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September 28, 2010 at 10:47 pm · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville art, Asheville B&B, Asheville seasons, B&B, Fall Foliage, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, nature, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville festivals, asheville lodging, Asheville NC, Asheville tours, Blue Ridge Parkway, free events, free stuff to do, free things to do, Lovers' Loop Retreat, vacation rental
It’s nearly October, and that means the hunt is on in the Asheville, N.C., area. Red leaves, gold leaves, orange and russet leaves. Come see what the oaks, maples, poplars, sourwoods and other trees are serving up for eye candy this autumn as the fall foliage season gets underway in western North Carolina. Guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an affordable Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, love that we’re located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic road that’s part of the National Park Service. The parkway is the best place to enjoy all that autumn offers in color changes and mountain peaks. The leaf-peeping here usually lasts until around mid-November.
Spending time on the Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the popular and FREE things to do in Asheville during autumn and year-round.
Make Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our affordable Asheville vacation rental, your place to stay when you explore Asheville, NC recreation, arts, restaurants and festivals. Events are posted and updated through the year on www.loversloopretreat.com. Visit the site to see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip. Contact us for a list of many FREE things to do in Asheville.
Free things to do in Asheville in October
In October, you’ll find a fun and wide-ranging mix of freebies in Asheville. Oct. 1 is the Asheville gallery walk, when the many downtown galleries stay open later so visitors may check out the art and enjoy refreshments. Asheville’s pride festival is Oct. 2.
There’s also the Asheville Scarecrow Festival on Oct. 2, and Fiesta Latina, the vibrant and colorful annual Latino heritage event, also is Oct. 2.
The North Carolina Arboretum’s regularly scheduled free day is the first Tuesday of each month, Oct. 5. The Asheville Art Museum offers free admission in the afternoon on the first Wednesday of each month, Oct. 6.
If you’re ready to walk the walk, participate in the Asheville Zombie Walk on Oct. 10. It’s an annual gig downtown: fake blood, funky costumes, scary stares. To lighten up, attend the Asheville Ukulele Jam on Oct. 12 at Laurey’s Catering downtown. This new event will be the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.
On Oct. 17, the annual HardLox Jewish Festival will fill your tummy with yummy food and please your ears with klezmer tunes, along with Israeli folk dancing.
Asheville arts events
Two of the most-anticipated arts events in the Asheville area are in October. The Lake Eden Arts Festival, or LEAF, will be Oct. 14-17 in Black Mountain just minutes from Lovers’ Loop Retreat. LEAF features multicultural dancing, poetry, healing and culinary arts and handcrafts. The Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands will be Oct. 21-24 in downtown Asheville.
Halloween in Asheville
Asheville is a happening place to spread your Halloween wings. LaZoom, the comedy tour bus that roams downtown, offers lively Halloween tours. Asheville Trolley Tours and other companies offer ghost tours by foot and bus. And the play “Dracula” will be performed Oct. 22-23 and Oct. 29-30 at the recently restored Masonic Temple downtown. We’ll update our website as we learn of other Halloween gigs.
It’s not scary, but the Asheville MoogFest will be Oct. 29-31 and celebrates the vision and music of the late Robert Moog (based in Asheville), who invented the Moog synthesizer that revolutionized rock music starting in the 1960s.
All of these events and activities and more are listed on our website. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville!
Call or email us – 828.545.2950, loversloop(at)gmail(dot)com.
Let us know if you’d like to be on the mailing list for our monthly e-news. Want to see what the “official” e-news looks like in color with photos? Click here.
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July 31, 2010 at 5:27 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville adventures, Asheville B&B, B&B, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville festivals, Asheville NC, free events, free music, free things to do, Lovers' Loop Retreat, Shindig on the Green, vacation rental
August in the Asheville, N.C., area explodes in activities. We’re talking the nation’s longest-running folk festival Aug. 5-7, the annual antiques fair, an annual quilt show, one of the bigger crafts fairs in the area, dance concerts, dulcimer workshops, a carpet of flowers, an Olympiad, an Afro-Caribbean fest and more! What bounty for a small city! Come and indulge yourself.
Guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an affordable Asheville bed & breakfast alternative here in western North Carolina, pursue with gusto these opportunities, some of which are FREE things to do in Asheville. For more free activities in Asheville, check out our June 21 blog (at www.loversloopretreat.com).
Make Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our affordable Asheville vacation rental, your place to stay when you explore Asheville, NC recreation, arts, restaurants and festivals. Events are posted and updated through the year on www.loversloopretreat.com. Visit the site to see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip. You can link to our blog, http://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, on the home page, and we’re also on Twitter! Our Web site features a link where you can contact us for a list of many FREE things to do in Asheville.
You’ll find some awe in August in Asheville, starting with the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival Aug. 5-7 at Diana Wortham Theatre downtown. The festival, in its eighty-third year, features bluegrass and old-time music, clogging and other mountain dancing and ballad singers.
Speaking of longevity, one of the oldest antiques fairs in the Southeast is the Asheville Antiques Fair Aug. 6-8, a busy weekend that also brings the annual quilt show at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville Aug. 6-8, and the Village Art and Craft Fair Aug. 7-8, one of the most popular, and free, such fairs in the area.
The Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance will perform in downtown Asheville Aug. 12-14. That same weekend, Aug. 13-15, will be the Asheville Wine and Food Festival. You can perfect your dulcimer-playing at workshops Aug. 14 at Chimney Rock Park just east of Lovers’ Loop Retreat, and it’s a lovely drive to the park from our guest suite.
Water lovers should check out the River Fest Aug. 14 in Asheville on the French Broad River, which winds through Asheville on its determined way to Tennessee. Aug. 14, Aug. 21 and Aug. 28 offer Shindig on the Green, a laid-back evening gathering outdoors with free music in Asheville.
Here’s a carpet you can’t walk on, but it will dazzle you. The Flower Carpet at the Biltmore estate will be on display Aug. 20-Sept. 12. The design this year is a stained-glass window. The carpet will be on display during the day and illuminated at night.
A signature event in the area for the adventurous and those who like to watch them is the Hickory Nut Gorge Olympiad Aug. 26-29. This takes place just east of Asheville, and it’s an easy, beautiful drive from Lovers’ Loop Retreat. It’s one of the biggest such happenings in the Southeast.
Aug. 27-29 is Goombay!, one of the FREE street festivals in Asheville. Enjoy music, vendors and food that represent Afro-Caribbean cultures. It’s a hopping, joyful gig.
Early September brings one of our favorite events. The Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Fest (LAAFF) will be Sept. 5, so you can attend the festival during the big, fat Labor Day holiday weekend. Check out the funkier side of Asheville. It’s one of the free things to do in Asheville on Labor Day.
All of these events and activities and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. Want to receive our full color monthly museletter with photos? Just let us know and we’ll add you to the list. loversloop@gmail.com And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville!
Cheers!
Lovers’ Loop Retreat
828-545-2950
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June 27, 2010 at 5:19 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, B&B alternative, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville festivals, Bele Chere, bluegrass music, Fourth of July, free events, free stuff to do, free things to do, Lovers' Loop Retreat, Shindig on the Green, vacation rental
Bring the summer on! Fireflies, flowers, long days and evenings, lingering sunsets over the mountains and lots more in a rejuvenating body-and-soul experience for guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an affordable Asheville B&B alternative here in western North Carolina.
Right now at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, blue and pink hydrangeas and lavender hostas are bursting in bloom. And each night, our resident fireflies put on an incredible, pulsating, green and yellow light show that’s hard to stop watching. The lightning bugs are just one form of free entertainment in the Asheville area. For more free things to do in Asheville, check out our June 21 blog (at www.loversloopretreat.com), which lists many free activities around July 4, but most of the items mentioned are relevant after the 4th, too.
