ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — The second year of Boomtown Arts & Heritage FestAVL, a free music festival filled with local talent and city-wide history, will be held all weekend long in downtown Asheville.

Boomtown FestAVL will center around performances in Pack Square Park, but events will be held at venues across town. Doors open at 10 a.m., Friday to Sunday, Aug. 29-31.

While the festival is free, an RSVP in advance is encouraged. There will also be special VIP wristbands available for $75. The wristbands grant access for wearers to special VIP areas and each of the festival’s late night ticketed show at the Orange Peel and Asheville Music Hall.

For more about the RSVP, wristbands or ticketed shows, visit www.boomtownfestavl.com/rsvp.

Bringing “boomtown” back to Asheville

According to festival founder Andrew Ellington, Boomtown FestAVL was originally envisioned as a nod to the economic growth Asheville experienced over a hundred years ago following the “Great Flood” of 1916.

“The mission plan was to celebrate that time and era while using revenue from the festival to put directly back into the community and the nonprofits of choice each year that we felt are making measurable progress in the community,” Ellington explained. “An opportunity to kind of highlight all the local arts and heritage, with a focus on some of the pioneer architects and engineers and innovators of the 1920s.”

Then, in an ironic, tragic twist of history, Hurricane Helene struck Asheville last fall, bringing substantial, destructive flooding to the city and surrounding region just three weeks after the first festival.

“The flood came end of September, beginning of October, and it’s kind of ironic to me that here we’re bringing light back to this era in time that basically emerged post efforts to rebuild the city post The Great Flood in 1916,” Ellington said. “Essentially, a repeat 100 years later of our community trying to rebuild the community and bring foot traffic back to Asheville.”

Boomtown beneficiaries

In order to transform Boomtown FestAVL into a boon for Asheville, Ellington and his team will donate up to 50% of net proceeds from festival wristbands and ticket sales to two nonprofit beneficiaries: Food Connection and Asheville-Buncombe Community Land Trust.

“The Food Connection was, I think, a huge part of getting food to people during the flood, and the Land Trust, it’s been a huge part of rebuilding things post the flood here in Asheville,” Ellington said.

The festival is also supported by over a dozen local sponsors, as well as non-profit partners LEAF Global Arts and Asheville Symphony.

LEAF Global Arts will be the home base of several historical walking tours during the festival, while Asheville Symphony will perform an Asheville Symphony in the Park concert from 7 to 9:30 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 31 at Pack Square Park.

Handpicked Asheville bands

The band lineup for Boomtown FestAVL is a broad collection of artists, genres and styles, but most of them have at least one thing in common: this is a festival of local acts.

Ellington has been involved in the Asheville music scene himself since the age of 3, when he received his first drum set. When he was putting together Boomtown FestAVL, he wanted to emulate the spirit of Bele Chere and LEAF, Asheville music festivals he had attended growing up.

“The idea was to do something that felt representative of Asheville and bring back something that was dear to me, that had a huge impact on me growing up, going to Bele Chere and just seeing the magic of gatherings,” Ellington said.

Ellington had a close relationship to many bands in the region thanks to his musical upbringing and his connections have only increased in his professional life as a music agent. The final Boomtown FestAVL 2025 lineup is a collection of musicians carefully curated by the festival founder.

“A lot of them are some of my friends I grew up playing with in town, and a lot of them are people I can call and text and have direct access to,” Ellington said. “I kind of just handpicked all my favorite ones, to be honest with you.”

One of the headlining bands is Papadosio, a multi-genre jam band who will mark their final performance at Boomtown FestAVL before taking an indefinite hiatus.

“I’m also just really looking forward to being able to host Papadosia for their last hometown show,” Ellington shared. “They have been just pounding tours out for the past however many years and they’ve announced that this is their last year of shows, so this is actually their last show in Asheville. So, I feel very grateful to be housing that.”

Check out the full lineup of bands below.

For more information about Boomtown FestAVL, including a full festival schedule, visit www.boomtownfestavl.com.