AVL Biz Weekly -May 6–12: Mac DeMarco, Improv Chaos & Mother's Day Everything

Welcome to AVL BIZ Weekly—your local cheat sheet for what’s happening in Asheville’s small business + creative scenes.

Each week: hand-picked events, marketing ideas that actually work, and a little local flavor to keep things fun.

My name's Jason and I'm writing this (connect with me here).

Hey friends,

Mother's Day weekend delivered this year. The Improv Fest runs four nights starting Wednesday, Mac DeMarco closes things out Monday at Cherokee Center, and if your mom has a dark sense of humor, there are two comedy shows this weekend built around exactly that. The rest of the newsletter covers the business side.

Lots to dig into. Let's get into it.

📋 On Deck

• 🗓️ Business Events — Asheville Improv Festival kicks off downtown, architects gather for AIA Summer School, and hands-on workshops at the Asheville Tool Library make practical skills feel fun again.

• 🔦 Local Spotlight — Altamont Vintage rebuilt after Hurricane Helene with the help of nearly 100 dealers, consignors, and staff — turning an antique store into a true community village.

• 💡 Marketing Quickies — Why missed-call text backs recover leads faster than voicemail, how a 9-word re-engagement text revives “dead” prospects, and why replacing “let me know” with a decision point closes more jobs.

• 🎉 Fun Stuff Around AVL — Art walks, sunset picnics, improv afterparties, volleyball tournaments, comedy shows, badminton meetups, and a folk festival in Lake Junaluska make this week feel packed in the best way.

• 🎧 Bands on the Horizon — Mac DeMarco, Jonathan Scales, Bella White, and a packed lineup of free brewery and patio shows across Asheville.

🙋 Want your biz featured in front of a few really smart AVL business owners? Email me for details

🗓️ Business Events

• 🗓️ Asheville Improv Festival — Opening Night — Wed, May 6 · 6:30 PM (Multiple Downtown Venues, Asheville) Four nights of long-form, short-form, and musical improv from national and local teams. If you've never seen a team completely fall apart and pull it back together in real-time, this is the professional development you didn't know you needed.

• 🗓️ NCEDA Western NC Regional Networking Luncheon — Sat, May 9 · Noon – 1:30 PM (Asheville, NC) Economic development professionals from across Western NC gather for a working lunch. If you're doing anything in real estate, workforce, or regional growth — this is the right room. (Note: Confirm exact venue directly with NCEDA before heading out.)

• 🗓️ AIA North Carolina's Summer School: Asheville — Tue, May 12 · 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Trinity Episcopal Church, Asheville) A continuing education day for architects and design professionals, hosted right here in Asheville. If you work in construction, development, or design — your people are in this room.

• 🗓️ Build Your Own Window Screens Workshop — Tue, May 12 · 5:30–8:30 PM (Asheville Tool Library, 16 Smith Mill Rd) The Asheville Tool Library walks you through building custom window screens from scratch. Practical, hands-on, and the kind of skill that actually saves you money — plus a good excuse to finally check out the Tool Library if you haven't.

Hosting something cool?

📬 Hit reply and tell me what you think. Or share an event!

Local Spotlight

Altamont Vintage - The Antique Store That Rebuilt Around Its Village

Story

Altamont Vintage had three stores when Hurricane Helene hit — all near the Swannanoa River, all flooded. What happened after is the part worth telling. Dealers came out to shovel paths through the debris, not just to rescue their own inventory but to pack up items for people who couldn't get there themselves. Others came to Angela O'Brien's house for months — too cautious to enter the hazardous buildings — to wash and identify what had been saved. "It was truly special to feel like we had built a village," says Lucy O'Brien, Angela's daughter, who stepped in as co-owner in 2024.

That village started four years earlier. In 2020, Angela and her business partner Tammy Mansell bought Bryant Antiques off Swannanoa River Road from the owner, Deb, who wanted to retire after Covid closed the shop. They rebuilt it as Altamont — a collective of close to 100 contributors: staff, permanent dealers, consignors, sometimes all three at once. The model keeps the floor unpredictable. A kid finds a 90s toy. Their mom finds the lamp her living room needed. Their grandmother finds a piece of high-end art worth framing. No single era, no single price point. Whatever the people bringing things in love that week is what the store becomes.