Make Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an affordable Asheville vacation rental, your place to stay when you explore Asheville, NC recreation, arts, restaurants and summer festivals. Events are posted and updated through the year on www.loversloopretreat.com. Visit the site to see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip. You can link to our blog, http://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, on the home page, and we’re also on Twitter! Our Web site now features a link where you can contact us for a list of many FREE things to do in Asheville.
July features some of Asheville’s biggest annual events: the Bele Chere street festival, Folkmoot, Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands, Shindig on the Green. Don’t miss out! One of the free summer events in Asheville is Shindig on the Green, a series of outdoor concerts downtown that kicks off July 3 and runs into September. There’s a great community spirit at Shindig, which features mountain music and dance, some rehearsed and played on stage, some spontaneously created in the crowd. We’ve had guests who’ve built their Asheville trip around Shindig on the Green. Bring your stringed instrument, your voice and your dancing shoes, or just listen, tap your feet and grin.
OK, we’ll say it: July begins with a bang. Asheville’s Fourth of July fireworks will rock the sky downtown, preceded by other July 4th activities downtown.
The Carolina Mountain Ribfest in Asheville July 9-11 serves up all the barbecue, (with music and art), you could want. Move from barbecue to bamboo with the Bamboo Festival July 10-11 at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. The Bamboo Festival truly is a cool event, where you might even find bicycles made of bamboo. The Big Crafty on July 11 downtown is a free fair with some funky crafters.
For chuckles and outright belly laughs, don’t miss the Laugh Your Asheville Off comedy festival July 15-17 downtown. The same weekend, you can catch the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands July 15-18 downtown, one of the major arts events of the year, with a repeat fair Oct. 21-24. The juried event, which represents artists throughout the Southeast, is well worth attending.
One of the most diverse performing arts events of the year in the Asheville area is Folkmoot, an international dance festival that starts July 22 and runs through Aug. 1, with performances in Asheville and other localities. It’s dazzling.
Bele Chere, the free and freewheeling festival with music and food in downtown Asheville, will be July 23-25. That’s followed by Christine Lavin’s 25th anniversary concert in Asheville on July 30 and a women’s roller derby bout with Asheville’s Blue Ridge Roller Girls on July 31.
August brings antiques, crafts, a river festival, an African-American/Caribbean festival and lots more.
All of these events and activities and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville! Email us at loversloop@gmail.com to subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter.
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May 5, 2010 at 5:57 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, B&B alternative, beer, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, nature, newsletters, poetry events, Uncategorized, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville festivals, Asheville NC, beer, Blue Ridge Parkway, free events, free stuff to do, free things to do, Lovers' Loop Retreat, vacation rental
Azaleas bursting like proud parents, dogwoods at their peak, rhododendrons starting to dazzle and some blooming plants that we, ahem, don’t know the identity of, sorry to say. This is a more vibrant spring than we’ve had in several years here at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our affordable Asheville B&B alternative. That’s partly due to the end of the drought in western North Carolina .
There’s never a drought of activities and big fun in Asheville , and when you catch some rest and relaxation at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, you’re practically an eye-blink away from a multitude of festivities. The outdoors is its own draw, with mountains, rivers and scenic roads to explore by foot, kayak or canoe, bike and car, right outside the door of Lovers’ Loop Retreat.
Just ask Michelle and Barack Obama. They spent the weekend of April 23-25 in Asheville . They liked the area so much during the campaign in 2008 that they returned for a vacation. They surprised diners at restaurants and played golf. They toured Asheville ’s Biltmore estate, just 10 minutes from Lovers’ Loop Retreat, and they hiked along the Blue Ridge Parkway , almost literally a stone’s throw from our guest suite.
Come see what brought the Obamas back to Asheville , and make our Asheville vacation rental your peaceful, convenient base.
