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.
We are trying to see if there is enough interest in a Zoom class for Adult Improv, taught by Tom Chalmers. If you would be interested in this, please fill out the interest form. Thank you!

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With less than half a decade of programming under its belt, Cold Mountain Music Festival has already been recognized as one of the Southeast’s best goldmines for live music, outdoor recreation, and family-oriented activities. Located just outside of Asheville in one of Western North Carolina’s most pristine stretches of land, Cold Mountain utilizes the vibrant Pisgah National Forest as its playground, and encourages exploration throughout the two-day immersive experience. At the heart of the festival site is the glistening Lake Logan, which boasts plenty of swimming, paddle-boarding, and fishing. Paired with performances by some of live music’s leading forces on the scene and plenty of kid-friendly offerings, the upcoming Cold Mountain Music Festival will offer the trifecta of rustic summer experiences.
Weekend passes are on sale now on the Cold Mountain Music website. General admission passes are available for $75, and youth passes for those aged 12-17 can be purchased for $40 apiece. Overnight camping spots and catered breakfast meal tickets are also available for $75 (per site) and $12-$15 (per person), respectively. Group discounts may be applied for parties of 15 or more. Enter the code DioWNC at checkout to purchase each pass (minimum 15) for $60 each. Cold Mountain Music Festival is presented by Ingles Markets, with partners iHeartMedia and Haywood County Tourism Development Authority. For more information, visit www.coldmountainmusic.org. A complete lineup can be found below.
“We are heartbroken to have to make this decision,” said producing artistic director Lisa K. Bryant. “With state-mandated limitations on gathering sizes for the foreseeable future, as well as recent information that union rules for actors returning to work may not even be issued until summer, it is now clear we cannot reopen in mid-July as we had hoped. The right decision for the long-term health of the Playhouse and for our patrons is to move the entire 2020 season to 2021.” This decision was ratified unanimously by the Playhouse Board of Trustees.
Producing Artistic Director, Lisa K. Bryant, spoke with WLOS regarding our decision to postpone our 2020 season.
We are trying to see if there is enough interest in a Zoom class for Adult Improv, taught by Tom Chalmers. If you would be interested in this, please fill out the interest form. Thank you!

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With less than half a decade of programming under its belt, Cold Mountain Music Festival has already been recognized as one of the Southeast’s best goldmines for live music, outdoor recreation, and family-oriented activities. Located just outside of Asheville in one of Western North Carolina’s most pristine stretches of land, Cold Mountain utilizes the vibrant Pisgah National Forest as its playground, and encourages exploration throughout the two-day immersive experience. At the heart of the festival site is the glistening Lake Logan, which boasts plenty of swimming, paddle-boarding, and fishing. Paired with performances by some of live music’s leading forces on the scene and plenty of kid-friendly offerings, the upcoming Cold Mountain Music Festival will offer the trifecta of rustic summer experiences.
Weekend passes are on sale now on the Cold Mountain Music website. General admission passes are available for $75, and youth passes for those aged 12-17 can be purchased for $40 apiece. Overnight camping spots and catered breakfast meal tickets are also available for $75 (per site) and $12-$15 (per person), respectively. Group discounts may be applied for parties of 15 or more. Enter the code DioWNC at checkout to purchase each pass (minimum 15) for $60 each. Cold Mountain Music Festival is presented by Ingles Markets, with partners iHeartMedia and Haywood County Tourism Development Authority. For more information, visit www.coldmountainmusic.org. A complete lineup can be found below.
“We are heartbroken to have to make this decision,” said producing artistic director Lisa K. Bryant. “With state-mandated limitations on gathering sizes for the foreseeable future, as well as recent information that union rules for actors returning to work may not even be issued until summer, it is now clear we cannot reopen in mid-July as we had hoped. The right decision for the long-term health of the Playhouse and for our patrons is to move the entire 2020 season to 2021.” This decision was ratified unanimously by the Playhouse Board of Trustees.
Producing Artistic Director, Lisa K. Bryant, spoke with WLOS regarding our decision to postpone our 2020 season.
Great food, artist displays and fun activities while mingling with their neighbors.”
Perhaps the most family friendly street festival in western North Carolina, the Montford Music & Arts Festival features a special children’s area for face painting, interactive displays, sidewalk chalk art contest and other fun activities.
Located on Montford Ave. between Chestnut and Waneta Streets just down the street from downtown Asheville, the Asheville Visitors Center and Chamber of the Commerce, the all-day event will also feature a music stage with another attractive lineup in 2020. Comprised solely of local musicians, the performing schedule will be announced shortly.
Attendees will also be treated to a wide variety of specialty cuisine, courtesy of food booths and food trucks. In addition, more than 100 booth vendors will be on hand, with various artists, crafts people and nursery plant purveyors selling their merchandise.
Featuring turn-of-the-century “Victorian” homes and several bed-and-breakfast inns, a portion of Montford is proclaimed a National Register Historic District. Many of today’s Montford historic homes were designed by the same architect hired by the Vanderbilt Family to create the Biltmore Estate.
World famous authors Thomas Wolfe and O. Henry are buried in Montford at the nearby Riverside Cemetery, while the community’s rich history also dates back to the once thriving African-American community of Stumptown, which ended in the 1960’s.
The very first Montford festival was presented as strictly an arts event in 2004, held inside of Pyper’s Place, which is now Nine Mile Restaurant, and Sweet Heaven Ice Cream Shop, now a real estate office.