They're rebuilding again — now on Mulvaney, off Glendale, further from the foot traffic they used to get near the Tobacco Barn. A new mural by Brushcan Murals just went up to help people find them. The village still shows up. A few months ago, one of the same dealers who shoveled mud from those flooded buildings came back — nobody asked — to shovel snow from the parking lot.

Day in the Life

1. Favorite coffee or breakfast spot? Dynamite Roasting Co. all the way.

2. Fitness routine? Lifting boxes and carrying furniture around the store, plus classes at Asheville Community Yoga in North Asheville.

3. A new local spot to try? SEN Vietnamese Street Food for pho downtown.

4. First-time visitor? LaZoom because it gives a great overview of Asheville's weird, offbeat side.

5. Favorite place to shop local? Horse + Hero on Patton and Lexington for local art at different price points.

Want to work with them? Visit Altamont Vintage or email [email protected].

💡 Marketing Quickies

Most businesses send one follow-up. One. Then they move on and wonder why the lead went cold. This week, let's talk about why consistent follow-up is the whole game — and what it actually looks like to stay in front of people without being annoying about it.

Spring rush means the phone's ringing and you're buried on a job. Here's what to do with the leads slipping through while you're working.

1. The Missed Call Is a Delayed Job, Not a Lost One

   When someone calls and you can't answer, they don't vanish — they start calling your competitors. An Auto Call Text Back sends an automatic text within minutes so they know you got them. Responding within an hour makes you 7x more likely to qualify that lead. Most service businesses aren't doing this. You can be.

   This is one of the 7 components of the Show Up and Follow Up System — it's the one that pays for itself fastest.

2. The 9-Word Re-Engagement Text

   You've got dead leads from last season. They're not gone — they're procrastinating. Send them this: "Are you still looking to get [your service] done?" No pitch, no explanation. You'll get replies from people who forgot they needed you.

   The Show Up and Follow Up System builds sequences like this automatically so you don't have to remember to do it.

3. Replace "Let Me Know" with a Decision Point

   Every time you end a quote with "let me know what you think," you're giving the customer permission to forget about you. Try: "I have an opening Thursday or Monday — which works better?" Two choices. Both result in a booked job.

🎉 Fun Stuff Around AVL

• 🎉 Mosaic Realty Art Walk & Benefit — Thu, May 7 · 5:00–8:00 PM (39 S Market St ) An art walk hosted by Mosaic Realty with a benefit component — good art, good cause, good excuse to be downtown on a Thursday evening. More info at mosaicartwalk.com

• 🎉 Movies in the Park: Zootopia 2 — Fri, May 8:15 pm** (Pack Square Park) Asheville Parks & Rec brings Zootopia 2 to a park near you this Thursday. Free, family-friendly, bring a blanket and whatever you've got in the snack cabinet.

• 🎉 Asheville Improv Festival — Weekend Shows — Fri–Sat, May 8–9 · Various Times (Downtown Asheville) Four days of improv comedy with national headliners and local teams — the weekend nights are the good ones. Festival passes come with afterparty access and sponsor discounts around the city.

• 🎉 Sunset Picnic — Fri, May 8 · 7:30 PM (4433 Laurel Park Highway · Laurel Park) The Asheville Introverts group picks a grassy overlook with a view you don't have to hike to. Bring a blanket, bring snacks, enjoy the mountain light doing its thing.

• 🎉 HCCA Indoor Volleyball Tournament — Fri–Sun, May 8–10 (Harrah's Cherokee Center, Asheville) A full tournament weekend at the Cherokee Center — if you've got a team or just want to watch competitive indoor volleyball, this is the spot.

• 🎉 Steve Sutton Fest 2026 — Fri–Sat, May 8–9 (91 North Lakeshore Drive, Lake Junaluska) A nonprofit folk festival honoring musician Steve Sutton — proceeds go to music programs for Haywood County schools. Beautiful setting, good music, good cause. About 45 minutes from downtown.

• 🎉 Badminton Party at Carrier Park — Sat, May 9 · 11:00 AM (Carrier Park, Asheville) 20s/30s/40s Meetup group bringing shuttlecocks to Carrier Park — bring rackets if you have them, show up if you don't. Outdoor, casual, zero pressure.