Events are posted through the year on our Web site, www.loversloopretreat.com, and we update the site regularly. Use the Web site to check out what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat. We’re also on Twitter!
May’s mix of magic includes puppetry, a comic book convention, annual sports and poetry festivals, Shakespeare under the stars, concerts from pop icon Norah Jones to Irish folk music and Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and the wildly popular Lake Eden Arts Festival. May also is the start of Downtown After 5, the seasonal, FREE outdoor music series in downtown Asheville . And the festival of flowers at the Biltmore estate continues through May 16.
Get your bloom on!
Catch some nature at the annual rhododendron show May 1-2 at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville . May 4-9 is Asheville Wordfest, a FREE poetry festival that features a variety of established and emerging poets.
The Lake Eden Arts Festival, or LEAF, May 6-9 is a semiannual, multicultural, multi-arts event in Black Mountain , about 15 minutes east of Lovers’ Loop Retreat. (The next LEAF will be in October.)
Norah Jones will perform May 11 at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in downtown Asheville . Also downtown on May 11, Jorma Kaukonen will appear with David Bromberg at the Orange Peel.
A bright new event is Fanaticon, a FREE convention for fans of comic books, fantasy and science fiction on May 15 at the Asheville Art Museum downtown. If you like open-air Shakespeare, check out the Montford Park Players’ production, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” May 20-30. This Shakespeare troupe starts its season now and will perform into the fall. Most of its productions are FREE.
Get your groove on at Downtown After 5 on May 21, and keep the groove going on May 22 at the annual Montford Music and Art Festival, a FREE street festival just outside downtown Asheville .
The annual Mountain Sports Festival, May 28-30 in Asheville, packs in participants and spectators for inspiring feats of rock climbing, cycling, running, disc golf, paddling, skateboarding and other activities.
Early June brings the start of Biltmore estate’s summer concert series, the inaugural Beer City Bash in Asheville and lots more great stuff.
All of these events and activities and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville !
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March 23, 2010 at 4:44 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville art, Asheville B&B, Asheville seasons, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, newsletters, poetry events, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville art, Asheville festivals, asheville music, Asheville NC, Blue Ridge Roller Girls, Chimney Rock, comedy, LEAF, Lovers' Loop Retreat
The forsythia is about to burst with its proud yellow, the daffodils are nearly popping out, and the birds are busy as bees tending to their nests in the trees here at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our affordable Asheville B&B alternative. We’re springing into April!
There’s no prettier place to come for the greening than western North Carolina, where the mountains are inspiring all year, the Blue Ridge Parkway just around the corner from Lovers’ Loop Retreat will start flowering any time now, and downtown Asheville becomes an even more hopping and happening place.
April boasts Asheville’s typical variety of musical entertainment and the start of the Biltmore estate’s Festival of Flowers, a spectacular array of colors that lasts into May. April also brings the Asheville HATCHfest, David Sedaris, the first Actionfest film festival, Asheville’s zany and tough roller derby divas, the annual herb festival and more.
Lovers’ Loop Retreat is close to all of these goings on, so make our Asheville vacation rental your convenient and homey base when you sample Asheville activities.
Events are posted through the year on our Web site, http://www.loversloopretreat.com/, and we update the site regularly. Use the Web site to check out what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat. We’re also on Twitter!
The first gallery walk of the season is April 2, when the many Asheville art galleries downtown stay open longer and offer refreshments in a casual but festive atmosphere as people gallery-hop. Think fun!
The Festival of Flowers opens April 3 and lasts through May 16 at the Biltmore, an estate with beautiful gardens and grounds open to the public. The festival features stunning tulips and live music, too.
On April 10, several members of the monthly poetry group we host, the Lovers’ Loop Poetry Forum, including a Lovers’ Loop Retreat co-owner, will read original poems publicly at Posana Cafe in downtown Asheville.
On April 15, the Irish band Lunasa will play Celtic music at the Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville, and Allan Toussaint will rock at the Orange Peel downtown.
