We love how much positive feedback we received about out blog series last year, so we are BACK with less than 3 weeks away to give you a taste of what you can expect at Xpand Fest 2019!
This first blog starts with a focus on arts and culture, which is truly one of the biggest keys to this event. While we see Xpand Fest as an economic driver (wanna know more about what that means- check out our blog post on how festivals can drive the economy here!)- We believe art is what identifies a community, which in turn defines a culture. Asheville is rapidly growing and changing, there is no denying that- and while that can be a scary thing- it also gives us a huge opportunity to think deeply and act with intention when creating our new culture. While I am sure everyone can think of something they love and something they really wish they could see change about our town- I want to remind you that community events, like Xpand Fest- are here for us to have those authentic conversations and vision together what we truly believe our town needs.
What better way to do that than to highlight the local arts and culture scene in our town? Outside of the headline performers, Dynamo, every act is locally based and is chosen with intention. Our goal is to highlight (and pay living wages to) our diverse local arts community while giving Xpand Fest the ability to garner nationwide awareness with an out of town act.
Dynamo is a Nashville-based, nationally touring band whose music fuses jazz, rock, and funk with elements of soul and R&B. The culmination is a sound that’s both spontaneous and composed—and an energy that’s undeniably infectious and reminds us of Asheville. We think they will be the best band to help close out the Xpand Stage (sponsored by Octopus Garden) for our 3rd annual event! They will be gracing the stage alongside locals, The Get Right Band, April B. and the Cool, Emma’s Lounge, Sirius.B, and The Snozzberries. Other musical acts you will see on June 8th include Magenta Sunshine, Appalucians, Upland Drive, Queen Bee & The Honeylovers, The Digs, Galena, Dyado, Gruda Tree, Polly Panic, Eleanor Underhill & Friends. We loved the diverse bands that applied to perform (we curate our music with a handpicked selection committee) and hope you’ll find something new to fall in love with at the event!
Since it is our 3rd year there are a few things that are returning that have become staples of this creative community event, including our dance compilation that has occurred on the main stage since year one and returning since last year, our festival-wide Lantern parade. This year’s dance compilation begins and ends with an aerial arts performance by Empyrean Arts followed by dancers from one of our biggest partners, Open Hearts Art Center. You can also expect solo performances by Lisa Zahiya and Claire Dima as well as entertainment from Asheville Vaudeville, Studio Zahiya.
Zabumba will perform in the dance performance as well as help lead the lantern parade (no open flames please!), organized by Street Creature Puppets that begins at Dusk at the entrance of the festival! If you’re the creative type, you can even attend one of TWO workshops to make your own lantern for the festival before the event!
If that doesn’t feel like enough to fill you to the brim with art and culture we have MORE! Across the festival (indoors and out!) we have a scavenger hunt (more to come on that) a variety of unique activations we’d love to highlight here.
If you’re making your way into the festival on Coxe Avenue where Zapow and Twin Leaf Brewery are, as most people will, one of the first things you will encounter is our welcome sign. On the back of the sign is an interactive art piece we are encouraging your input on! The instructions will tell you to go inside Zapow to their activation station where you will find paper keys to put thoughts, intentions, and words for how you believe we can preserve the arts here in Asheville. Then, you can take back and add your key to our interactive art piece! Once you’ve set your intention for the festival and the arts in Asheville, you might as well pass by our Information booth to check out our merchandise options, INCLUDING on-site live screen printing of Xpand Fest 2019 t-shirts. This is done by one of our local vendors, sponsors and small businesses, Grifttown Goods and you are definitely not going to want to miss this one time chance to pick up 2019’s shirt!
As you continue to roam the fest, you’ll also find unique and engaging activations/roving performances by Mountain Circus Arts, a sick new vending trailer by Octopus Garden, community activities by Art Studio World and an interactive gallery by Zed AVL. Mojo Coworking in partnership with Skyrunner is offering a co-working lounge with free wi-fi and Americal Vinyl Co is bringing their sound truck! HumansandPoetry are even hosting an Asheville All Start Slam on our amazing Manifest Stage (Instant Karma‘s Music Bus!) for those of you who want even more variety! Phew, tired yet?
