Around town: Big Secret Family Festival is back

The Big Secret Family Festival will return for its third year on Sunday, July 21, noon-8:30 p.m., this time on Pisgah Brewing Co.’s outdoor stage.

Founded by Grammy Award-winning children’s musical artist Cactus Skidoo, the festival combines local music, games, prizes, circus acts and performance art geared for all ages. This year’s musical acts include Empire Strikes Brass, The Fritz, 23 Skidoo & the Secret Agency and the Delta House Jazz Band. There will be roving clowns, stilt walkers, Cherokee storytelling by John Grant, postmen who will deliver letters written to anyone at the festival and more. Food options will range from hot dogs and gourmet pretzels to ice cream and organic cotton candy.

The Big Secret Family Festival was created as an opportunity to give back. “I wanted to create an event that feels like old-school Asheville, full of eclectic music and circus acts, where everyone gets to feel like a kid and where we also help kids in the area get the food, shelter and support that they need,” says Skidoo. In its first two years, the festival raised over $36,000 for two local nonprofit organizations, My Daddy Taught Me That and BeLoved. This year, all profits will go to Delta House after-school program and Bounty & Soul’s free food program.

Tickets are $23 in advance and $30 the day of the show. Kids younger than 3 get in free.

Pisgah Brewing Co. is at 2948 U.S. 70, Black Mountain. For more information, visit avl.mx/dw3.

Story/Arts residency presentation continues

Story Parlor will present the second installment of its 2024 Story/Arts residency showcase on Thursday, July 18, 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Local artist-in-residence Carolina Quiroga will continue her series “Beyond the Myth: Re-imagining the Stories That Shape Us,” this time delving into mythology and prevailing narratives about fathers as they have been passed down through time. Quiroga will share art and present personal and universal stories that explore heroism, absent gods and the “breadwinner” archetype to examine how paternal conventions shape our cultures and family dynamics. Guest artist and improviser Joe Carroll will also perform as part of the “Mythology of Fathers” presentation.

Following the performance, guests will be encouraged to contribute their own stories and reflections in a community circle. The third and final presentation in the series will take place Thursday, July 25, 6:30-9:30 pm.

Quiroga has presented at the ​​National Storytelling Festival and the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. She is a member of the Teaching Artists Presenting in Asheville Schools Program. Story Parlor’s Story/Arts residency was created to showcase the work of locally based creatives hailing from the LGBTQ+ community, communities of color and other historically marginalized communities. The monthlong residency offers a $500 stipend, two creativity coaching sessions, professional headshots and a platform for artists to present their work.

Story Parlor is at 227 Haywood Road. For more information, visit avl.mx/bqx.

Barn Dance Season in full swing

Hickory Nut Gap Farm will continue its Barn Dance Season on Saturday, July 20, 6-9 p.m., with zydeco, swamp pop, second line and Cajun swing music.

The family-friendly event will feature local band Zydeco Ya Ya in the Big Barn, a historic, open-air dairy barn-turned-music venue. VooDoo Roux food truck will be on-site, serving scratch-made Cajun/Creole New Orleans-style street food. The Barn Bar will be open to serve a variety of local beers and snacks, and Barn Door Cider will serve hard cider made with North Carolina apples.

The remaining events in the Barn Dance Season are as follows:

On Saturday, Aug. 24, 2-5 p.m., the farm will host a free musical event with out-of-town guests the Laughing Lizards performing Cajun and Texas swing, waltz and two step. On Saturday, Sept. 21, 6-9 p.m., Iliana Rose and her Cuban Jazz Trio will play Cuban jazz originals and new twists on old favorites, with Root Down Farm food truck providing farm-to-table food. On Saturday, Oct. 19, 6-9 .p.m, Old Charlotte Highwaymen will play old-time and bluegrass music and call a square dance, while Grush’s Cajun Dino Grill food truck offers Cajun fusion with local ingredients.

All Barn Dances are $10 per person, and ages 5 and younger are admitted free. Picnic tables and benches will be available, but participants are encouraged to bring camp chairs or picnic blankets to secure their seats. Pets are not allowed.

Hickory Nut Gap farm is at 57 Sugar Hollow Road, Fairview. For more information, visit avl.mx/dw5.

Improvised play comes to NC Stage

Adesto Theater will present The Spontaneous Play: An Improvised Living Room Drama at N.C. Stage Company on Tuesday, July 23, 7:30 p.m.

Adesto was founded by directors Laurie Jones and Paul Vonasek. For this performance, the stage is set as a living room, and all lines are improvised using audience suggestions. The actors do not know in advance what characters they will play, and as a result, the play could be comedic, dramatic, frightening or a combination, but regardless, it will be a unique performance.

“This is my favorite art. It’s theater, improv and writing all rolled into one,” says Jones, the play’s co-artistic director, in a press release. “This cast got it so quickly and so effortlessly. I can’t wait to show more folks in Asheville what this show is about.”

Tickets are $15. The show runs every Tuesday through Aug. 6.

N.C. Stage is at 15 Stage Lane. For more information, visit avl.mx/dw6.

Book release presents beer collaboration

Fairview author Monté Hill will be signing copies of her forthcoming novel, Catbird Winter, at Chimney Rock Brewing Co. on Thursday, July 18, 6-8 p.m.

Chimney Rock Brewing and Hi-Wire Brewing of Asheville will create a collaboration beer in honor of the book’s release. The beer, called Catbird in the Rye, references one of the story’s characters who brews rye whiskey. The beer will be a rye lager brewed with a mash bill similar to what a whiskey distiller would use, with a hint of oak derived from real oak chips.

Catbird Winter, Hill’s debut novel, is a historical drama that takes place in the Hickory Nut Gorge area during World War I and the Great Flood of 1916. “Hickory Nut Gorge was my playground and a place where I would escape often as an adult seeking to find myself, or rather, lose myself,” says Hill. “Those steep granite walls, the rolling Rocky Broad, and the stories told by my family all served to stoke my imagination. My paternal grandfather was raised in the Gorge and, at the encouragement of family, left an oral history of his life on a cassette tape. Those stories are what inspired me to write Catbird Winter.”

Chimney Rock Brewing Co. is at 461 Main St., Chimney Rock. For more information, visit avl.mx/dw7.

ArtsAVL community grant applications open

ArtsAVL, the designated arts agency for Buncombe County, is accepting applications for its 2024-25 Arts Build Community Grant until Monday, July 22.

This is the eighth year for the grant, which was created to support arts-based projects that inspire civic participation and community engagement. Since 2018, ArtsAVL has funded 68 community arts projects, according to a press release. In the most recent awards cycle, the grant supported regional programs and initiatives that included storytelling, Black history, musical theater, arts programming for veterans, comedy, community arts and dance, creative placemaking, programming for queer and trans youths and more.

Eligible organizations must have been in operation for at least one year and must be in Buncombe County. Priority is given to low-income neighborhoods and communities in need. Grants range from $1,000-$2,500. All projects must center on the arts.

Support for the Arts Build Community Grant comes from a Buncombe County Arts & Culture Block grant.

For more information on ArtsAVL grants, visit avl.mx/cns.

Editor’s note: This article was updated on July 16.