Also on April 15 in Asheville, HATCHfest comes around again, and Actionfest makes its debut. Both events will run April 15-18. HATCHfest brings big names in arts and entertainment to mentor participants with emerging talent in workshops, panels and exhibits. Actionfest calls itself the world’s first festival focused on action films. Chuck Norris will appear at the festival, which will offer screenings of world premieres and classics, demonstrations by a stunt man and other eye-opening entertainment.
Humorist David Sedaris will appear April 16 at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in downtown Asheville. This popular and funny dude has appeared in Asheville before enthusiastic audiences.
Chimney Rock Park, North Carolina’s newest state park, has amazing biodiversity, and the park starts to rock in spring. The park, a lovely, scenic drive just east of Lovers’ Loop Retreat, has an Earth Day celebration April 17 and a guided bird walk April 18 and many other guided walks throughout the year.
The Blue Ridge Roller Girls stomp and strut around the roller derby ring on April 24 in downtown Asheville. And on April 30, the Asheville Herb Festival begins and runs through May 2.
Early May brings the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF), the Asheville Wordfest poetry event, Norah Jones and Fanaticon, a convention for fans of comic books, science fiction and fantasy.
All of these events and activities and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville!
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December 22, 2009 at 7:03 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, B&B alternative, Lovers' Loop Retreat, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville NC, Lovers' Loop Retreat
In the brand new year that’s approaching, January is a good example of life’s quirky and festive mix here in Asheville, N.C. Really no dull moments for those with an active sense of wonder and a healthy curiosity. At Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, we try to keep our wonder, curiosity and humor handy.
January starts with Asheville’s brand of vaudeville and lots of gingerbread castles and ends with Willie Nelson and light opera. January also is the month for one of Asheville’s signature testaments to funkiness, the annual fringe arts festival. In January and beyond in 2010, there’s a great variety of entertainment already lined up at venues downtown and elsewhere in the city: fiddler Natalie MacMaster and singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile in early February; Arlo Guthrie, the Moody Blues, bagpipes and ballet in March; Celtic music and lyric opera in April; singer Norah Jones in May. Also in May, the inaugural Spring Beer Festival debuts in Asheville, a city that now claims about 10 micro-breweries as it collects accolades for its beers nationally.
All of this fun stuff is within an easy 10-minute drive when you stay at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville vacation rental. We have events posted into 2010 on our Web site, http://www.loversloopretreat.com/. Use the Web site to check out what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat.
Before 2009 ends, there’s the New Year’s Eve Downtown Countdown in Asheville, and a lively downtown will be even livelier with year-end celebrations. Through Jan. 3, there’s still time to see the gingerbread house display at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. Also through Jan. 3, the Christmas at Biltmore estate extravaganza in Asheville is open.
The new year brings the Asheville Vaudeville Show Jan. 7 at the Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre downtown. That’s also the location for the Asheville FringeArts Festival Jan, 21-24; expect a circus.
The annual Winter Warmer Beer Festival on Jan. 23 in downtown Asheville is a popular event among the many people who enjoy the creatively-concocted brews that the Asheville area is known for. Actor Jeff Daniels is also a singer-songwriter, and he takes his tunes to the Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville on Jan. 23. Asheville Lyric Opera’s “Don Pasquale” will be staged Jan. 29-30, and Willie Nelson plays the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium downtown Jan. 30.
Taking a glimpse into February, fiddlers Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy will have their own pep rally at the Diana Wortham Theater on Feb. 1-2, the Asheville Vaudeville Show roars again on Feb. 4, and singer Brandi Carlile will perform at the recently expanded and hopping Orange Peel nightclub downtown.
All of these events and activities and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville!