We are!
And if that wasn’t enough, one of the most engaging areas of the entire festival will be the Artist Designing Evolution (adé) PROJECT listening lounge that will take place in and around The Refinery Creator Space. From 12 – 5pm during the event, a variety of engaging activities (Asheville Makers have some fun activities planned for the tinker in you), panel discussions and art collaborations will take place. Valeria Watson, a powerful local black artist who has a space in the Refinery is creating an outdoor market and installation that will be sure to help remind you why it’s important to fall in love with yourself while Different Wrld‘s young founder will discuss the importance of engaging youth and people of color in our modern landscape.
Rounding the night up is an after-party at Ben’s Tune-Up featuring, Sister Ivy, an Encore performance by Emma’s Lounge with some special guests and rounding out the night is someone to play the classic vinyl tunes we all know and love, DJ Kilby.
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That is the entire reason the Xpand brand exists. We believe in activating creativity to synthesize change. But when creating an innovative business or attempting to make large economic changes, we are aware it can be challenging to help others understand the programming you are engaged in, and what the true long term impact could be.
I’m sure the original creator of the wheel had some skeptics and we have historic evidence from people who never thought a man-made piece of metal would fly in the sky. We also know that not everyone believed in the internet’s power to change the face of businesses, but we now know that it can, and has. Early adopters are vital to innovation and the sustainability of healthy economies. That’s why the Xpand brand uses leaders in arts, science and business to create innovative programming to address economic challenges.
If you need more clarity on who or what the Xpand brand is, we invite you to reach out to learn more about our grand vision or to look further around our website. This particular article is about festivals, using Xpand Fest as our example, and how they can be used to drive the economy! Before diving right in, let’s discuss a little baseline information on what ” driving the economy” even means.
One definition of economy states it is: of, relating to, or based on the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. So in basic terms, a group of businesses with goods and services in a similar geographic location makes up an economy. While there is obviously much more to that conversation, for our purpose that’s enough to move us forward with discussing the concept of driving the economy.
If images come to mind of being in the driver’s seat of a giant bus full of local companies all trying to move their individual business forward (in sales, brand awareness, etc), you wouldn’t be that far off. Simply stated, an economic driver is most commonly something that contributes to the growth of a particular business or business sector. Traditionally, local government and workforce development companies are always analyzing innovative ways to encourage sales and business growth through avenues such as networking opportunities or programs that connect potential workers to available jobs. While those programs can be highly beneficial, they are often slow moving and can be challenging to garner funding for.
If you ask us, the EXCITING PART (wait you say, there’s an exciting part?) of discussing economic drivers in our current society, is that with internet and technology advances, any business can engage in driving the economy with unique programs, opportunities and, yes, EVENTS!
The City of Asheville recently did an impact study of special events to better understand their economic impact locally. That study highlighted many benefits to local companies including attracting customers as well as directly reporting that over 2.5 million dollars a year is being generated for local businesses through special events. That study reiterates what many cities around the country already know: events can have an exceedingly positive impact in driving local economy.
So, with an understanding of the economy, what driving the economy means, and how events are a big economic driver in our modern society, let’s talk about why we started Xpand Fest and what type of impact we are having for Asheville’s economy in our first two years of production.
First and foremost, we purposely made Xpand Fest a FREE outdoor street festival in a fast growing area of Asheville’s downtown to encourage locals, particularly marginalized communities, to participate. We are aware that residents feel downtown has become exclusively for the tourists, so we want to be sure the local community of Asheville feels invited and included in Xpand Fest and our economy. If locals don’t participate in spending locally, the burden will rest on outsiders to move our economy forward. While we will always cater more to our locals, we do understand that tourists have an impact on our city, and we hope to be part of the movement towards finding a healthy balance.
In two days of programming, Xpand Fest has brought out 14,000 people with over 60% of those attending being local community members across socio-economic demographics. Finding the balance between supporting local and accepting new money outside our city is the formula we believe will continue to grow Xpand Fest and our economy sustainably. Speaking of sustainability, Xpand Fest has directly spent $130,000 in our local economy, with many other financial and community advantages as well.
