Cultural Activities — Theatre and the Arts

Appalachian State University brings diverse and vibrant arts programs that enrich the cultural and intellectual climate of the campus and region. Presented by ASU, an Appalachian Summer Festival is attended by more than 25,000 people, and has emerged as one of the nation’s most innovative and highly regarded regional, multidisciplinary arts festivals. Soon to be entering its 22nd season, the festival is committed to showcasing American talent, commissioning new works, and building new audiences for the fine arts. For many years, the festival has been named one of the "Top 20 events in the Southeast" by the Southeast Tourism Society.

The Blowing Rock Stage Company is a non-profit, artist centered organization that serves as a vital cultural resource for the people of Blowing Rock and the High Country of Western North Carolina. Its primary task is to celebrate, through theatrical performances and educational outreach programs, the common humanity binding us all together. The Stage Company is devoted to presenting revivals of popular plays and musicals that have sustained us since our beginnings and to the exploration and development of new works that celebrate the culture and heritage of our region. The Stage Company aspires to the highest levels of artistic achievement and to reaching the widest possible audience.

The Grandfather Mountain Highland Games is one of America’s premier Highland Scottish celebrations featuring the largest clan gathering in the world. Behold this truly Highland celebration of Celtic culture and competition at MacRae Meadows on Grandfather Mountain the second weekend in July.

The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts supports the mission of ASU through regionally significant exhibition, education, and collection programs. Underlying the center’s mission is the belief that the arts play vital roles in the development of creative and critical potential, and in experiencing, interpreting, understanding, recording, and shaping culture. The center provides a place to investigate these roles by implementing programs that engender and strengthen Appalachian community participation in and ownership of the arts, and an emphasis is placed on partnerships with the university’s academic areas. Through its programs and partnerships, the center supports the university’s role as a key regional educational and cultural resource, and offers a dynamic space where participants experience and incorporate the power and excitement of the visual arts into their lives.

"Horn in the West," the nation’s oldest Revolutionary War drama, brings to life the famous frontiersman Daniel Boone and the hearty mountain settlers in their struggle to preserve their freedom during the turbulent years of the War for Independence. The drama highlights those settlers who came to the Blue Ridge Mountains seeking freedom and escape from British tyranny. Dr Geoffrey Stuart, a prominent British physician, comes to the Colony of Carolina to study the dreaded disease smallpox, bringing his wife, Martha, and their teenage son, Jack.

This listing is but a small representation of the cultural activities available those who choose to visit or live in our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. These programs and many more await those who chose to enlighten their lives with art, theater, symphony, and dance.