Thousands filled Coxe Avenue for Oktoberfest on Oct. 3, with weenie dogs, brats, beer and oompa music in the South Slope Brewery District. Thank you to Fields Automotive and our participating breweries.

Asheville City Council has approved a $265,000 investment from Downtown Municipal Service District (MSD) sales tax revenue through a partnership between the City of Asheville and the Asheville Downtown Improvement District (ADID). ADID will manage two initiatives: a construction impact mitigation program and a seasonal decoration refresh.

Winter Window Displays, festive lights, new holiday decorations, and the 80th Annual Asheville Holiday Parade bring seasonal magic Downtown.

Downtown Asheville saw about 1 million non-resident visits in September, up 7.4% from last September and 2.3% above September 2023, the last full pre-Helene benchmark.

Phase II of Wall Street's transformation begins this October, as Dayna Walton extends her Wall Street Steps artwork onto the garage wall with a tribute to our rivers and the species that depend on them.

Fabric of Downtown set out to tell the story of what holds Downtown Asheville together, its people, its history, its everyday texture. We’re thrilled to feature our capstone to the campaign, the Trees of Asheville Barn Quilt on Wall Street.

Downtown Asheville saw about 1.1 million non-resident visits in August, down 2.7% from last year. The busiest day was August 15, when the 60th season of Shindig on the Green filled Pack Square Park, alongside AVL Sounds Fest and Downtown After 5. Saturdays drew the biggest crowds, and activity stayed strong through the evening rather than spiking late at night.

The Asheville Downtown Association is growing our team! We’re currently hiring for two positions: Development Manager and Coordinator, Programs + Administration.

We’re looking for talented, collaborative people who care about Downtown Asheville and want to play a role in supporting the businesses, people, programs and partnerships that make our Downtown thrive.

Poverty, mental illness and addiction can contribute to homelessness, but they are not its primary drivers, Beth Silverman told a group of business owners, real estate agents, nonprofit organizers and other community stakeholders who gathered at Revival Asheville on Aug. 27 for an Asheville Downtown Association (ADA) Member Mixer focused on housing, capital and community.

The Asheville Downtown Association is now accepting applications for the 80th Annual Asheville Holiday Parade, presented by Bojangles, taking place in Downtown Asheville on Saturday, November 21, 2026, at 11 a.m.

This year’s theme, “A Vintage Holiday,” celebrates 80 years of holiday tradition in Downtown Asheville and invites participants to bring the nostalgia, charm and cheer of holidays past to the parade route.

Businesses, nonprofits, schools, community groups, performance organizations and other local participants are encouraged to get creative with vintage-inspired entries. Ideas might include 1950s holiday storefronts, old-fashioned ornaments and tinsel, vintage cars, Victorian holiday scenes, mid-century décor, nostalgic holiday movies, classic winter wonderlands, or entries inspired by holiday traditions from decades past.

Whether drawing inspiration from the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s or another favorite era, participants are encouraged to put their own spin on what makes the holidays feel timeless.

The deadline to apply to participate in the 2026 Asheville Holiday Parade is Friday, October 9.

The Asheville Downtown Association is growing, and we’re looking for a Development Manager to join our team and help build the partnerships and resources that support a vibrant Downtown Asheville.

This season, we’ve talked a lot about the Fabric of Downtown — the businesses, artists, residents, employees, property owners, visitors, and advocates whose individual stories come together to make downtown Asheville what it is.

Clarity on sales tax funds and an update on the MSD property tax assessment.

Asheville is expanding mental health support Downtown and across the city. APD and Asheville Fire's REST team have launched a 60-day pilot with RHA Health Services, funded by a Vaya Health grant, placing certified mental health professionals alongside officers and firefighters on crisis calls. Separately, ART's new transit contract with RATP Dev adds a crisis counselor at the Transit Center on Coxe Ave to connect riders with community resources.

For Downtown, this means trained mental health support where Ambassadors and businesses have long had to fill the gap on their own. ADID will be watching how the pilot performs over its 60 days and whether it becomes a permanent part of Downtown's crisis response.

This year's Fourth of July downtown was hot, with temperatures reaching the mid-90s. A mid-day downpour rolled through, but the weather cleared just in time for the fireworks show and didn’t stop thousands from enjoying all that South Slope had to offer

The Wall Street Steps Mural is finished. Artist Dayna Walton spent two weeks in early to mid-June bringing the piece to life on Wall Street.

On May 27, dozens of Downtown stakeholders gathered at Revival Asheville to weigh in on the Downtown Business Resilience Strategy — a planning effort seven months in the making, grounded in over 600 survey responses and community conversations across the district. Public Sphere Projects presented draft recommendations spanning placemaking, programming, and public policy, and the room had a lot to say. Here's what came out of the conversation.

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