When we closed our doors due to COVID-19, we thought we might be closed for 3-4 weeks. We quickly moved to online rehearsals for Little Women and three different Youth Production Classes, thinking that we might be able to get these productions onstage as soon as it was safe to reopen.
But we’ve realized that the better place to present these plays will be online. And so rehearsals shifted: instead of practicing to be on the stage, we started practicing to be on the screen.
Instead of working on stage movement, actors are noting their posture and distance in regards to their webcam. Lighting is asking an actor to re-position a floor lamp instead of having a lighting designer create intricate cues that change at the push of a button. Even in this seemingly disconnected space, actors are connecting beautifully to each other, to the script, and to the characters.
And so, next Saturday, we will present Little Women from the homes of our actors directly to YOUR home! Tickets are free. Once you register for the event, you will receive a unique link to view the livestream!
We are trying to see if there is enough interest in a Zoom class for Adult Improv, taught by Tom Chalmers. If you would be interested in this, please fill out the interest form. Thank you!
“We are heartbroken to have to make this decision,” said producing artistic director Lisa K. Bryant. “With state-mandated limitations on gathering sizes for the foreseeable future, as well as recent information that union rules for actors returning to work may not even be issued until summer, it is now clear we cannot reopen in mid-July as we had hoped. The right decision for the long-term health of the Playhouse and for our patrons is to move the entire 2020 season to 2021.” This decision was ratified unanimously by the Playhouse Board of Trustees.
Producing Artistic Director, Lisa K. Bryant, spoke with WLOS regarding our decision to postpone our 2020 season.


New Online Programming!
Starting Monday, April 20, we’re launching online programming that anyone can enjoy! And even better – it’s all free! Find this content on Facebook, Instagram or Youtube! Mondays
11:00 am – My ACT Memory – the craziest, most wonderful, or unbelievable things that have happened at ACT
7:30 pm – Movie Monday! We’ll watch a movie together using Netflix Party!Tuesdays
11:00 am – ACT Reads: Storytime (for Young Children)
7:30 pm – Living Room Cabaret – A mini-concert from 3 local performers!Wednesdays
Watch for our next e-newsletter!
Thursdays
11:00 am – Backstage Pass with Amanda and Chanda
7:30 pm – Face With a Name: Brief Interviews with Fascinating PeopleFridays
11:00 am – ACT Reads: A Chapter at a Time (for Older Kids)
5:00 pm – #ACTHappyHour Watch Party on Facebook
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Face With a NameNew Episodes Thursdays at 7:30 pm Episode 1: Get to Know Jill Summers |

RSVP Required
FREE + Open to All
Max 30 participants
Join participatory artists Leap Then Look to re-imagine the experimental Light, Sound, Movement workshops that took place at Black Mountain College in the late 40s, led by W.P. “Pete” and Elizabeth Jennerjahn. Little is known of the workshops themselves, except that they continued the college’s approach to interdisciplinary art practice begun with Xanti Schawinsky’s Spectrodrama and prefigured the famous Theater Piece No.1 staged by John Cage at BMC in 1952.

“We do not always create ‘works of art,’ but rather experiments; it is not our ambition to fill museums: we are gathering experience.” Josef Albers
This collaborative workshop will take place via Zoom. Participants will be invited and encouraged to work together to create movement, sound, text, and objects, using a variety of prompts. The work will be brought together for a virtual “performance” using a randomly created time structure, allowing all elements to be included, to have equal weight and for no one “view” or experience of the piece to be the same.
From the fragments of the original Light, Sound, Movement workshop that remain in the archives at BMCM+AC, the strong spirit of experimentation emerges. Eighty years on, we will create a space for improvisation, responsiveness, collaboration, and surprise in the virtual realm.
Participants are asked to familiarise themselves with Zoom in advance of the workshops, to think about the spaces in their home in which they can work (we do not only want shots of head and shoulders, but environments filled with light, objects and bodies!) and to collect together a few materials from home which might be useful – for example, torches (flashlights), coloured plastic, cardboard, tape, string, fragments of text, awkward objects, a desk lamp, paper and pens. Please use a computer rather than a tablet or phone to join the workshop.
This work is part of a practical research project, and we will be posting content on Instagram (via Leap Then Look and BMCM+AC) from June 1st. Follow us @leap_then_look.

Online Special Event with Asheville Community Theatre

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Virtual Content
SIGN UP BY 7PM TO JOIN US LIVE
If you want to see the show, but can’t attend at 8pm, still sign up and we’ll send out a link to view the show at a later date.
Join us for our second Magnetic Laboratory ONLINE and see local artists experiment with new and original theatrical material. You can join us for the WATCH PARTY, or simply receive a link and watch the video on your own time.
This could be a sketch, a song, a monologue, a poem, a portion of dialogue – anything they’re working on is fair game.