So let’s break all this down a little further for you to truly understand where our money flows and how your participation can help us further this mission and creative community engagement…
Each year (2017 & 2018) Xpand Fest has contributed:
- $30,000 directly to local small businesses
- Some of the types of businesses impacted include:
- Advertising, printing and merchandise companies
- Food, beverage and supply businesses
- Some of the types of businesses impacted include:
- $45,000 towards fair wages for:
- Local production and business professionals (on average- $30,00+)
- Local creative professionals (on average $13,000+ on musicians & performers)
Additional Festival impact (2017 & 2018 combined impact):
- Up to 3x’s reported sales increase for Xpand Fest partner businesses directly in the footprint
- $30,000+ worth of time donated by local professionals and volunteers to support the community focused mission
- 100+ small businesses are able to directly engage with 2,500 – 5,000 people to:
- bring awareness to their mission or brand
- collect email addresses or donations
- sell their product
- Handcrafted/Business Booths average $500+ in income
- Food Vendors average $1,250+ in income
** TOTAL ESTIMATED GROSS VENDOR SALES (PER FESTIVAL): $56,250 **
While there is so much more that we are focused on growing for Xpand Fest 2019 and beyond, we hope this further your understanding of the economic impact of our first major program with the Xpand brand and that we are here to create unique programming from a grassroots level to support the Asheville economy.
We truly believe that by bringing the community together to highlight the arts as an innovative economic tool that we can all use Xpand Fest and the Xpand brand programming to:
- Stimulate local economic growth of the creative and entrepreneurial community
- Bring together diverse local community members to solve timely problems
- Become a leader in thought, word and action to preserve history, and move our economy forward with sustainability at the forefront of our decision making processes.
Simply put, we love local! We also love the entrepreneurs behind our economy and we dedicate our work to uplifting and supporting these communities for the sustainability of all.
—
Johanna Hagarty
Executive Director // Founder; Xpand
xpandbrand.org
]]>“It’s Xpand Fest Saturday. When I finally arrive at the festival’s location along Coxe and Buxton avenues in downtown Asheville, I immediately run into local songwriter Hannah Kaminer. This will be a theme for the day. Pretty much everyone I know that is in town is here, including a hell of a lot of lovely people I’ve never even seen before.
There are six separate stages, most of them hosting only local acts (the one exception the Main Stage where NOLA’s Big Sam’s Funky Nation finishes out the night). There are more than 50 local vendors, eight local food trucks, 10 to 15 tents representing various levels of activism, street performers, puppet stages, a lemonade stand where Travis Elrod himself will expertly mix and pour your drink.”
]]>Sustainability much like creativity can be viewed through so many lenses. It can be the way food is grown, distributed, and consumed, to where you buy everyday products from and more. I have known for a long time that one of my personal goals was to find ways to inspire individuals to live respecting themselves, each other and the world around, but have always struggled on exactly how to do so. It was definitely one of those 4 am “eureka” moments a month or two into initial planning for Xpand Fest (back in early 2016!) that the festivals true objective came to me. I had been doing a lot of research on 17 “Global Goals” identified by the United Nations (read more on those here). While the UN has their own objectives and ways they see achieving these goals across the globe, each platform the goals represented (reducing racial/gender inequalities, sustainable cities, health, and wellness, etc) seemed worth of a local conversation and a wonderful way to be inclusive of all positive growth in our community. These goals have loosely become the undertone for Xpand Fest’s brand promise and are always at the core of decision making for this event. Throughout planning and growing Xpand Fest we have been able to find ways to slowly create practices and systems that support sustainability across platforms and with a variety of needs in mind.
One of the biggest things that we have done this year is grown our team. Planning the first year with 3 core staff was definitely not going to be sustainable in the long run so we had to really focused on finding individuals who have unique professional skill sets to fill in the gaps. I firmly believe that creating a strong team, or community begins with understanding yourself and knowing what your best and most challenging assets are. With that knowledge, you can make sure all aspects of the job are getting done and can let people know when you are struggling with part of your responsibilities. In that vein, I have created a sustainability pledge that myself and all staff are invited to fill out that expresses the importance of seeing yourself as a whole person. This is also a chance to offer a commitment from my company to supporting all people in their personal and professional journeys. Feel free to read and/or fill out the pledge here and know that you are apart of this whether you attend Xpand Fest or another event we produce or simply just read our blog posts (we hope at least SOME of you do!) from time to time.