• 🎉 Eyes Up Here Comedy: Mother's Day Edition — Sat, May 9 · 7:00–9:00 PM (Ginger's Revenge, Asheville) Modelface Comedy does a Mother's Day special — and if the name is any indicator, it's not going to be soft. A solid option for moms who want to laugh instead of brunch.

• 🎉 Mom Genes Comedy: About Our Mommy Issues — Sun, May 10 · 7:00–9:00 PM (RAD Brewing Co., Asheville) Modelface Comedy is back with a Mother's Day weekend show built around the complicated, hilarious mess of mom relationships. Good beer, good laughs, slightly cathartic.

🎧 Bands on the Horizon

• Eric Congdon Guitar — Wed, May 6 · 2:00 PM @ Biltmore Estate (Free)

• The Candleers — Wed, May 6 · 5:30 PM @ Eluvium Brewing (Free)

• Life Like Water — Wed, May 6 · 6:00 PM @ Pisgah Brewing (Free)

• Jonathan Scales Fourchestra — Wed, May 6 · 7:00 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Grace Rodgers & Joan Shelley — Wed, May 6 · 7:00 PM @ Ayurprana Listening Room

• Jaguar Sun — Wed, May 6 · 8:00 PM @ Revival Asheville

• Ryan Montbleau (Solo) — Thu, May 7 · 7:00 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Sweet Megg — Thu, May 7 · 8:00 PM @ The Crow & Quill

• Zoh Amba + Folk Bitch Trio — Thu, May 7 · 8:00 PM @ Revival Asheville

• Arcy Drive — Fri, May 8 · 7:00 PM @ The Orange Peel

• Drug Church / White Reaper — Fri, May 8 · 7:00 PM @ Eulogy

• Laura Jane Grace + Black Guy Fawkes + Lung — Fri, May 8 · 7:00 PM @ Asheville Music Hall

• Live Dead + Brothers — Fri, May 8 · 7:00 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Time Sawyer — Fri, May 8 · 7:00 PM @ Highland Brewing Co. (Free)

• A Different Thread (Album Kickoff) — Fri, May 8 · 8:30 PM @ Jack of the Wood

• Somatoast + Desert Dwellers — Fri, May 8 · 8:30 PM @ Third Room

• Stephen Evans + The True Grits — Sat, May 9 · 2:00 PM @ The Grey Eagle (Free)

• The Deep Shallow Band — Sat, May 9 · 2:00 PM @ Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (Free)

• You Can Call Me Paul (Simon & Garfunkel tribute) — Sat, May 9 · 7:00 PM @ livemusicasheville.com

• Tanasi (Album Release) — Sat, May 9 · 7:00 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• House of Heavy — Sat, May 9 · 8:00 PM @ Revival Asheville

• Deep River Prime Country + Yacht Rock — Sat, May 9 · 7:30 PM @ White Horse Black Mountain (Free)

• Bella White — Sun, May 10 · 7:00 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Stella Hansen (Patio) — Sun, May 10 · 2:00 PM @ The Grey Eagle (Free)

• Infamous Hollman Sisters — Sun, May 10 · 7:30 PM @ White Horse Black Mountain (Free)

• DEATH ANGEL — Mon, May 11 · 6:30 PM @ The Orange Peel

• Mac DeMarco — Mon, May 11 · 7:00 PM @ Harrah's Cherokee Center Asheville

• Jack Wilkins' Tenor Conclave — Mon, May 11 · 7:00 PM @ Little Jumbo Bar (Free)

• Sun Kil Moon — Tue, May 12 · 8:00 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Deadguy + Napalm Death — Tue, May 12 · 7:00 PM @ Eulogy

• Acoustic Blues Jams — Tue, May 12 · 6:00 PM @ White Horse Black Mountain (Free)

• Celebrate & Connect (Live Music) — Tue, May 12 · 4:00 PM @ Highland Brewing Event Center (Free)

Want your biz in front of smart AVL owners & creators? Reply with what you’re up to and let’s see if it’s a fit.

Until next week,

Jason De Los Santos
Pixelated Stories Digital Marketing
(828) 585-4293