Inside the Asheville shows: From street revelry to a parson’s gallery
Each summer, this community in North Carolina’s mountains does an artful about-face
By Dave Luebben
Scheduled less than two weeks apart, the summer’s two major outdoor art events in Asheville, North Carolina can make a visitor doubtful that he’s in the same town. On the third weekend of July, the crowds were shoulder to shoulder as Bele Chere rocked the city’s downtown for the 26th consecutive year. The event is billed as “The Largest Free Outdoor Street Festival in the Southeast;” and throngs of people jostled under scorching sun, feet sticking to the pavement from the residue of cotton candy and spilled beer, bodies vibrating to cacophonous music disgorged from multiple stages. However, a mere 12 days later and six minutes away, the crowd at the 32-year-old Village Art & Craft Fair was of a much quieter nature, sometimes shoulder-to-shoulder, but jammed together mainly because 125 booths are squeezed into the small churchyard at the Episcopal Cathedral of All Souls in Biltmore Village. The entire Village Fair fills only about as much space as a 50-exhibitor fine art section of Bele Chere (which has a total of approximately 160 booths). Still, at Biltmore Village, the pace is far more tranquil and leisurely, reminiscent of the old Gershwin/Heyward song lyrics, “Summertime and the livin’ is easy…”
So, how do these two vastly different venues affect artists and craftspeople working both shows? Key to answering that question is an understanding of the town itself.
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