Asheville’s annual Spring Herb Festival returns for its 35th year on Friday, April 25, 2025.
The largest herb event in the United States and Canada, the three-day festival will be open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday (April 25-26), and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, concluding at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 27.
The festival will take place at the Davis Exhibition Center, the main event building at the WNC Agricultural Center in Fletcher, NC, and will host more than 70 vendors from the western NC and beyond. Workshops are also scheduled throughout the weekend, and a number of food trucks will provide locally sourced and prepared meals.
The WNC Ag Center (www.wncagcenter.org), home to the Mountain State Fair and other farm- and garden-related events each year, is located at 761 Boylston Highway, just south of the Asheville Airport (I-26 Exit 40).
Wide variety of products
Vendors include numerous farms that specialize in growing herbs, heirloom vegetables, and native shrubs, trees, and other plants. More than two dozen vendors offer locally made natural herbal products ranging from salves and ointments, soaps, and body washes, to culinary and medicinal extracts and supplements. Many growers also offer heirloom vegetables, native medicinal plants, teas, fermented beverages, and even herb-infused ice cream. Food trucks sourcing local products include Ceci’s Culinary Tour, Proving Grounds Coffee, Habibi, Hunt & Gather, The Garden Asheville, Smasheville Food Truck, and Yalla.
Workshops
The free workshops for the 2025 festival will include presentations on woodland medicinals and herbal cures and treatments, as well as preserving with vinegar, cultivating favorite herbs, container gardening, and sustainable cultivation methods. The Buncombe County Extension Service will also have a booth with detailed information about soils, planting locations and conditions, and other useful information about WNC mountain gardening.
Developing WNC’s agricultural heritage
The Asheville Herb Festival is organized by the WNC Herb Marketing Association, established to promote opportunities to develop the region’s agriculture and specialty products. Many young farmers and entrepreneurs join with second- and third-generation families to ensure the health and long-term future of WNC’s herb industry. By keeping alive ancient traditions of natural healing and health maintenance, the WNCHMA works to reestablish, and educate contemporary citizens about, some of the recipes, methods, and treatments developed by African Americans, Native Americans, and other traditional specialists in wise-woman lore.
Sponsors
The sponsors of the 2025 Spring Herb Festival include Barry Farms, Bluff Mountain Nursery, Browns Creek Herbs, Cecilia’s Kitchen, Earthen Organics, The Farm Connection, The Forest Farmacy, J & S Farm, Mills Garden, National Geographic Herbal & The PonderLand Native Plant Sanctuary, Our Friendly Allies, Our Silent Partners, Pangaea Plants, Red Moon Herbs, Sister of Mother Earth, Smoking J’s Fiery Foods, Useful Plants Nursery, and Wildwood Herbal.
Admission and parking are free. Enter the Ag Center grounds at Gate 4 or 5, one-half mile south of the Asheville Airport entrance, and the Davis Center is ahead toward the left.
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/AshevilleHerbFestival, or call 828-301-8968.