Bele Chere This Weekend!

[Matthew]

Just a reminder if you're looking for a good reason to visit Asheville this weekend. It's the largest street festival in the Southeast!

[monsoon]

[Matthew]

The Official Guide to Bele Chere:

Line-up for Friday, July 23:

Doug Mitchell

noon - 1:30, Nextel Mountain Stage

Son de Cuba

noon - 1:30, World Stage

Zane Williams

4:30 - 5:15, Nextel Mountain Stage

The Health Adventure Clown Troupe

5:00 - 7:30, Children's Stage

Listen

5:00 - 6:00, World Stage

Sanctity

5:00 - 5:45, Celebration Stage

Soff Spoken

5:00 - 6:15, Mostly Homegrown Stage

Sons of Ralph

5:45 - 6:45, Nextel Mountain Stage

Town Hall

6:15 - 7:15, Celebration Stage

Eta Carina

6:30 - 7:30, World Stage

We're About 9

6:45 - 8:15, Mostly Homegrown Stage

Mofro

7:15 - 8:30, Nextel Mountain Stage

Headliner: Their sound is a sweaty mix of black-mud funk, brine-dripping soul and musky blues magnified by something as rare as undeveloped land -- genuine gravel. Mofro are fronted by John "JJ" Grey, whose hoarse, backwater-rasp of a voice is perfect for evoking the fading swampy glories of his North Florida home, as greed there has outpaced all efforts at environmental preservation.

Michael Reno Harrell [headliner]

7:45 - 9:00, Celebration Stage

Oriente

8:00 - 9:15, World Stage

De la Soul

9:00 - 10:30, Nextel Mountain Stage

Headliner: Rap revolutionaries -- fun, fluid and funny. The trio's first album, 3 Feet High and Rising, turned hip-hop on its head, with De La Soul's languid rhythms, creative samples and far-out rhyming simultaneously embraced by urban clubsters and free-wheeling new bohemians alike. 3 Feet still seems ahead of its time 15 years later. Newer material is tougher and more streetwise, but still pretty De-La-licious.

Sara Evans

9:30 - 11:00, Celebration Stage

Headliner: Missouri native camped out now in Music City, whose deep, whip-smart voice was good enough to get her nominated for this year's Academy of Country Music Best Female Vocalist Award, alongside such entrenched twangstas as Patty Loveless. Recent forays into a pop-ier brand of country, combined with her corn-fed good looks, strong religious faith and what one fan dubbed "rural, farm-girl charm" suggest that Sara Evans is a Nashville presence to be reckoned with for some time to come.

Mystic Vibration

9:45 - 11:00, World Stage

[Matthew]

Parking:

Civic Center, Rankin, Wall Street and private parking decks.

A shuttle will be running from Asheville Mall in east Asheville to College Street and from KMart in West Asheville to the Grove Arcade. The shuttle runs daily from an hour before the festival to an hour after it ends. A round-trip costs $2 and will run every 20 minutes.

Don't leave anything valuable in your car. No matter how safe the area you are parking in looks. I have had my car broken into. Break-ins are common at Bele Chere. A friend of mine lost his car stereo once from a break-in while he was at Bele Chere.

[cityboi]

shame on those thiefs

[Matthew]

I think there's a chance of rain today, so be aware of that when you go.

Saturday, July 24

Steven Jackson

11:00 a.m. - noon, Nextel Mountain Stage

Any musician who claims The Replacements as an influence is OK by us. An Alabama native, Steven Jackson can't help but lend Southern humor and languor to his gritty, acoustic Americana, yielding a potent blend of songcraft that's gotten him compared to Greg Brown and Tom Waits. Here's to a thinking and drinking man's kind of artist.

Jesse Janes

11:30 a.m. - 12:30, Mostly Homegrown Stage

Changing their name from Lazy Susan to the sexier Jesse Janes may have gotten this eastern North Carolina duo more gigs, but it didn't compromise their basic appeal: a lush, harmonious vibe reminiscent of the Cowboy Junkies. Bringing strong classical-music backgrounds to their folk-rock experiment, Marianne Smith and Jennifer Fore

[Matthew]

Sunday, July 25

Stout

noon - 12:45, Celebration Stage

Born in Memphis and named, perhaps, after the "post-gig drinks with fans and friends" that reportedly follow every one of their shows, Stout got their start as street buskers; they've since gone on to open for the unlikely likes of the Violent Femmes. Theirs is an understandably blues-soaked groove that goes down good even if you're drinking diet ginger ale.

Fall Fellowship Choir

noon - 1:00, Nextel Mountain Stage

Samecumba

noon - 1:00, World Stage

This Raleigh-based band's name is a made-up word inspired by the Latin dance forms salsa, merengue and cumbia. But there's nothing pretend about their blistering authenticity

[uptownliving]

I love the double decker bus coffee shop.