Happy Thursday, Buncombe County!
💡 Buncombe Fact: Construction on Biltmore House began in 1889, and the house opened to George Vanderbilt’s friends and family on Christmas Eve 1895. Biltmore still bills it as America’s largest privately owned home.
In today’s edition:
Cryptid crafts at the Swannanoa Valley Museum
A 21+ night of conspiracies at the science museum
The Haunted Trail’s final nights and a Halloween Saturday short list
Neal Francis and Dana and Alden at the Grey Eagle
A Halloween day tour at the Vance Birthplace
The final shows of Misery, a barn quilt show in Candler and the clocks falling back
Let’s get to it.
— Sean Kolina
🎃 Meet the Blue Ridge Cryptids at the Museum
The Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center hosts Monsters at the Museum: Cryptids of the Blue Ridge this afternoon. It is a drop-in event with cryptid crafts, a look at Halloween history, a scavenger hunt and a photo spot in the museum’s old jail cell.
The event is part of the museum’s At The Museum series, which is typically $5 per participant regardless of age. Most of the series is walk-up, with registration available, which makes it an easy after-school stop for families in the Swannanoa Valley.
📍 Where: Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center, 223 W. State St., Black Mountain
📅 When: Thursday, October 29th | 3pm – 6pm
💲 Price: Typically $5 per participant
🧪 A 21+ Night of Conspiracies at the Science Museum
The Asheville Museum of Science turns Halloween into a 21+ night of conspiracy theories, local lore and urban legends tonight for AMOS After Hours. Scientists, storytellers and artists host stations that bunk or debunk the mysteries, including the Brown Mountain Lights, quartz and the Asheville vortex, whether recycling is a conspiracy, and the true story of restoring Riverside Cemetery’s gravesites after Helene.
A tinfoil hat contest is judged at 8pm, and a broom-making workshop lets you take your broom home. Spooky onigiri from Nibbly Onigiri and beers from Highland Brewing are on the menu, and costumes are welcome as long as they skip full-face masks and weapons. Admission includes one free drink, and the museum lists a limited number of income-based tickets at $15 on its event page.
📍 Where: Asheville Museum of Science, 43 Patton Ave., Asheville
📅 When: Thursday, October 29th | 6pm – 9pm
💲 Price: $25 | Includes one drink | Ages 21 and up
👻 The Haunted Trail Closes Out Its Season
The 14th annual Haunted Trail from Asheville Plays wraps up tonight and Friday at the Adventure Center of Asheville. It is a live-action walk through 18 scenes, including Hansel and Gretel, Frankenstein and a graveyard of laughing skeletons, and it is aimed at kids ages 3 to 12, though the festival is open to everyone.
The festival also has mermaids at Pirates Cove, food and drink, music and games, and a lit aerial Glow Trail at Treetops Adventure Park that is sold as a combo pass. Online tickets stop at 6pm, and the door sells until 8:45pm. In five years the trail has raised more than 100,000 meals for MANNA.
📍 Where: Adventure Center of Asheville, 85 Expo Dr., Asheville
📅 When: Thursday, October 29th – Friday, October 30th | 6pm – 9pm
💲 Price: $20 (ages 4 and up)
Halloween Saturday, the short list
Halloween on Haywood. Heart of West Asheville’s trick-or-treat BINGO runs Friday and Saturday, with locally owned West Asheville businesses and nonprofits handing out tricks, treats and discounts to anyone carrying a free card. The first person to fill a card and post a photo to Instagram wins a gift bag. Details
Bear’s Burial Grounds. Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ, 135 Coxe Ave., turns into a Halloween spot for the day, with family trick-or-treating in the early afternoon until 3pm and a Dance with the Dead party from 8pm to 11pm. It is free, all ages, and costumes are encouraged. Details
Trick-or-treating at Grove Arcade. From 3pm to 6pm, the arcade’s shops and restaurants hand out treats, with pumpkin decorating and Halloween photo spots. Details
13 on 31. Urban Orchard Cider Co., 24 Buxton Ave., celebrates its 13th anniversary with a free costume party from 8pm to 9pm, a DJ spinning 70s, 80s and 90s vinyl, and flights of hot pepper ciders. Details
🎶 Music This Weekend: Neal Francis and Dana and Alden
Neal Francis brings his blend of funk, soul and rock to the Grey Eagle Music Hall tonight. The Grey Eagle’s listing describes a sound that evokes the 60s and 70s but feels fresh, and his third album, Return to Zero, pairs heavy guitar riffs with pulsing grooves. The Sam Fribush Organ Trio is also on the bill.
