Fringe festival celebrates outrageous Asheville

Name the city where a three-location pizzaria/brewpub offers a year-round IPA named after the Indian deity Shiva.

Hint No. 1: It’s the same municipality where a “haunted tour” ends at a private “mystery museum” that features Carville the Alien – a carved, 4-foot, 100-pound statue of a bug-eyed spaceman that was made for Rush Limbaugh.

Hint No. 2: Area knitters have occasionally done “yarn bombings” – crafting sweaters and other coverings and putting them on trees, lamp posts, outdoor benches and parking meters.

That would be Asheville, of course, a town not limited by conventional wisdom. National poll after poll rank Asheville as one of the most inventive and cool places in the Southeast.

Many of its proud peculiarities come to the fore next weekend, at the four-day Asheville Fringe Arts Festival. Jan. 21-24, more than 30 performing artists will offer their edgy works at various venues, about 15 different shows in all.

The majority of locales are downtown; exceptions include the Toy Boat Community Arts Space in the Biltmore area; The Mothlight at Mr. Fred’s in West Asheville; and Magnetic 375 in the River Arts District.

What to expect? It depends. The BeBe Theater, home to Asheville Comtemporary Dance Theatre, has a dance showcase, the Fringe Unique Voices Show (spoken-word performance by a duo, plus a monologue), “At This Time, Whowe are” (dance/poetry/music) and “Ergo Sum (Therefore I Am),” a dramatic multi-media movement piece.

On the other hand, the Altamont Theatre offers “Ruts! The Oregon Trails Experience,” a technology-driven musical of sorts based on the the long-popular “Oregon Trail” educational video game.

At Magnetic 375 is “La Lune de Femme: ‘The Seance Show’ and ‘The Sowing of the Seeds,’ ” a riff on Victorian parlor spiritualism that Caroline Kingsley Rau, a West Coast-based performance artist, pairs with a punk-pagan play. The official description: “Led by PBR-swilling High Priestess Winnifred Coombe... this raucous encounter with the Goddess melds comedy, song and dance into a hilarious yet poignant spiritual.”

The Fringe Puppet Showcase at Toy Boat Community Art Space offers a pair of puppet dramas.

Performances are usually an hour long; for ticketed shows, admission is $12 each.

Mixed in are no-cost performances called Random Acts of Fringe. One is the Butoh Parade – named for the post-World War II dance theater movement of Japan, typically featuring people in white body makeup. It heads down Lexington Avenue around 2 p.m. next Saturday.

Perhaps knitting this all together is the LaZoom Bus Fringe Tour (7 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday; also $12). LaZoom is the comical bus company whose owner wears a nun’s habit when he conducts tours of funky Asheville. The year-round tours are incredibly popular; a Sister Bad Habit Ale is periodically offered by Asheville Brewing.

The same place that brews Shiva.

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 7:28 AM with the headline "Fringe festival celebrates outrageous Asheville."