Dear LEAF Community,
For 31 years, spanning 55 festivals and 5 retreats, the LEAF Festival has served as a sacred gathering place for our global family to celebrate culture and connection, and more than half a million of you have gathered by the lake and under the stars to celebrate with us. Today, we reach out with an important update that, while not easy to share, we share with transparency and care for the community we love.
We have made the difficult decision to postpone the October 2026 LEAF Festival.
For months we explored possible paths forward, carefully evaluating what would be required to responsibly produce a Festival that our community deserves. We ultimately concluded that postponing until Fall 2027 would be most sustainable for LEAF’s long-term health, ensuring the longevity of the organization and the community that surrounds it.
As many of you know, LEAF is currently navigating a significant period of rebuilding and financial stabilization. After the loss of our Fall 2024 festival to Hurricane Helene, reductions in arts education funding, and lasting impacts from the COVID years, we need to focus primarily on strengthening the organization’s foundation. Rather than overextend in ways that could further jeopardize our future, we are choosing to move forward thoughtfully and intentionally to preserve our mission and the magic it creates.
Though the Festival will take a pause, the heart of LEAF remains very much alive. We’re diving deep into our year-round programming, community gatherings, and cultural experiences at our Downtown Asheville venue at 19 Eagle St. However we can, we will continue to bring people together through arts, culture, creativity, and connection in the heart of our community.
What IS Still Happening
While LEAF’s October Festival will pause for 2026, the LEAF mission is very much alive and active, and we hope you’ll continue gathering with us throughout the year:
LEAF Deep Roots on May 30
Please join us for this intimate, community-rooted gathering at Pisgah Brewing in Black Mountain, NC. Deep Roots tickets are available at theleaf.org/deep-roots.
LEAF Global Experience (Our Venue in Downtown Asheville)
Join us year-round for weekly classes, workshops, jams, live music, and community events at the LEAF Global Experience.
Summer Camps
LEAF’s summer camps are also continuing as planned at our Downtown Asheville venue, offering creative, arts-rich experiences for youth throughout the summer.
Looking Ahead
As we look toward the future, we’re continuing to explore what new formats and experiences may best support our community in a sustainable way this fall and beyond. We’d genuinely love to hear from you about what would most nourish your LEAF-y spirit.
How You Can Help Right Now
If LEAF has touched your life, there are many meaningful ways to help sustain this community and its future:
Make a donation at theleaf.org/give
Explore non-monetary ways to support LEAF HERE
Become a member at theleaf.org/membership
Visit us at the LEAF Global Experience in Downtown AVL
Share LEAF’s story with someone who has not yet found us
Reach out to us and share what you would like to see from LEAF: info@theleaf.org | @leafglobalarts |19 Eagle Street, Suite 120, Asheville, NC 28801
We are 31 years old. We have weathered storms before. With you beside us, we’ll weather this one, too.
LEAF Love & Gratitude,
The LEAF Global Arts Board of Directors & LEAF Staff
LEAF Global Arts | 19 Eagle Street, Suite 120, Asheville, NC 28801 | info@theLEAF.org | @leafglobalarts
Experience West African Culture with LEAF’s Cultural Ambassador Adama Dembele.
Drop in for Yala Cultural Tours every Saturday. Drum class and cultural exploration, 12-2 pm. Bring your drum or we have one for you. Families welcome!
Suggested donation: $15
LEAF’s mission comes to life as an agent for positive social impact in many ways and places.
The “ways” include: cultural exchanges, residencies, programs, workshops, mentoring, Easel Rider Mobile Art Lab, Learning Journeys, Signature Events, and immersive experiences. “Places” include: LEAF Global Arts Center in downtown Asheville, in communities across the world, in schools, in community centers, at event locations such as Lake Eden in Black Mountain, and downtown Asheville.
As we remember one year later, Artists & LEAF need your continuing support! In the wake of hurricane Helene and arts funding loss, we recognized the devastating longterm impact on our artistic community.
