Writers and readers alike are invited to the Punch Bucket Literary Festival, a weekend celebration that will bring writers, poets and essayists from all over the country to share their work with a series of panels and workshops.
This weekend, the Southern Highland Craft Guild will hold their annual Heritage Weekend at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Expect to hear bluegrass music, see live craft demonstrations and play with Gee Haw Whimmy Diddles at the free event.
Looking for things to do this weekend in Asheville? We’ve got you covered. This weekend in Western North Carolina, enjoy festivals of all sorts, including writing, food and Southern Appalachian crafts, as well as a few other fun, funky activities.
The Uplifting Deals Bake Sale and Donation Drive will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 27, at Uplifting Wholesale Warehouse, 128 Bingham Road. Live music and hot food will be available from noon to 4 p.m., while the bake sale and donation collection will be ongoing for the duration of the event.
The event, Mental Health Matters: Walk/Run for Awareness, is a 5k and community resource fair organized this September to coincide with National Suicide Prevention Month. The race and fair will run from 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Karl Straus Track on the UNC Asheville campus.
Shrektoberfest, an annual “Shrek”-themed Oktoberfest celebration, returns this weekend to downtown brewery DSSOLVR.
Western North Carolina is just a week away from the 2nd annual Black Mountain Blues Festival, a celebration of storytelling, blues music and Appalachian history. In addition to blues music, the festival will spotlight the history of the tradition, which has long ties to Black Mountain.
The pawpaw fruit for the ice cream, which will come to The Hop on Oct. 3, comes from Milkweed Meadows Farm, a family farm located outside of Hendersonville. The farm maintains an orchard of over 100 pawpaw trees to nurture zebra swallowtails, a butterfly which relies entirely on the leaves of the tree.
The annual event was filled with attendees enjoying fair fare during its last weekend, including everything from the gondola lift and footlong corndogs to the farm animals competing in various livestock shows. Check out our photo galleries from the 2025 NC Mountain State Fair.
On Chestnut Street in North Asheville, one yard is chock-full of unusual lawn decorations. Rather than political signage, flamingos or garden gnomes, this Strangeville house is home to over a dozen skeletons.