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November 30, 2009 at 7:01 am · Filed under accommodations, Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, Asheville seasons, B&B alternative, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville art, Asheville NC, Biltmore, Christmas, crafters, free events, free stuff to do, free things to do, Grove Park Inn, Lovers' Loop Retreat, new year's, winter solstice
This is the month when we’re usually startled at how quickly the year seems to have passed. Is 2009 really nearly gone? In addition to December’s other notable days, it’s the winter solstice month, and that’s a date (Dec. 21, according to our calendar) we always observe here at Lovers’ Loop Retreat in Asheville, N.C. We like that the solstice marks not only the beginning of winter but the beginning of more daylight, even though very gradually. One aspect of winter that we appreciate is the visibility it gives us and our guests to enjoy the mountain views at our Asheville vacation rental and elsewhere around Asheville.
For those who are captivated by Christmas and the various aspects of the year-end holidays, there are fun things to do in Asheville in this busy month. Some of the activities are free, which makes them all the nicer, and they’re all within easy range of Lovers’ Loop Retreat. We have events posted through December and into 2010 on our Web site, http://www.loversloopretreat.com/. Use the Web site to check out what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville bed and breakfast alternative. You can link to our blog, http://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com/, from the home page.
If you enjoy some bang for your buck, downtown Asheville is the place to be for the annual Asheville Seasonal Sizzle, the fireworks display on Dec. 5, Dec. 12 and Dec. 19. Why wait until July 4? The show makes a lively downtown all the livelier.
For a different kind of splendor, visit Asheville’s Biltmore estate, the mansion that’s transformed with lights, trees and other festive décor through Jan. 3. The estate — one of America’s most visited homes — is a year-round destination that many people make a point to see at Christmastime.
Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, performed by the Asheville Shakespeare troupe Montford Park Players, runs Dec. 3-6 and Dec. 10-13. Keeping with the Dickens theme, Biltmore Village outside downtown Asheville will host a Dickens-inspired Christmas fest Dec. 4-6.
The Big Crafty on Dec. 6 is a popular happening, with about 100 crafters represented and live music in downtown Asheville. It’s free!
One cool gig is the annual gingerbread house display through Jan. 3 at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. The competition draws many entries that make for an imaginative and artistic exhibit. This, too, is free!
For a nontraditional kind of holiday experience, the annual Swannanoa Solstice on Dec. 20 will feature varied entertainment, including Celtic and mountain music, bagpipers, dancers and storytellers. It’s at the Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville.
And to wrap up the month – and the year — there’s the New Year’s Eve Downtown Countdown in Asheville. In addition to that event, bars and restaurants downtown and elsewhere in the city are geared up to host their own countdowns.
Looking into 2010, get a funky start to the year with the annual Asheville FringeArts Festival, which broadens minds and opens eyes each January. It will be Jan. 21-24.
All of these events and activities and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville
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October 24, 2009 at 5:57 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, B&B, B&B alternative, B&Bs, Fall Foliage, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville festivals, Asheville NC, Blue Ridge Parkway, free stuff to do, free things to do, Lovers' Loop Retreat
Lovers’ Loop Retreat November muse-letter
The view from Lovers’ Loop Retreat here in Asheville, N.C., is looking like lollipops, with the trees doing the orange, yellow and red foliage dance, and our mountain views re-emerging as the leaves in the distance drop from their tethers. For the next few weeks, there should be nice color around our Asheville vacation rental and in the surrounding mountains, so it’s a great time to come and embrace Asheville’s autumn.
The foliage, of course, is FREE to view, and Lovers’ Loop Retreat is within a minute of one of the very best viewing routes, the Blue Ridge Parkway. Treat yourself with a stay at our guest suite, and experience the splendor! We have events posted through December and into 2010 on our Web site, www.loversloopretreat.com. Use the Web site to check out what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat, an Asheville bed and breakfast alternative. You can link to our blog, http://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, on the home page.
In addition to the foliage and the Halloween happenings listed on our home page’s events calendar, November brings a cool mix of music to downtown Asheville. The Asheville Civic Center (and its Thomas Wolfe Auditorium) and the Diana Wortham Theatre host troubadours Leonard Cohen on Nov. 1, Jackson Browne on Nov. 12, Nanci Griffith on Nov. 14 and George Winston on Nov. 21.
