The first two editions of the Black Mountain Blues Festival were held in several venues spread across about five blocks of the town of Black Mountain’s downtown tourist center, but in May 2026, the Black Mountain Blues Society, the nonprofit organization that presents the festival, announced that all of the 2026 festival's shows would be at the White Horse Black Mountain music hall with reserved seating. The lineup was also scaled back to 13 acts in 2026 from more than 40 the previous two years.
We enjoyed the inaugural Black Mountain Blues festival in July 2024 and returned for the 2025 festival, which was held at the end of September. We saw shows at several of the festival’s venues both times we attended. The numerous shops, galleries and restaurants make downtown Black Mountain a nice place to stop on the way up the mountain to the Asheville area, and being in Black Mountain for three days of shows makes for a nice, relaxed weekend.
We found the entire footprint of the festival to be easily walkable, with the longest distance between venues about half a mile. The streets slope downward between U.S. 70, where three venues were located, toward Sutton Avenue and the railroad. In 2024, the town closed off a few streets during the festival but chose not to in 2025.
Here’s the interior of the White Horse between shows in 2024.
Below, Mac Arnold and Plate Full O' Blues played to a packed house at the White Horse on Saturday night of the 2024 festival.
Below, as Piper and the Hard Time present their set in 2025, the first three rows at the White Horse are reserved for VIP ticket holders. For 2026, premium tickets bought seating at 21 tables for four positioned at the front of the room. Reserved seats farther back and to each side were also available.
In 2025, headliners Robert Randolph (below) and Nik West played the Old Town Stage, which was in the yard behind Black Mountain Natural Foods, across the railroad tracks just south of the primary tourists' district.
A pan from the lefthand side of the Old Town Stage area earlier in the day shows that the view of the small stage is obscured from the side.
This aerial view from Google Maps shows the U-shape of the Old Town Stage area in the yard behind Black Mountain Natural Foods.
VIP ticket holders had a better view of the Old Town Stage from a small porch covered by a tent.
There was also food and beer available at the Old Town Stage.
The Cherry Pit Stage stage was on a lot behind the Foothills Grange restaurant and bar and accessible from a stairway on Cherry Street. In addition to setting out lawn chairs for concerts, the restaurant took orders for food, and waitresses gamely made their way through the crowd to serve it.
Here's the Cherry Pit stage area seen from Cherry Street in 2024.
For 2025, the festival placed a stage on Town Square, which is directly across the street from the White Horse Black Mountain music hall and is where townspeople repeatedly gathered for news in the aftermath of flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Helene in September 2024. The Town Square also has indoor public restrooms.
Here's a quick look at the Town Square lawn during the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz's Saturday afternoon set. Note the community group booths along the edge of the lawn.
In addition these venues, the festival presented musicians' workshops and documentaries focused on blues music history at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts and the "Blues2Grass" music stage and healing arts at the Peri Social House hotel, coffee house and bar in town.
Black Mountain is just inside Buncombe County as you head up the mountain on Interstate 40 west. Blues festival shows didn’t start until mid-afternoon on Friday, so in 2024, we spent the morning just down the mountain in Old Fort hiking the beautiful Catawba Falls recreation area.
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