On Halloween night the same stage hosts Dana and Alden, a jazz duo from Eugene, Oregon, with Alex Amen on the bill. Their new album, Papa’s Boat, blends jazz with indie, pop, rap and bossa nova. Both shows are standing room only and all ages.
📍 Where: The Grey Eagle Music Hall, 185 Clingman Ave., Asheville
📅 When: Neal Francis, Thursday, October 29th | Dana and Alden, Saturday, October 31st | Doors 7pm, music at 8pm
💲 Price: $36.40 (Neal Francis) | $27.06 (Dana and Alden)
🕯 A Halloween Day Tour at the Vance Birthplace
The Vance Birthplace in Weaverville offers Death and Mourning in the Mountains, a special guided tour on Halloween. It runs about 90 minutes and includes an optional hike to the old Vance family cemetery.
Tours leave at 10am and 1pm, and spots are limited, so book ahead. It is a good pick if you like your Halloween more historical than spooky.
📍 Where: Vance Birthplace, 911 Reems Creek Rd., Weaverville
📅 When: Saturday, October 31st | Tours at 10am and 1pm
💲 Price: $10.70 per person
Around the County
Buncombe is a lot bigger than downtown, so this is where the rest of it lives.
🌳 Misery closes this weekend. NC Stage Company’s run of the Stephen King thriller ends Sunday, November 1st, with shows Friday at 2pm, Saturday at 2pm and 7:30pm, and Sunday at 2pm. It is for ages 16 and up, and tickets run $30.50 to $57.50. Tickets
🌳 The clocks fall back Sunday. Daylight saving time ends at 2am on Sunday, November 1st, so set your clocks back an hour before bed Saturday and enjoy the extra sleep.
🌳 A barn quilt show in Candler. ArtsvilleUSA’s free exhibition at the Ferguson Family YMCA pairs barn quilt designs with photographs from Haywood County’s barn quilt trail, as part of an effort to preserve quilts lost to Helene and to lack of funding. It is on view through the end of October, so check the Y’s hours before you go. Exhibition details
One to Know
A quick one every Thursday. Our full small business features run on Tuesdays, so think of this as the short version, and it is never paid and never sponsored.
☕ Dynamite Roasting Co., Black Mountain
Dynamite Roasting Co. is a small-batch coffee roaster and coffee bar on US Highway 70 in Black Mountain. Its website says it has used certified organic, Fair Trade beans since it opened in 2008, and that it moved its roasting into a solar-powered roastery in Swannanoa in 2021.
The coffee bar is at 3198 US Highway 70 and is open daily from 7am to 6pm, according to its website. Explore Asheville notes you can drink your coffee by the fireplace or on the deck with mountain views, which is a good plan for a cold weekend morning. The number is 828-357-8555 if you want to check before you drive over.
📣 Know a business that belongs here? Hit reply with a name and we'll check them out!
Other fun notes…
😋 Weekly Appalachian inspired recipe: Kombucha Pie — chef Paul Edward of Sassafras puts a modern spin on Appalachian vinegar pie, using kombucha, apple cider vinegar, maple sugar and egg yolks. It makes one pie.
🎵 Who we are listening to: Neal Francis, Say She She - Need You Again — and Neal Francis plays the Grey Eagle tonight.
💛 Local Nonprofits. Eliada Homes — an Asheville nonprofit established in 1903 that serves more than 400 children and youth a year through child care, residential mental health programs, foster care and workforce-ready housing assistance. Its Fall Festival and Corn Maze is open through Sunday, November 1st, at $15 per person.
🙏 Positive News Around the Globe: In Incheon, South Korea, a stranger anonymously paid a roughly $420 barbecue bill for 27 residents and caregivers from a welfare center. Read Article
🎃 Halloween is coming, so get your Halloween books ordered now. Here is one we recommend: Halloween book pick
✨ Whether you spend it in a theater seat, a museum jail cell or a cemetery, the best part of a Halloween weekend is who you do it with.
🗳️ One quick question, and it genuinely shapes what goes in here:
What are you doing with the extra hour when the clocks fall back Sunday?
As always, we read every reply and truly appreciate hearing from you. If there’s something you’d like to see more of locally, let us know. Thanks for being part of the Buncombe County Digest community.
Follow us on Facebook & IG @buncombecountydigest
Have an event you want to feature or want to advertise your business to our readers in Buncombe County? Drop us a line here → [email protected]
