ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — As Asheville flies closer to the one year anniversary of Hurricane Helene, Wrong Way River Lodge & Cabins will host a fly fishing festival to celebrate river recovery in Western North Carolina.
RISE: A Fly Fishing Festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 24 at the Wrong Way Campground, located at 9 Midnight Dr. off of Amboy Road in West Asheville.
“Much like a native brook trout chasing a dry fly, together we will RISE to shift the current toward recovery on the river,” Wrong Way wrote on the event page.
What to expect at RISE festival
RISE festival will be free and open to public, fisherman and landlubbers alike. The event will feature fly fishing activities like casting and fly-tying competitions, as well as opportunities to shop for fly fishing gear from retailers like Davidson River Outfitters, Hunter Banks Fly Fishing and Headwaters Outfitters. In the Wrong Way A-frame cabins at the campground, more local outdoor brands will set up 16 different retail experiences.
The family friendly festivities will sport kid-friendly programming and clinics, as well as adult beverages from local breweries and food from Imposter Pizza Co. and Chop Shop Butchery.
In the Wrong Way River Lodge, adults can also commemorate their relationship to the river with the Fish Flash Tattoo Studio, a flash sheet pop-up where multiple artists will offer river-centric tattoo designs.
In the Wrong Way Meadow, the Dead Strings Trio will offer up bluegrass covers of Grateful Dead songs.
While the festival is completely free to attend, there will be no on-site parking at Wrong Way. A shuttle will run from the Wedge Studios parking lot and additional parking can be found at nearby greenway parks.
For more information, visit the RISE event page.