I think that’s enough of the super philosophical and emotional reasons behind my belief in sustainable practices, let’s get down to some of how Xpand Fest is actually sustainable! First and foremost we focus on attempting to minimize printing as much as possible since this is a one day event, so while you will find printed schedule and banners (most of which we can use for years to come!), we also have our online map and schedule that you can easily download on your phone as well as large printed schedules at most of the major locations.
We also are very much looking forward to moving towards a NO “single use” use water bottle event, but until we have the resources to do so we are slowly transitioning by having refillable water stations and $2 sport water bottles for sale that you can reuse all day. Those little spot water bottles are also good for that hike you’re going on next weekend, or your kids soccer game and have Xpand Fest’s logo on it!
We also make sure that food vendors use as many compostable and recyclable goods as possible and work with local South Slope company, Danny’s Dumpsters on having trash, recycling and compost at Xpand Fest. In that vein of making sure the streets aren’t impacted by the waste at our event, we also are doing a clean up in the South Slope prior to the event and hope to leave the festival area a little cleaner and more creative than before. We also use compostable cups, are reusing wristbands from last year (don’t judge us that they say 2017, we told the print guy to leave the year off!) and are always trying to find more unique ways to encourage and implement sustainable practices into our events.
Writing this blog was quite difficult (a lot in part because every minute I am getting phone calls, emails, and texts on top of each other- so I’m easily distracted), but also because I wanted to hopefully really explain some of what we believe and why we make the decisions that we do. Trust me, there is a lot more that I could say about this and how strongly I feel about being sustainable across platforms (we even had a contest where we gave away 2 festival booths to art vendors because we know how hard it can be to have to pay a booth fee as an up and coming artists), but please know we see this as a work in progress and are truly open to hearing thoughts and suggestions from anyone on how we can do better for all people and communities.
Thank you all for your time and I truly look forward to seeing you out on Saturday.
— Johanna Hagarty, Qualified Mental Health Professional
Creative Director: Xpand Fest
]]>“Xpand your mind. Xpand your weekend. Xpand your vision of Asheville. Xpand Fest returns for its sophomore year to Asheville’s South Slope Saturday, June 9.
“This is all about celebrating the power of the arts,” explains Johanna Hagarty of Xpand Your Vision, the organization that produces the event. “Maybe you discover a new band, or come to hear your favorite singer and find out about a non-profit you want to volunteer for, or you connect with a new friend.””
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“With a beer in one hand and a taco in the other, most festivalgoers aren’t thinking about multigenerational poverty or climate change when their favorite band takes the stage. But Asheville-based event planner Johanna Hagarty wants to change that.
As executive director and founder of the arts nonprofit Xpand Your Vision, Hagarty created last year’s Xpand Fest, a free community event with a do-good bent. Now in its second year, the celebration is scheduled for Saturday, June 9, in the South Slope district.”
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“We know the weekend just ended, but that doesn’t mean we’re not looking ahead to the next one, because Xpand Fest returns to the South Slope on Saturday. 
ICYMI last year, the fest brings celebrates community + the arts on the local level, highlighting area musicians, non-profits, arts educators and more over a full day of creativity and celebration. Bonus: It’s all free and family-friendly.
The name sums up the mission of Xpand Fest: To connect community and expand creative enterprise and develop it sustainably in Asheville. We can get down with that.
”
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For those of you who have been following our journey since the beginning (we know, we know, we can’t believe it’s ONLY year two!) you will remember our amazing Xpand FestivALE that was made by Bhramari Brewing Company last year. For anyone dying for that light refreshing dry hopped unfiltered pale ale, we will be releasing one keg of Xpand FestivALE 2018 next Thursday, June 7th at our Xpand Fest Pre-party at Bhramari before the festival. A quick aside here, for any of you food/beverage lovers who also like to give back- that pre-party will proceed a little cleanup project in the South Slope.
