Entertainment

Wondering about Entertainment in the Brevard area? You will be delighted with the array of offerings throughout the year.

Since you’re here, make plans for the Food and Wine Celebration. Presently in its seventh year, Highlands Food & Wine Festival. is a four-day celebration committed to the festival of food, wine, music, and culture of the Blue Edge Mountains. Mark your calendar for Nov. 9 through 12 2023, with a litany of occasions highlighting award winning gourmet specialists, wine and spirits tastings, and unrecorded music exhibitions. Headlining the festival will be End of the Line, Grace Potter, and The War & Treaty. Plus, a percentage of the ticket proceeds are given to conservation groups and support for the Louis Osteen Legacy Scholarship for students pursuing culinary arts careers.

Close to downtown Brevard and set on an idyllic 180-acre campus the Brevard Music Center comes alive for seven weeks during the summer when faculty, students, and renowned guest artists present more than 80 concerts. The festival delights residents and far-away visitors, with attendance numbering more than 30,000 each year. Website: http://www.brevardmusic.org/ Phone: 828-862-2100

Located on the campus of Brevard College, the Porter Center is a state-of-the-art, acoustically near-perfect 700 seat performance space. It also is simply a beautiful building with a glassed-in lobby for intermissions as well as community events. Musical and theatrical productions of every type are offered year round.

Brevard loves its festivals, and music is a major feature all of them. Every Memorial Day is the celebrated White Squirrel Festival, 4^th of July has a Firecracker Festival, fall sees Halloweenfest, and there’s the Christmas season’s Twilight Festival as well. At each there either is a series of non-stop performers on a stage set up on Main Street or other smaller performances going on at the Gazebo on the Courthouse lawn.

   185 King Street is Western North Carolina’s premier listening room and social club with a 4,000 square foot indoor facility and a 1/4 acre of outdoor space with a covered patio, horse shoe pits and private courtyard. 185 King Street also features Studio 185, a 1,000 square foot listening room totally isolated from the bar with stage with professional sound/lights and multi-track recording set-up that offers seating for 80 or dancing for 125.

An integral part of the local culture is the Mountain Music handed down from generation to generation by the Scots-Irish who originally settled the area. It may be heard at various venues throughout the area.

In the summer, weekly square dances are held on the town square.

Bluegrass is also a vital part of mountain music.  Each September, a weekend festival, the Mountain Song Festival is held at the Brevard Music Center. Frequent performers include Grammy winning Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Brevard natives Woody Platt and Mike Guggino, often accompanied by noted actor and master banjo picker, Steve Martin.

To mention all the people and places where music “happens” in Brevard would be to fill pages of information. From our home-grown world-class Steep Canyon Rangers to literally hundreds of individual and group performers, there’s probably not one night a year without music offered in our county. Oskar Blues Brewery, 191 King Street, Duck Pond Pottery, the Blue Ridge Bakery, Friday nights at the Library, downtown on Main Street… beautiful music flows from many establishments and entertains many lucky residents.

The Playhouse is considered one “Top Ten Theaters in the Country.” A wonderful escape from life’s hectic pace, the Playhouse offers quality entertainment rarely found so far from Broadway. The Playhouse is open from mid-May through mid-October, plus holiday productions, presenting matinees and evening performances Wednesday through Sunday.