Ashvegas social calendar kicks into high gear

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Everybody knows the weekend starts on Thursday, right? Right. With a big wine tasting, Santa parading into town, some big country acts downtown and a little giblet tossing, this weekend is shaping up to be one of the biggest on Ashvegas’ social calendar.

Just in time for the holidays. So let’s take a look:

Noveau night

Hundreds will gather downtown at the Haywood Park Hotel tonight to celebrate the first pressing of the grapes. The beaujolais noveau wines will be on full display, as will many Ashvegas movers and shakers. I went to one of these a few years ago, and it was actually a bit disgusting.

It’s a bunch of mostly business types rushing to get off work so they can jam their pie holes full of cheese and crackers and down as many glasses of cheap wine as they can before the wife notices how late it is. People get drunk and bump into other drunk wine guzzlers, crumbs and grape juice flying.

So there you have it. Still a lot of fun.

Santa comes to town
Santa, pre-parade
Old St. Nick will roll his sleigh into town during the annual Christmas parade through downtown. It starts about 2 p.m., I think. There’s a new parade route that will take the floats and marchers down Biltmore Avenue for the first time. You can’t go wrong with marching bands, 4-H floats and big ballons on a bright, crisp November day in Ashvegas. Check it out.

Motorists, beware – everyone will be lining up on the Smoky Park Bridge starting in the morning, so be careful out there.

Later Saturday, Ashvegas will hold it’s “Light Up the Holidays” kickoff on Pack Square. I think they turn on a bunch of Christmas lights or something.

Country comes to town, too

For the capper, the Ashvegas Civic Center will be rocking Saturday night as Brad Paisley, Sara Evans and Sugerland all come to town for some mainstream country sangin’. Those are some hot names in country music these days. Look for ’em to be comin’ down from the mountains for this.

Don’t forget the posh N. Ashvegas villa
All this, and I haven’t even mentioned Friday night’s First Annual Grazy Guzzler and Blogger Beajolais Olympics. Here for details.

What a weekend. I can’t wait.