Lantern Fest is to the night as Slide the City is to the day, and Asheville has popped up on both festival’s tour lists. Ticket-holders for Lantern Fest (date yet to be announced) will be provided a “s’mores kit,” along with a lantern, lighter and crayons for decorating their skyward luminaries.
While many people wear multiple proverbial hats and dabble in more than one career, Madison County-born Bascom Lamar Lunsford epitomized that concept. A lawyer and a folklorist, the Mars Hill native campaigned against hillbilly stereotypes while preserving Appalachian mountain music traditions. A performer himself — his recordings are included in the Archive of American Folk […]
Asheville Barnaroo isn’t just a cleverly named music festival — it’s kind of a DIY Cinderella story. Andrew Scotchie, the frontman for blues-rock band Andrew Scotchie & The River Rats, started the festival in 2009 in his mom’s backyard in Weaverville when he was just 16 years old. “It was nothing fancy, but we did […]
Hundreds of flavor enthusiasts gathered at the U.S. Cellular Center for four hours of wine, food, competition and camaraderie at Asheville’s sixth annual Wine and Food Festival Grand Tasting event, and only Southern hospitality could explain the extent of heavy pours that sloshed around inside the event’s beautifully branded keepsake cups.
Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Fest, Asheville’s hyper-local street festival, returns for one final installment on Sunday, Aug. 31. And while that one-day celebration marks a farewell for the grassroots event that launched in 2002, it’s also the start of a new locally focused fest that will roll out in 2015. “The point is to celebrate […]
Merge Records celebrates its 25th anniversary in style: with a four-day music festival. The lineup for the July 23-26 event, held in Durham and Carrboro, includes bands from the label — Neutral Milk Hotel, Superchunk, Reigning Sound, Imperial Teen, Hospitality, Hiss Golden Messenger and many others. Read about the lineup here. Full-festival passes are already […]
LEAF ticket holders may come for the music, but the healing-arts lineup has grown more and more robust, adding to a festival culture that puts a unique emphasis on wellness.
Moogfest has undergone an evolution since it last took place 2012. Now spanning Wednesday-Sunday, April 23-27, and more than 20 locations throughout downtown Asheville, Moogfest has also expanded its coverage. This year, the focal point broadens to include technology. And not just in the pedals and synthesizers sense.
UNC Asheville is presenting its first Arts Fest, and if the name sounds broad, that’s because it is. Highlights of the eclectic lineup include musical acts Steep Canyon Rangers and David Holt and the Lightning Bolts as well as a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, set in contemporary Asheville. Poetry slams, creative writing workshops, […]
In a statement, the AC Entertainment team announces that it will put the electronic music festival on hold. Photo by Nick King.
The April, 2014 festival names its first round of “luminaries, pioneers, and visionaries that will constitute its daytime programming.” Okay, so now musicians mentioned yet, but the roster of speakers and presenters is staggering. It’s a who’s who of the brightest and most envelope-pushing inventors, innovators and creative thinkers. Hint: Laurie Anderson is among them.
Magical mystical festival promises a faerie good time.
The Asheville Twittersphere exploded with thoughts, observations, photos and other dispatches from the Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit live as it unfolded this weekend, Oct. 25-27.
Pick up this week’s print issue of Xpress for your free copy of Mountain Oasisland, an original board game, compete with a helpful map, music schedule, and insider insights on some of the fun things to do around town!
Find the full weekend schedule at theleaf.org. Here, Xpress rounds up a few non-to-be missed acts (like the return of The Bluebrass Project, pictured here).
Offering more than 50 workshops, which range in topic from sunrise meditation to fire spinning, the Three Days of Light Gathering (3DL) returns to the mountains this weekend. But 3DL director and founder Scott Love says says the three-day music and healing arts festival isn’t exclusively for people who “wear patchouli and have dreads.”
Richmond, Va.‘s Carbon Leaf returns to Asheville to play Shamboozle Fest. The Celtic festival, held at Highland Brewery and curated by Calif.-based band Gaelic Storm, takes place on Saturday, Sept. 21. But, as Carbon Leaf front man Barry Privett explains, tin whistles and Irish influences are only part of his band’s sound. They’ll release a distinctly Americana/folk album on Oct. 1.
Now in its fifth year, the festival brings together local chefs, producers, nonprofits, breweries, wineries and more for five days of dinners and events.
This year’s Wild Goose Festival takes place at Hot Springs Campground, Thursday-Sunday, Aug. 8-11. Speech and Indigo Girls headline, with many more musicians, speakers, presenters and performers.
Whether you mourned the loss or celebrated its final days, Bele Chere has now been packed up and laid to rest after 35 years. To help with the grieving process, Xpress asked the community to share how they felt about Bele Chere’s final chapter. These are some of the parting words, pictures, videos and more about the summer street festival’s last celebration.
Three and a half decades of taxpayer-funded and city-organized fanfare and fury for an annual festival celebrating the region’s art, music and cuisine set amidst a backdrop fire with social, business and financial love and despair came to end on Sunday afternoon. Bele Chere was 35.
