Festivals & Events in Asheville, NC

Asheville runs on festivals. Between free street parties in Pack Square Park, juried craft fairs at Harrah’s Cherokee Center and world-music weekends out at Lake Eden, something is on in almost every month of the year — and most of the big ones come back to the same rough slot on the calendar each year. Below is when each festival we cover usually lands, which ones are free, and what to know before you go.

Asheville’s festival calendar, season by season

Spring — craft beer takes over the city

Asheville Beer Week is the spring anchor: a multi-day, multi-venue run in late May with tastings, beer dinners, special releases and panels spread across breweries, taprooms and restaurants city-wide. The For the Love of Craft Festival at Battery Park Hall runs during the same week, pairing WNC artisans with craft beverages. If you are building a trip around beer rather than one festival, our guide to Asheville’s craft breweries is the better starting point. LEAF’s first of two annual runs also lands in mid-May, out at Camp Lake Eden in Black Mountain.

Summer — free, outdoors and downtown

June brings the first half of Asheville Art in the Park: three Saturdays of a juried outdoor artist market at Pack Square Park, 10am to 5pm, free to walk through. The booths are run by the artists themselves, so you buy glass, ceramics, wood, jewelry, metal, fiber and 2D work straight from the person who made it. July brings the summer session of the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands at Harrah’s Cherokee Center — two indoor floors of Southern Highland Craft Guild work, live craft demonstrations and mountain music.

Saturday nights from July into August belong to Shindig on the Green — free bluegrass, old-time music and clogging on Roger McGuire Green in Pack Square Park, running since 1967, with open jam sessions around the park.

Fall — the busiest stretch of the year

Late September is Goombay, a free family-friendly celebration of African-Caribbean culture and Asheville’s Black community hosted by the YMI Cultural Center around Pack Square Park. Expect gospel, reggae, funk and soul on stage, dance troupes, cultural art vendors and Caribbean food.

The first Saturday of October is Asheville Oktoberfest on Coxe Avenue in the South Slope — 20-plus local breweries, German-style food and games, free to walk and a Prost Pass to drink.

October is the single busiest month on the Asheville festival calendar. Art in the Park returns to Pack Square Park for three more Saturdays. The Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands runs its second session of the year at Harrah’s. And LEAF comes back to Camp Lake Eden for its October weekend — capped at roughly 6,000 people a day, with camping, workshops, artisan markets, lake activities and healing arts alongside the music. If music is the whole reason you are coming, our Asheville music festivals guide goes deeper on the lineups and venues.

The weekend after Oktoberfest, the free two-day Lovely Asheville Fall Festival (LAAFF) takes over Pack Square Park with R&B, jazz, Afrobeats and reggae stages, vendor booths and a kids’ area.

Which Asheville festivals are free?

Goombay is free and family-friendly. LEAF Downtown Asheville is free too — live music, art vendors, food, drinks and street performers in the middle of downtown. Asheville Art in the Park is free to browse; you only spend if you buy something. The ticketed ones are LEAF at Camp Lake Eden, which uses tiered pricing and sells out early, the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands, and most individual Asheville Beer Week events.

Planning notes

The downtown festivals — Goombay, Art in the Park and LEAF Downtown — all use the Pack Square Park footprint, so a downtown garage beats hunting for street parking. Harrah’s Cherokee Center has its own garage, with more garages and lots nearby. LEAF is a different proposition: it is out at Camp Lake Eden in Black Mountain with paid on-site parking, and lodging and camping go first, so book those before tickets sell through the cheaper tiers.

One caveat that applies to everything on this page: festival dates shift by a week or two from year to year. Use this as the shape of the year, then confirm the exact weekend with the organizer before you book travel.

Festivals that have ended

Chow Chow, Asheville’s Southern Appalachian culinary festival, closed permanently after 2023. We have kept its page up as a record of what the city’s food scene built rather than pretending it is still running.

From Art to Beer: Asheville’s Best Festivals