Artists are the heart and soul of our community — the performers, musicians, and creatives who work in schools to uplift our youth through global and cultural arts, and bring so much joy, love, and light to our community.
Dan Lucas Memorial Fund continues to lead the way to supporting local WNC & LEAF Artists and cultural institutions. Over the years, Dan Lucas’ family has guided and generously supported LEAF Global Arts and has been a catalyst for keeping culture and music alive!
Please consider giving to the Local Artist ReLEAF Fund. 100% directly supports our local artists. See more of the Artists ReLEAF story here.
Our vision is to create relationships with communities around the world in order to strengthen cultural and global arts education program with which to engage youths in their rich cultural heritage, while cultivating community and connection. These are our guiding tools:
LEAF global arts education program goals, curriculum, teacher & student evaluations are aligned with the Developmental Assets Profile (DAP), developed by the Search Institute. The Search Institute has identified 40 assets which comprise a set of skills, experiences, relationships, and behaviors that enable young people to develop into successful and contributing adults. Building these assets prepare youth for success in some type of college or education, a career, and citizenship.
LEAF has identified and prioritized 6 assets that exemplify the types of skills our programs help to develop in our youth participants:
LEAF’s Global Arts Education programs align with Common Core State and NC Essential Standards to supplement what teachers are doing in their classrooms.
The UNESCO Culture for Development Indicators Suite identifies several dimensions that address the interrelations between culture and development. LEAF International aligns with 5 indicators that provide a guiding framework for quantifying the contribution of culture in development.
The 5 indicators that guide the design and evaluate global programs:
Within these 5 dimensions, 9 indicators are utilized by LEAF as direct indications of how our programs are enriching individual lives, communities, and preserving forms of cultural expression:
Since 2018, LEAF Community Arts as a team with Buncombe County Schools (BCS) are John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – Partners in Education Program. This national recognition is only the 3rd cohort in NC! The SHARED purpose of LEAF and BCS as Kennedy Center – Partners i
550,578+
LEAFers at Events
67
Signature Festivals
117
Countries Represented
31,200+
Performers
4
Virtual Events
100,726+
Youth Participants
9,431
Youth Performers
821
Arts Education Programs
24,050
Easel Rider Youth
30+
Kennedy Center Cohort BCSTeachers
7700+
Youth Participants
10
Countries
15
Programs
4
ONEmic Studios
18
Culture Keepers
121+
Cultural Exchanges
AN URGENT LETTER FROM THE LEAF BOARD:
For nearly 30 years, LEAF Global Arts has connected people through the power of art, music, and culture. Every shared moment has been made possible because of you – our community.
The LEAF Festival is critical to funding LEAF’s larger work: providing global cultural arts programming for thousands of local youth and preserving cultures and traditions around the world.
This year, we are facing a financial crossroads: between the loss of last fall’s Festival, losing a majority of our arts education funding in 2025, and not fully recovering from COVID, the future is bleak. The upcoming LEAF Festival could be our last if we don’t come together to sustain the heart of LEAF’s mission – but we have seen what this community can do when united for a cause greater than itself.
To open the Festival experience to as many people as possible, and to rally the full spirit of LEAF, we are offering a limited number of LEAF LOVE Tickets at a significant discount.
These special tickets, offered at 30% off (our highest discount, even more so than our Early Bird pricing) are our way of ensuring everyone has a place in this story. Full-priced tickets also remain available for those with the means to give a little more to help support LEAF’s vital work.
Your presence, your voice, and your support matter more than ever right now. Join us in making this LEAF Festival one that the world will never forget and ensuring the music continues for generations to come.
Mayani is a Maasai boy from longido Arusha. He went to boarding school at 6 years old and lost his Maasai language and tradition. Since joining the LEAF program, he has learned to sing Maasai songs, practiced the ‘jump’ tradition and wear Maasai shukas (traditional clothing). Mayani is extremely happy and is currently teaching other youth the culture.
