2 Best Performing Arts in Asheville, North Carolina

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.

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.