If film is your fancy, the Asheville Film Festival will be Nov. 5-8 with its diversity of films political and dramatic, quirky and comedic, weird and wonderful. This festival is growing and gaining acclaim, so come and enjoy the range of entertainment.
Catch the holiday spirit at the “Christmas at Biltmore Estate” extravaganza, which runs Nov. 6- Jan. 3, 2010. This annual transformation of what claims to be America’s largest home draws lots of people who find magic in the setting and the decorations.
For art lovers, the River Arts District Studio Stroll just outside downtown Asheville on Nov. 14-15 is a must-see, and it’s FREE. Dozens of artists open their studio doors to visitors, who can watch art being created and get some good deals sometimes, too.
If you’re ready for more Christmas events, the Asheville Lyric Opera’s annual Christmas concert will be Nov. 20 downtown. Asheville’s Montford Park Players perform “A Christmas Carol” Dec. 3-6 and Dec. 10-13, and there’s a Christmas festival Dec. 4-6 in the historic Biltmore Village outside downtown Asheville.
All of these events and activities and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville!
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August 25, 2009 at 5:10 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, B&B alternative, free things in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, NC, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville accommodations, Asheville activities, Asheville festivals, Asheville NC, beer, Blue Ridge Parkway, bluegrass music, free events, free stuff to do, free things to do, Indigo Girls in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat
September rocks in Asheville, N.C. Great stuff going on all month long. Concerts, craft festivals, bluegrass and beer, organic and apple fests, a fair that celebrates farming and gardening, sustainable energy and healthy living and more. And yes, with the start of autumn in September, you may feel that nip in the air here, too.
At Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative, we’ve made some enhancements this summer. In addition to exploring all that the Asheville area offers, some of our guests enjoy hanging out at our vacation rental, playing pingpong or just relaxing in a private, peaceful place. In addition to Wireless, our guest suite has lots of information about attractions, restaurants and events to help visitors sort through all of the possibilities.
Many of the activities in September are FREE. Visit our Web site at http://www.loversloopretreat.com/ to see a list of events we update regularly. We’ve posted events through December and into 2010, so you can see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat.
One of our favorite annual events is LAAFF, the Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival, on Sept. 6 in downtown Asheville. This is a free, funky street fair that really gives a flavor of Asheville’s brand of quirkiness. Many locals, including us, turn out for this fair. You’ll find a great diversity of live music, belly dancing and other dance performances, poetry, sketch comedy, drumming groups, bicycle jousting, unusual vendors. It’s a real circus.
The annual North Carolina Apple Festival is Sept. 4-7. The Asheville area is the state’s largest apple-producing region, and this popular festival is just south of Asheville.
Another fun, free fair is the annual Organicfest in downtown Asheville on Sept. 13. Live music, unusual vendors and crafts, good food. A great opportunity to expand your organic mind in a very organic-minded city.
One of our favorite bands, the Indigo Girls, will play Sept. 17 at the Orange Peel in downtown Asheville. This area loves the Indigos, whom we’ve seen perform several times here in recent years. They always give Asheville a good show. The Orange Peel is a great, intimate venue for them.
The Brewgrass Festival on Sept. 19 in Asheville mixes bluegrass with beers from the area’s many local microbreweries. Beer is big business in Asheville, and at the festival you’ll understand why.
Heritage Weekend Sept. 19 and Sept. 20 is a big deal at the Folk Art Center on the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway. The parkway – and the center – are just around the corner from Lovers’ Loop Retreat, and we go to this free event every year. It’s sponsored by the Southern Highland Craft Guild with traditional mountain music, dance, storytelling and crafts. You’ll also see demonstrations about beekeeping, canning and preserving, whittling, toy-making and other things. The highlight is the World Gee Haw Whimmy Diddle Competition, (the whimmy diddle is an old-timey mountain toy) which you’ve got to see to understand.
