Posts Tagged ‘Bele Chere’

Lately there has been talk of making some serious changes to the yearly Bele Chere festival that envelops downtown Asheville. Proposed changes include changing the dates of the festival and moving it to a different location.

Bele Chere is always a big weekend for Asheville Live Cam, due to our location right in the middle of the action. Bele Chere 2010 was no exception. Every year brings a slightly different layout to the festival. This year it was centered more to the west side of our building (the BB&T building). I recall years where it was mostly centered around City-County Plaza and years when it even enveloped Wall Street. The constant, though, is that it is always in the heart of downtown, and that’s where it should stay.

Make no mistake, this is not bias talking. Asheville Live Cam would probably benefit from the festival moving a little farther away, since our cameras can’t look straight down to the streets surrounding the building. Because of that, a lot of the action is missed. If it were a little further away, like around City-County Plaza or further west down Patton Ave towards the Westgate Bridge, we’d be able to get better views of the action. But to my mind, that’s not where the festival belongs. The heart of downtown Asheville is Pack Square, and that is where the festival should be centered.

Changing the dates is a bit more controversial. It wouldn’t really affect this site, since we’ll provide the views regardless of the dates. However, it could significantly affect the festival itself. The main drawback about the current dates at the end of July is that it is just SO HOT! Moving the dates to a cooler period such as the Spring or Fall would make for a cooler and possibly more enjoyable time for festival-goers, but it could also seriously affect attendance. Bele Chere is currently the largest festival in the southeast. That could change if the dates are moved.

From the Citizen-Times:

Others say that changing the season could impinge on other festivals that have staked out shoulder seasons, such as the Greek Festival in September.

Also, keeping Bele Chere running depends in large part on volunteers, many of whom may not be able to donate labor outside summer months, said Byron Greiner, president of the Asheville Downtown Association.

Losing the volunteers would be bad, but this is the quote that my mind keeps coming back to:

Greiner, a former Bele Chere committee chairman, favors changes but says they can be risky.

“Statistically, no festival of this size has had a date change and survived,” he said.

The video below is one I caught while strolling around Bele Chere on Saturday evening.  These guys were very entertaining.  I didn’t catch their name, but they posted a response to the YouTube video and let me know they are “Forty Fingers and a Missing Tooth”, which is an awesome name guys! You rocked!

Here’s another short clip of them.  I caught this just as I was walking up.

I took a little stroll around the block this morning and took some pictures and even a video of some of the many people out there getting ready for Bele Chere 2010.  This year looks to be a great one for the festival and I can’t wait to get out there this evening after it really starts to get active.

As for this site, you can expect us to be bringing you live views of the whole thing.

We’ll be resetting the views on our cams to provide you with great shots of the action as it happens, so if you can’t be here for the festival, at least you’ll get to see some of it.

I’ll also be out and about with my camera shooting some more pix and videos that I will be posting throughout the weekend.

Below are some of the pix and a video that I shot this morning as people were getting ready.

Well, another year of the Bele Chere Festival has come and gone.  Tomorrow the cams will all be reset to their previous positions and Asheville can go about its business.  It was a fun year for the festival, even if sales were a bit down.  We’re looking forward to next year!

On an administrative note, the site had some pretty good numbers over the weekend, but it seems the streaming server was struggling a bit with the load.  We apologize for anyone that got the dreaded “failed to load” message, and we will strive to do better next year.

Bele Chere is by far the busiest time if year for the site, with thousands of people from all over the world checking in to see the festival live.

It’s official, Bele Chere 2009 has officially arrived!  As usual, on this very special occasion, we have changed all our camera views to give you live shots of the action.  Our robotic West Cam (affectionately known as RoboCam) is still giving all us Asheville natives a good view of traffic conditions around the Westgate Bridge, but it now gives you some nice zoom shots of the craft tents set up along Patton.

We moved the North Cam over to the West side and it is currently giving us a view of College Street and a bit of North Lexington.  The South Cam is pointed a bit more down towards the Pack Square end of Biltmore Ave.  Finally, the East Cam (another robotic camera which we call RoboCam II) is showing some close zoom shots of Pack Square.

If a camera doesn’t load for you, try refreshing your page.

July 24th will mark the start of Asheville’s 31st annual ‘Bele Chere’ Music and Art Festival and the influx of 350,000 estimated  festival-goers. According to their website, “The festival features four stages of free- live music and an impressive array of arts and crafts; as well as entertainment and activities for children. Surrounded by the natural beauty of the mountains of Western North Carolina- come join us for one of the Southeast’s largest free outdoor street festivals.”

Though still a couple of months away, here at AshevilleLive we are keeping this festival on our radar and plan on bringing you a series of reports ranging from exciting events to see and participate in, to some of the changes being made for 2009. One of the additions to this year’s festival will be a “battle of the bands-style contest” conducted in conjunction with WNC Magazine and the Asheville Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Arts Department called “Last Band Standing: Road to Bele Chere 2009“.

Other events we’ll be keeping an eye on include the 30th Annual Bele Chere 5k, the Lexington Avenue Drumming Tent, and Rashad McCant’s “Shoot for the Cure“, in which one lucky festival-goer will have a chance to win $10,000 with proceeds benefiting breast cancer research.

So stay tuned to AshevilleLive for upcoming reports with more information on how to maximize your fun at the largest street festival in the southeastern United States.