8/14 - 8/29 Freaks of Asheville Calendar

Exhibit for LAAFF and the New Freaks of Asheville Calendar ~ Come meet the Freaks at Pack Place's Arts 2 People Opening August 14th ~ Pack Place Front Gallery

Education, Arts & Science Center - Opening Friday, August 14th 2009, 5-7pm. Exhibit runs through August 29th 828.257.4544

2 S. Pack Square Asheville, NC 28801 Event Contact: Kitty Love, Arts 2 People's Exec Director, LAAFF Co-Founder Interactive Arts Director, Freaks of Calendar Director
828-776-6248
Arts2people@gmail.com
www.arts2people.org
www.lexfestasheville.com 

Please join us in celebration of Arts 2 People's first annual Freaks of Asheville Calendar and Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival (LAAFF) for the gallery exhibit's opening event on Friday, August 14th at Pack Place in downtown Asheville from 5-7pm. The exhibit runs through August 29th.  This entertaining show will feature photographs from the Freaks of Asheville Calendar as well as photographs from the LAAFF, which is ever so fun and just around the corner on Sunday September 6th! 

The Freaks of Asheville Calendar will capture the power and personality of Asheville eclectic and unbridled cultural creatives. Each month will feature a classic portrait of a noted Asheville "Freak" and tell the story behind their uniqueness. All photos were shot by Michael Traister, photographer for Sock Monkey Dreams and Faces of Izzy's.  Joining forces with Traister to bring the calendar to fruition are Kitty Love and Jon Elliston. 

Together, they are compiling these photos as well as a list of key dates in Asheville freak history: when did certain "freaky" establishments open and close? When did freakish things happen? Other milestones in local freak and counterculture history? The Freaks Calendar is calling for your input on this as well.  Please, come one, come all, and tell us which dates deserve a mention in the calendar! 

The Pack Place Gallery exhibit will also feature sorts of images from LAAFF's past. Photographers include Frank Merenda, JJ Jackson, Kitty Love, and many more…   The Lexington Ave Arts and Fun Festival, LAAFF, will take place on Sunday of Labor Day weekend, September 6th from 11am - 9pm between College Street and the I 240 overpass on N. Lexington downtown.  This free annual end-of-summer celebration of Asheville's artistic and musical communities brims three downtown blocks with all local art, food, beer, music, street performers, and random acts of creativity.   LAAFF has multiple stages and performance areas that include rock and roll, indie pop, funk, folk, ragtime, world beats, singer-songwriters, bluegrass, old time, African drummers, clowns, magicians, belly dancers, vaudeville acts, b-boys, hula hoopers, and more! 

Special to the exhibit is a display of Medieval Knievel's Bike Jousting Gear.  Bike Jousting is a fun and safe joust where contestants are armored up with foam and helmets.  They sit upon bikes with banana seats and wheels with elliptical hubs. The crazy wheels make the bike bounce up and down like riding on a horse. Each contestant holds a long pole with a boxing glove on the end. If they can reach each other, they try and knock the other off the bike into the bails of hay lining their arena.  It is extremely fun to watch and a great activity that Michael Moony, aka Medieval Knievel and Co-Founder of LAAFF, created as an event for LAAFF, but has also hosted elsewhere, including Snowshoe Ski Grounds. Come and see the gear… Maybe you will participate this year… 

For more about LAAFF visit www.lexfestasheville.com. 

Both LAAFF and the Freaks of Asheville Calendar are fundraisers for Arts 2 People, a non-profit that is devoted to promoting the role of the arts as an integral part of our culture by serving the entire community through arts outreach, bringing the arts to those in need of the healing power of art, supporting the careers of artists, and through community cultural development. Arts 2 People is the umbrella organization for the Lexington Ave. Arts and Fun Festival (LAAFF), the REACH Programming series, the Asheville Mural Project (AMP), Moving Women, the Pritchard Park Cultural Arts Program 08, Faces of Asheville, and hosts numerous events and workshops and events throughout the year. To find out more, visit www.arts2people.org. 

Please come out and help celebrate this wonderful collaboration of creativity!