LEAF Global Arts Festival

PERFORMERS |  FAMILY  |  HEALING  |  HANDCRAFTS  |  CULINARY 

Get Tickets for LEAF Festival, October 16-19 2025!

Live Life Like a Festival: 30 years of LEAF Festival

Weekend Program hot off the Press!

Artist Lineup for October 2025

Billy Jack Sinkovic
Billy Jack Sinkovic

Cellist and LEAF favorite!

Agustín Palomo Ramos
Agustín Palomo Ramos

Healing through drums and music

Created by artists Sir Tom Foolery and Lauren Breher, this poster design beautifully weaves together symbols from LEAF’s past — including the trailblazing elephant and wise owl — with new magic unfolding.

This October, we invite you to Live Life Like a Festival, the theme of both our milestone celebration and the upcoming commemorative book (stay tuned!).

Join us at Lake Eden as we honor 30 years of music, art, culture, and community in one of the most beautiful places and meaningful gatherings of the year.

Your presence is part of the story — come celebrate with us and help shape what comes next!

30 years LEAF Festival – October 16-19 – Live Life Like a Festival. 

Join us at LEAF Global Arts Festival to connect to the world and each other through cultural exploration, live music, dance, performance arts, healing arts, workshops, nature, and more. 

Adventures for All Ages - LEAF Festival Camp Life!

Zipline

Get on the Lake! Charleston SUP Safaris Stand-Up Paddleboards, camp canoes & boats

Healing Arts

Relax and rejuvenate with Healing Artists Booths to get treatments you don't have time for and over 30 Workshops to explore Feelin good!

Workshops

Workshops

Illuminera: Jelly Dome+

Kickin' It is the collaborative effort of Greg Ignasiak and Rae Liebtag creating interactive installment art, captivating environments, and experiential events. They seek to provide outlets for community creativity by encouraging self expression. Fun, playful, "under the sea" adventures!

Hikes

Hikes & Runs with Bruce & Shonnie

Lake Eden Trails cover hundreds of acres up to Eden Rock if you make it to the top. Find your pace hiking or running with family or solo and the trails welcome you.This is a vintage pic & the tradition continues.

Explore the #1 Kids Festival in Western North Carolina, and one of the best FAMILY festivals in the world. All of LEAF is family friendly with activities spread throughout the magical setting. Family Adventure activities are throughout LEAF and designed to engage and inspire. Watch performances, create, play, and discover whimsical Puppetry shows. Support children’s crafts, hoop and flow, and play boffer games. Immerse into cultural creative arts in Easel Rider with LEAF teaching artists. Swing in the Jelly Dome. Play sports with a global community. Jump, roll, pet, climb, and retreat: life-sized hamster ball, climbing wall, launch rockets! Each festival has different offering and tradition- you. may find Toy Trains on the hill, paper rockets, and Giant slides & bounce houses!

If you have little ones, Elfhaven Childcare in Buckeye Lodge is a world of wonder and time for parents to go play. 

Do you have a young artists in your family?
Sprouts Corner Youth Vendors is ORIGINAL kid-made art sold by kid artists! Here kids can offer their handmade art, special skills & services, like fortune telling or manicures… just has to be $10 or less

Handcrafts & Folk Artists

LEAF Love to amazing Artists who artfully inspire the LEAF experience! LEAF Festival’s Juried Handcraft Art Fair exhibits 50+ national & local artisans. More artists coming soon….

drawing | painting | fiber | furniture | glass | jewelry | metal work | mixed media | photography | printmaking | ceramics | apparel | wood

Browse and shop the colorful booths, meet the artists, and visit the Global Interactive Outpost to win artful donations from fabulous artisans at LEAF Art Raffle benefiting LEAF Schools & Streets. Check out & shop these amazing LEAF Festival Handcraft Artists! You can support artists online now and buy gifts at LEAF Retreat & Festival.

Culinary Food Booths

LEAF Festival hosts various local culinary artists that represent many cultures and cuisine options to make your LEAF life delicious. A few change from time to time; however, many culinary booths are longtime LEAF Traditions. Click on images below to see the various culinary booths throughout the festival. 

Need to revive your festival spirit? Visit their eateries in Asheville area.

LEAF Festival, Oct. 2023

Feel the music! Steve Atkins' photos capture the moments

LEAF Festival, Oct. 2023

More magic! Tia Nicole's photos refresh our LEAF love

LEAF Festival, Oct. 2023

Unforgettable moments captured by Reggie Tidwell

Connecting Cultures & Creating Community Through World Music & Arts

 

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.