What to Know: 2025 Asheville Fringe Arts Festival

Article last updated 01/30/2025

Countdown to the festival: March 16-23, 2025

During the winter, the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival brings innovative theater, dance, spoken word and performance arts to venues throughout town. This multiple venue festival provides artists with opportunities to explore the edges of their work.

In 2025, the Fringe Arts Festival will take place March 16-23 in Asheville. General admission tickets will be available beginning in February, and all-access passes are already on sale. The $75 pass, which will increase to $100 on March 1, includes a ticket to the closing party at The Crow and Quill.

Local venues include LEAF Global Arts Center, The BeBe Theatre, Asheville Community Theatre, Sly Grog Lounge, LaZoom Room, Fleetwood's, and Story Parlor.

Wonder what Fringe is all about?

This edgy performing arts tradition got its start in Edinburgh, Scotland in the 1940s when several performing groups who had been excluded from the city's mainstream festival decided to perform on their own. Over the past 65+ years, Fringe events spread across the world and today more than 50 such events are held each year in the U.S.

Founded in Asheville in 2002, the festival has the unique mission of supporting small and emerging local acts. In fact, the lion's share of the event schedule features local actors, dancers, writers, directors and artists, but the festival also brings in top traveling acts, many of which originated at other Fringe events around the world.