The Downtown Independent Groove Festival, a.k.a. the DIG Festival is coming to Asheville next month and I for one can’t wait. The festival spans 2 nights and includes a wide variety of musical acts appearing all over Asheville. Check out the lineup:
Night 1 – August 20, 2009
The Orange Peel – The Enemy Lovers, Chris Cates & The Master Plan, Kovacs & The Polar Bear.
Mo Daddy
Well, another year of the Bele Chere Festival has come and gone. Tomorrow the cams will all be reset to their previous positions and Asheville can go about its business. It was a fun year for the festival, even if sales were a bit down. We’re looking forward to next year!
On an administrative note, the site had some pretty good numbers over the weekend, but it seems the streaming server was struggling a bit with the load. We apologize for anyone that got the dreaded “failed to load” message, and we will strive to do better next year.
Bele Chere is by far the busiest time if year for the site, with thousands of people from all over the world checking in to see the festival live.
Pritchard Park is having a birthday party on Friday, July 31. The party/fundraiser will run from 6:30 to 9:30PM at the S&W located at 56 Patton Avenue. The event is being held by The Friends of Pritchard Park, which is comprised of Asheville GreenWorks and the Downtown Asheville Residents Association (DARN).
A free birthday party will celebrate the park the following day. Proceeds from the events will benefit Pritchard Park. The fund-raiser will feature silent and live auctions. Live auction begins at 7:30 p.m.
Hors d
It’s official, Bele Chere 2009 has officially arrived! As usual, on this very special occasion, we have changed all our camera views to give you live shots of the action. Our robotic West Cam (affectionately known as RoboCam) is still giving all us Asheville natives a good view of traffic conditions around the Westgate Bridge, but it now gives you some nice zoom shots of the craft tents set up along Patton.
We moved the North Cam over to the West side and it is currently giving us a view of College Street and a bit of North Lexington. The South Cam is pointed a bit more down towards the Pack Square end of Biltmore Ave. Finally, the East Cam (another robotic camera which we call RoboCam II) is showing some close zoom shots of Pack Square.
If a camera doesn’t load for you, try refreshing your page.
July 24th will mark the start of Asheville’s 31st annual ‘Bele Chere’ Music and Art Festival and the influx of 350,000 estimated festival-goers. According to their website, “The festival features four stages of free- live music and an impressive array of arts and crafts; as well as entertainment and activities for children. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the mountains of Western North Carolina- come join us for one of the Southeast’s largest free outdoor street festivals.”
Though still a couple of months away, here at AshevilleLive we are keeping this festival on our radar and plan on bringing you a series of reports ranging from exciting events to see and participate in, to some of the changes being made for 2009. One of the additions to this year’s festival will be a “battle of the bands-style contest” conducted in conjunction with WNC Magazine and the Asheville Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Arts Department called “Last Band Standing: Road to Bele Chere 2009“.
Other events we’ll be keeping an eye on include the 30th Annual Bele Chere 5k, the Lexington Avenue Drumming Tent, and Rashad McCant’s “Shoot for the Cure“, in which one lucky festival-goer will have a chance to win $10,000 with proceeds benefiting breast cancer research.
So stay tuned to AshevilleLive for upcoming reports with more information on how to maximize your fun at the largest street festival in the southeastern United States.
Local fans of the California-based TED conference (technology, entertainment, design) have begun planning Asheville’s own TEDx event for late summer in hopes of highlighting our own group of inspiring thinkers with fascinating ideas.
TED (technology, entertainment, design) is an annual conference that defines its mission as “ideas worth spreading”. TEDxAsheville executive director Jennifer Saylor is currently seeking recommendations for local speakers and elaborates in a note via Ashvegas:
Dear friends and colleagues, TED, the California-based organization offering free talks from the world’s most interesting and inspiring speakers (Bill Gates, Al Gore, Brian Greene, Gladwell, Dawkins, etc.) is helping Asheville produce an INDEPENDENTLY ORGANIZED, homegrown TEDx event in Asheville in late summer. I’m serving as the 2009 executive director for TEDxAsheville and am looking for speakers. If you’re familiar with TED and have a recommendation or would like to speak yourself, skip the rest of this note and send me an email. If you’re not familiar with TED, it’s a free event where people with varying backgrounds do a 20-minute “speech of a lifetime.” It’s billed as “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world.” TED stands for technology, entertainment and design. Technology is NOT the primary focus, and singers, poets, comedians, actors and teachers share the TED stage with scientists, physicians, inventors and aid workers. TED is for anyone with a powerful message and a strong ability to impart it.
When asked “Why?” by Mountain Xpress reporter Jason Sandford, Saylor responds: “Because Asheville is such a creative place with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, a spirit of community, of helping, of learning. It
Phish Comes to Asheville~ and is bringing a following of nearly 15,000 fans. The City of Asheville is planning ahead for a Tuesday, June 9 concert (with a ticketed attendance of 7,200) by the band Phish that is expected to cause traffic delays and result in limited parking. Officials have released a memo via Citizen Times warning downtown drivers to “avoid parking in lots marked with signage as towing zones, even if the lot is empty.” and advising that concert goers “carpool to the concert and to arrive early.”
The memo goes on to say: “In order to ensure the most efficient traffic flow and pedestrian safety during the event, streets surrounding the Civic Center will be closed June 9, 9:30 a.m.