On Sept. 25 and Sept. 26, the very popular and entertaining Womansong, an Asheville choral group, will perform in the area. People come from out of town to see this group, which gives polished, high-energy concerts with humor mixed in.
On Sept. 26 and Sept. 27, there’s another opportunity to see cool crafts at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. Also on Sept. 26 and Sept. 27, the True Nature Country Fair a bit north of Asheville focuses on health and healing, social issues and politics, sustainable energy, gardening and farming.
All of these events and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat. See you in Asheville!
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July 30, 2009 at 4:39 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, Asheville B&B, B&B alternative, B&Bs, Lovers' Loop Retreat, newsletters, vacation rental ·Tagged alternative B&B, Asheville, Asheville activities, Asheville art, Asheville festivals, baseball, Blue Ridge Roller Girls, comedy, Downtown After Five, free events, free music, free stuff to do, free things to do, Goombay, Indigo Girls in Asheville, Lovers' Loop Retreat, Orange Peel, Shindig on the Green
August in Asheville, N.C., is a month of quilts, crafts, comedy, outdoor music events and street performers of all stripes downtown—plus the outdoor recreation that draws hikers, cyclists, rock climbers, kayakers, photographers and other visitors to our two rivers, national forests and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat Asheville vacation rental are within 10 minutes or less of all of this fun.
The best part is that most of this entertainment is FREE! One of the August headliner events in Asheville each year is Goombay, the free street festival of African-American and Caribbean cultures that features live music, dance, food and a great diversity of people. This year, Goombay will be Aug. 28-30.
Our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative is stocked with information about restaurants and what to do when you’re here, and guests comment on how helpful our resources are. We also have wireless, so you can search the Internet and do e-mail while you’re here.
Visit our Web site at www.loversloopretreat.com to see a list of events we update regularly. We’ve posted events through December, so you can see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville and Lovers’ Loop Retreat. You can link to our blog, http://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, on the home page.
The Asheville Antiques Fair, one of the region’s largest and oldest, will be July 31-Aug. 2. The fair draws dealers from many states with a wealth of wares to sell. The fair, at the Asheville Civic Center downtown, has been offered for 60-some years.
The annual Village Art and Craft Fair, Aug. 1-2 in Asheville, is an upscale, longtime event that draws vendors from a wide area.
Asheville’s bimonthly art gallery walk will be Aug. 7, and it’s fun to stroll among the many diverse galleries downtown and enjoy free refreshments. On the other end of town, the Asheville Quilt Guild will host its annual show Aug. 7-9 at the North Carolina Arboretum. We’ve been to this show, and it’s worth checking out, with a great array of quilts from multiple states exhibited.
The popular and free Shindig on the Green, an outdoor music series in Asheville, continues every Saturday night in August—bluegrass and folk music and cloggers. It might be hard not to do some dancing yourself.
Downtown After Five, another outdoor music series, continues in Asheville on Aug. 21. This is a free street festival that offers a range of music: rock, blues, jazz, world.
And on Aug. 22, Asheville’s own Blue Ridge Roller Girls, a roller derby team, will shake things up at the civic center downtown. This is always an eye-opening event.
If you need to get your laugh on, a late-night comedy series continues through Aug. 29 at Asheville Community Theatre downtown, and for more laughs, the Feral Chihuahuas perform in Asheville on Aug. 1, Aug. 14 and Aug. 15.
The Asheville Tourists, a minor league baseball team, play through Sept. 3. And an interactive butterfly exhibit with hundreds of the winged creatures is at the WNC Nature Center, just around the corner from Lovers’ Loop Retreat, through Sept. 7.
One more note: for Indigo Girls fans, the talented duo will play at the Orange Peel in downtown Asheville on Sept. 17. We’ve attended concerts at the Peel, and it’s a great venue for the Indigos.
All of these events and more are listed on our Web site. Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat! See you in Asheville!
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