the nighttime observation.
The goal for this course is to create a familiarity with the night sky and learn the basics of stargazing that can be applied on your own on any clear night throughout the year. We’ll start in the classroom by exploring some of the best print and digital resources for observing the night sky and cover some of the basics of stargazing and how to orient to the night sky. We’ll also discuss the use of planispheres, star maps and star charts to find some of the most beautiful deep sky wonders that can be seen through binoculars or small telescopes. During the evening hours, we’ll be out at various viewing locations on the mountain, practicing our stargazing skills while looking for meteors and learning about some of the most prominent stars, constellations and other objects visible this time of year.
Course instructor Stephan Martin has been a stargazer since he was very young growing up under dark skies of South Florida. Martin is also an astronomer, educator and author, who has taught astronomy and physics at colleges, universities and learning centers across the U.S. and internationally for more than 25 years. He has worked as a data analyst for the Hubble Space Telescope and as Observatory Supervisor at Williams College, where he participated in scientific research expeditions around the world to study the dynamics of the solar corona during solar eclipses.
Take a driving tour through the myths and legends of the Swannanoa Valley! This approximately two hour tour will take you to some of the most haunted, historical and mythological places in the Valley. Learn about the ghosts who haunt the windows of Black Mountain homes, the mystery skeleton of the McKoy Building, the Spanish Flu pandemic and much much more. Small car caravans will follow the lead car to each stop on the tour to see a ghostly scene from the past unfold before them. The drive will be accompanied by an audio tour, downloadable as an app for smartphones.
Taking place the evenings of Friday, October 23rd and Saturday, October 24th. Tours starting at 5:00pm, 5:30pm, 6:00pm, 6:30pm, 7:00pm, 7:30pm, and 8:00pm. Attendees will drive their own cars.
Roads can accommodate minivans and SUVs. As many people as wished may ride in registered vehicles.