6 Best Performing Arts Venues in Asheville, North Carolina

One of the largest crafts events in the Southeast, the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands is held for three days twice a year, in mid-July and mid-October. More than 200 of the 700 members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, who qualify after a stringent jurying process, take over both the concourse and arena of the Harrah's Cherokee Center in downtown Asheville to display and sell their clay, wood, metal, glass, fiber, leather, jewelry, and other crafts. The fair, which has been in operation for 75 years, also features live mountain music.

Pack a picnic and bring a folding chair or blanket for this free mountain-music concert. Shindig on the Green has been held for more than 50 years most Saturdays from late June through August. The shows, held in Pack Square Park in the heart of Asheville, run from around 7 to 10 pm. The same sponsoring organization, the Folk Heritage Committee, also puts on the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, the oldest music festival of its type in the United States, dating to 1928. It is held "along about sundown" on three nights the first weekend in August.

One of the oldest community theater groups in the country stages musicals and theatrical productions year-round in its own building.

From an alley off Walnut Street, this professional company puts on edgy, contemporary plays, although it also does audience favorites, such as a series of Jeeves comedies.

The 2,400-seat Thomas Wolfe Auditorium hosts traveling Broadway shows and performances of the Asheville Symphony. In the same Harrah's Cherokee Center complex is a 7,200-seat coliseum that stages concerts and other large events.

The intimate 500-seat theatre is home to more than 200 musical, comedy, dance, and theatrical events each year.