Festival Overview

In early Appalachia, chow chow, a crunchy pickled relish traditionally put up each summer, brought welcome sunshine to dinner plates during cold months. The condiment added color, brightness, nourishment, and a bright piquant zest that transformed the seemingly ordinary. By fermenting the garden’s final summer harvests, chow chow was a creative way to harness the earth’s resources in a jar for future culinary inspiration. Its ingredients were determined by the creative maker filling each crock, no two chow chow recipes quite the same.

Chow Chow: An Asheville Culinary Event, presented by Kimpton Hotel Arras, celebrates the area’s unique community of makers, each adding singular ingredients to the city’s recipe for culinary identity. From nationally recognized chefs to multi-generational farmers to millers, bakers, potters, weavers, and brewers, Chow Chow shines a light on the ancient creative spirit of the region that continues to make the Blue Ridge Mountains a delicious place to taste, to see, to explore and to experience through immersive culinary experiences.

Discover the alluring alchemy of mountain traditions, heirloom ingredients, and urban energy that inspire the James Beard-nominated chefs, sustainable farmers, innovative brewers, artisans, and foragers who commune at Asheville’s collaborative table.

Much like its namesake condiment, this unique festival is far greater than the sum of its parts.

September 13-22

Welcoming Week is all about what the Y does best – helping people
reach their potential and bringing the community together! 

Welcoming Week, an initiative of Y-USA’s national partner Welcoming America, celebrates the growing movement of communities across the U.S. that fully embrace new Americans and their contributions to the social fabric of our country. During Welcoming Week, communities bring together immigrants and U.S.-born residents to promote cross-cultural understanding raise awareness of the benefits of welcoming everyone.

September 13-22

Welcoming Week is all about what the Y does best – helping people
reach their potential and bringing the community together! 

Welcoming Week, an initiative of Y-USA’s national partner Welcoming America, celebrates the growing movement of communities across the U.S. that fully embrace new Americans and their contributions to the social fabric of our country. During Welcoming Week, communities bring together immigrants and U.S.-born residents to promote cross-cultural understanding raise awareness of the benefits of welcoming everyone.

September 13-22

Welcoming Week is all about what the Y does best – helping people
reach their potential and bringing the community together! 

Welcoming Week, an initiative of Y-USA’s national partner Welcoming America, celebrates the growing movement of communities across the U.S. that fully embrace new Americans and their contributions to the social fabric of our country. During Welcoming Week, communities bring together immigrants and U.S.-born residents to promote cross-cultural understanding raise awareness of the benefits of welcoming everyone.

September 13-22

Welcoming Week is all about what the Y does best – helping people
reach their potential and bringing the community together! 

Welcoming Week, an initiative of Y-USA’s national partner Welcoming America, celebrates the growing movement of communities across the U.S. that fully embrace new Americans and their contributions to the social fabric of our country. During Welcoming Week, communities bring together immigrants and U.S.-born residents to promote cross-cultural understanding raise awareness of the benefits of welcoming everyone.

September 13-22

Welcoming Week is all about what the Y does best – helping people
reach their potential and bringing the community together! 

Welcoming Week, an initiative of Y-USA’s national partner Welcoming America, celebrates the growing movement of communities across the U.S. that fully embrace new Americans and their contributions to the social fabric of our country. During Welcoming Week, communities bring together immigrants and U.S.-born residents to promote cross-cultural understanding raise awareness of the benefits of welcoming everyone.

Live music, food, and family fun! Deep River will be performing. The name ‘Deep River’ conjures up thoughts about the natural circle of life, and that’s exactly how one might describe their music—stories of love and loss told in the context of family-style harmonies and danceable rhythms. The Deep River just keeps rolling…

September 13-22

Welcoming Week is all about what the Y does best – helping people
reach their potential and bringing the community together! 

Welcoming Week, an initiative of Y-USA’s national partner Welcoming America, celebrates the growing movement of communities across the U.S. that fully embrace new Americans and their contributions to the social fabric of our country. During Welcoming Week, communities bring together immigrants and U.S.-born residents to promote cross-cultural understanding raise awareness of the benefits of welcoming everyone.