If one festive brew wasn’t enough, we are super excited and proud to be welcoming our second Xpand Fest beer collaboration with Greenman Brewery. Vision Ale is a smooth Vienna lager with a hint of lime and will be available all day June 9th (until supplies run out). One special keg of this perfect summer brew will be reserved for our Sponsor, Staff and Volunteer Party after the festival. We love giving special unique perks and offering to our sponsors, staff and volunteers because truly without them, this event wouldn’t be possible. We hope to keep growing our local sponsors, amazing event staff and of course the ever important volunteer pool, so let us know if you are interested in any of those offering for 2019 and we will be sure to get you in our email list or in touch with the right people/department. BUT, we digress… back to food and beverages!
At the event, you will find special beverage choices from Greenman and Bhramari like we mentioned but there will also be beers from Hi-Wire, Sierra Nevada, and Oscar Blues. For anyone not wanting a refreshing beer there will be delicious local cider from Urban Orchard as well as some wine options. We are also doing pop-up tents from 2-7pm with local breweries including Ben’s Tune-Up (bringing their unique sake), Twin Leaf (with a focus Belgian, English and American style beers), Archetype (for those hi-gravity belgian style loving beer fans) and alcoholic ginger beer from Ginger’s Revenge.
Don’t think we forgot about the non-alcoholic drinkers and kids!! We are thrilled to present, Songs in the Key of Blue, a sparkling blueberry lemonade that was made in collaboration with Devil’s Food Beverage, a local company based right here in Asheville. With local blueberries and a refreshing effervescence to the drink- we think it is the perfect go-to for what is sure to be a hot day in the South Slope of Asheville. (There will also be other styles including their flagship ginger beer from this amazing and local beverage company)
Let’s pause for a moment on all the exciting talk about beverages to talk briefly about how our beverage system works at Xpand Fest. For those of you reading this, you can feel extra cool helping that person in line behind you! For water (we encourage you to bring a refillable container as we LOVE to be as sustainable as possible. We will have a limited number of Xpand Fest sport water bottles available for sale), and non-alcoholic drinks you will be able to purchase them with cash or your card and immediately walk away with them. For alcohol (which has a lot more rules and regulations) we will have wristbands and beer tickets that you can purchase from our cash managers0 so keep an eye out for the signs that say Wristbands and Beer Tickets! There will be additional lines where you can redeem those tickets to keep the beer lines flowing and everyone happy at the event!
Regardless which beverage you choose, we think it would be best paired with any of our amazing food vendors including Jamaican Flavors, Mojo Kitchen, Culture Shock, Ceci’s Culinary Tour, Olive Catering Company, Mountain View, Melt Your Heart, The Hop Ice Cream Cafe, Blunt Pretzels, MacDaddy’s Organic Lemonade, the Foundry Coffee Bike, French Broad Chocolate Lounge or Green River Booch.
We feel pretty confident when you come to Coxe or Buxton Avenue Saturday, June 9th, you will easily find a variety of food and beverage options to suite any and all taste buds and interests, and if not- be sure to stop by our information booth and let us know what you hope to see you 2019!
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First off, we try to make sure our festival is appealing to as many cultures and ages as possible- so we believe there are many things that you will find if you walk around our event, but if you are particularly looking for some kid fun, here are a few things not to be missed!
We definitely recommend showing up early to catch our Rescue Dog Fashion Show happening at 12:30 pm presented by Patton Avenue Pet Company and Mountain Pet Rescue. What kid at any age wouldn’t want to see cute animals in outdoor gear that are available to take home in our pet adoption that will be held directly after.
On a slight tangent here, we think it’s important to note that it is a city-wide rule that dogs and pets are not allowed in festival property except under special permissions like we have for this program- so be sure to get your animal fix early in the day if you are a pet lover! The only other animals you might encounter at the festival are some rehabilitated and at times misunderstood native wildlife species such as snakes, turtles, and lizards that are brought out by Earthshine Nature Program. You will learn all about them and the important roles they play in nature and their interconnectedness to the web of life which is fun and informative for the whole family.
