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Discover bold performances at Asheville’s Fringe Arts
Spend a week with daring theater, dance, comedy, and pop-up performances during the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival—an artsy excuse for a spring trip.
Event details
When Susan and Giles Collard of Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre returned from Fringe festivals in San Francisco and Toronto, they started something in 2003: the beloved BeBe Theatre (20 Commerce Street), a 65-seat black box that remains the festival’s founding home.
Twenty-four years later, the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival runs March 15-22, 2026, with ticketed performances concentrated on Thursday, March 19, through Sunday, March 22. The festival has expanded to venues across the city: LEAF Global Arts Center (19 Eagle Street), Asheville Community Theatre and 35below (up to 300 seats), Fleetwood’s and One World West in West Asheville, Story Parlor (227 Haywood Road), and most memorably, the LaZoom Bus Tour, a 90-minute theatrical experience on a purple comedy bus touring Asheville’s streets.
The programming spans theater, dance, spoken word, comedy, puppetry, film, and site-specific installations. The festival accepts roughly 45 live acts from over 100 applicants each year, with most ticketed shows running twice. It’s a juried festival; all submissions undergo adjudication in October and November, but the focus remains on emerging local artists creating “strange and wonderful work that lies outside the mainstream.”
Tickets are $16 per show (or $20 for the LaZoom tour). The Freak Pass, on sale in February, includes 12 tickets valid for any show. Free events include the Preview Party at Citizen Vinyl (14 O’Henry Avenue), surprise “Random Acts of Fringe” performances, and opening weekend kickoff events. Artists receive 50% of ticket sales, no application fee, just a $35 participation fee if accepted.
Tupelo Honey Café at 12 College Street, opened December 7, 2000, by Sharon Schott, helped establish Asheville’s farm-to-table identity before expanding to 26+ locations nationwide. The original “Mothership” remains. Pack’s Tavern (20 South Spruce Street) occupies the 1907 Hayes and Hopson Building, whose basement served as a major moonshine distribution hub during Prohibition; the restaurant’s theme celebrates 1932. Little Pigs Bar-B-Q (1963) delivers historic authenticity in every pull of hickory-smoked pork.
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