New Belgium Brewing’s annual Tour de Fat is back for 2019, offering a day packed full of free festivities celebrating beer, bikes, and bemusement. This year’s tour kicks off on August 31 in Fort Collins, CO, heads to Asheville, NC, on Sept. 21, and wraps up in Tempe, AZ on October 5.

Each festival gets underway with a wildly popular costumed group bicycle ride roaming public streets in human-powered, two-wheeled euphoria. Immediately following each bike parade, revelers amass at a transformed outdoor space for an afternoon of unforgettable FREE entertainment from a touring ensemble of comedians, cirque performers, general mayhemists, top-notch live musicians and world-class New Belgium beer.

“Our love for bikes runs deep at New Belgium – we like to say our brewery was born on a bicycle seat – so every year we spread that love around the country by coming into towns and hosting the best way to spend a Saturday,” said Tour de Fat Brand Manager, John Yeast. “Big thanks in advance to everyone who will celebrate with us as we attempt to eclipse the $6 million mark of funds raised and donated to nonprofit organizations.”

This year marks the 20th season for Tour de Fat, which has raised nearly $6 million for local non-profits since it all began. The daylong festivities are free, but proceeds from beer and merchandise sales, along with parade donations, go to local non-profits. New in 2019 is a pedal-powered parade participant contest parade contest where winners will be selected based on the creativity, flair and uniqueness of their pedal-powered parade “vehicle” and rewarded with a prize pack that includes up to $500 worth of fixings to throw one heck of a party.

“A typical Tour de Fat parade draws thousands of costumed revelers together who share our mission to amaze and entertain,” Yeast explained. “To further stoke those creative fires, this year we’re offering a super sweet prize package to those people, businesses, civic groups, and the like who wow the crowd by rolling around in unmatched one-of-a-kind style.”

In typical New Belgium style, the brewery tries to leave as little of an environmental imprint as possible. Tour de Fat hosts green vendors, has compost and recycle stations and consciously works diligently to practice sustainable festivization.

“Bicycles basically run on fat and save you money, so they fit perfectly with our commitment to sustainability. Riding improves physical wellness and mental health, reduces CO2 emissions and provides a responsible form of transportation after a beer. Or two,” Yeast said.

September 13-22

Welcoming Week is all about what the Y does best – helping people
reach their potential and bringing the community together! 

Welcoming Week, an initiative of Y-USA’s national partner Welcoming America, celebrates the growing movement of communities across the U.S. that fully embrace new Americans and their contributions to the social fabric of our country. During Welcoming Week, communities bring together immigrants and U.S.-born residents to promote cross-cultural understanding raise awareness of the benefits of welcoming everyone.

Enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of the African-Caribbean. Goombay brings a variety of entertainment including dancing and the beating of West African drums ringing with the harmonic live music featuring gospel, reggae, funk and soul.

Visit contact web site for details. https://www.eventyas.com/US/Asheville/1468195370123474/Asheville-Goombay-Festival
Goombay Hours
Friday: 6-10 PM
Saturday: 11 AM-10 PM
Sunday: 12-6 PM

September 13-22

Welcoming Week is all about what the Y does best – helping people
reach their potential and bringing the community together! 

Welcoming Week, an initiative of Y-USA’s national partner Welcoming America, celebrates the growing movement of communities across the U.S. that fully embrace new Americans and their contributions to the social fabric of our country. During Welcoming Week, communities bring together immigrants and U.S.-born residents to promote cross-cultural understanding raise awareness of the benefits of welcoming everyone.

Chefs are formally invited to take part in the taste testing. Please RSVP via https://forms.gle/ZXSjGzXfDB4vCG3bA

In 2019 The Utopian Seed Project took on a wide range of crop and variety trials, including an
entirely different 50 varieties of okra to 2018. Those varieties plus Swofford’s four, will form the
54 variety taste test. “We don’t think there has ever been an okra taste test on this scale,” says
Smith. “It’s going to be pretty exciting.” By collaborating with another food-focused organization,
The People’s Seed, the okra taste test is able to reach the chef network of the Triangle area,
another food-rich region of North Carolina.
Will the same varieties perform well in all three regions? Will the Turkish variety win for a
second year running? Can anyone imagine so much okra in one place?
All these questions and more will be answered on Sept 25.