We also know the entire Interactive Arts Arcade and CommUnity Corner are going to have some booths and activities your whole family won’t want to miss including seed bomb making, some forest defender superhero games by Dogwood Alliance and many other activities provided by the Asheville Science Museum, Compost Now, Art Studio World (face painting and instrument making) LEAF Community Arts and more.
If you engage in even a fraction of the activities found in our Interactive Arts Arcade or CommUnity Corner with your family you might need to grab some lunch from one of our food vendors, a refreshing lemonade (from MacDaddy’s Lemonade) or ice cream (from local favorites The Hop) and take a seat at our CommUnity stage to watch Asheville Vaudeville do some all ages vignette performances tying arts and sustainability together.
Once you’ve taken a nice reprieve from the sun it’s time to bring your kids down ArtRow to marvel and see the amazing creative art vendors or to possibly to tie-dye some old t-shirts you bring in to Wax On Batik and Dye Studio booth. Be sure to also pop by Toybox’ Theatre‘s tent because he will be doing spontaneous puppet performances throughout the day! As you wander it’s likely you will encounter some of the roving performers we have such as juggling, giant puppets, faeries and hula hoopers to delight and engage your family with some fun. There is also slacklining, and boffing for the more adventurous kids (or children at heart, we don’t discriminate!).
Now, parents, this one is directly for you…. What’s better than experiencing an amazingly creative and local street festival with your whole family all day?
Experiencing an amazingly creative and local street festival with your whole family MOST of the day, while getting a few minutes of “adult time” (interpret as desired!). If that statement rings true for you, we even have that option for parents in our new offering, our Kids Garden Drop-in Daycare! For $10/hr up to 3hrs, you can leave your kids (3-12 yrs old) on the festival grounds (between 12 pm – 6 pm) in a secure and engaging area so they can enjoy themselves parent free while you grab those few minutes to yourself.
(And for those days you aren’t at a festival but need a few minutes children free, Kids Garden is an actual Drop-in Day Care off Tunnel Road that has a variety of options including summer camps that we definitely think you should check out.)
While kid-free, this would be the perfect time for you to pop into Octopus Garden to check out some music, to get that acupuncture/massage you were dying to get or to spend some time dancing unabashedly (the kind of dancing that would utterly embarrass your kids) with your friends! When you scoop your kids from our drop-in daycare it may be time for some dinner with one of our tasty food vendors, and some more dancing in the streets with the whole family. If your kids are the kind that can last as long as (or longer than) you- we definitely encourage you to stay for the lantern parade that will be occurring at 9 pm from the Vision Stage (Urban Orchard’s new South Slope loading dock).
Street Creature Puppets and Pink Mercury will be leading a flameless lantern parade directly at 9pm. It is VERY important to note that NO OPEN FLAMES ARE ALLOWED IN THE EVENT, but you are encouraged to make a lantern (here’s a chance to take your kids to the Puppet club to make one before the event!) or bring a flashlight or closed flame battery candle, glow sticks or something else to participate in the parade which will weave through the streets ending at the main stage where you can dance the last hour of the event away with Big Sam’s Funky Nation, our ONLY out of town group. They hail from New Orleans are prepared to bring some funk the whole family can get behind!
We truly believe that no matter what route you go for this family-friendly festival you and your kids will be talking about and looking forward to this event as a family for years to come.
“Arts, music + education-focused Xpand Fest hits the South Slope on Saturday, June 9. It’s the second year of the full-day free festival, which creates community by linking culture, arts + non-profits in Asheville. The fest also shows its local love by featuring Asheville-based acts, speakers, artists + vendors, and by focusing on sustainable growth + development in the city.
This year, Xpand Fest will feature the CommUnity Stage dedicated to furthering the mission of festival through educational, interactive panels + presentations. The goal of all the events on the stage is to inspire community connection, which is reflected in the festival’s inclusion of local cultural + community organizations, including Descubre Asheville, Word on the Street/ La Voz de los Jóvenes, Hood Huggers International, Bountiful Cities, Date My City + The Urban News.
Events at the stage include a pet fashion show + adoption, a performance from Asheville Vaudeville, and panels on sustainability as it relates to renewables, the beer industry, living a creative life + cultural inclusivity.”
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