6 Best Performing Arts in Asheville, North Carolina

Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands

Downtown Fodor's choice
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 U.S. Cellular 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 more than 70 years, also features live mountain music.

Shindig on the Green

Downtown Fodor's choice

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.

Asheville Community Theatre

Downtown

One of the oldest community theater groups in the country, Asheville Community Theatre stages amateur productions year-round in its own building.

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Diana Wortham Theatre

Downtown

The intimate 500-seat Diana Wortham Theatre is home to more than 200 musical, dance, and theatrical events each year. A planned $3 million expansion is expected to add two more smaller performance spaces and upgrade the main theater. There's parking next to the theater or nearby, under the Aloft Hotel.

North Carolina Stage Company

Downtown

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.

Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

Downtown

The 2,400-seat Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, in the U.S. Cellular Center Asheville (formerly Asheville Civic Center), hosts larger events, including traveling Broadway shows and performances of the Asheville Symphony. In the U.S. Cellular Center is also the newly named ExploreAsheville.com Arena, which seats 7,200 and is used to stage concerts and other large events.