I live 11 miles east of Asheville. There's ALWAYS something cheap or free to do any day of the week. Its a food and beer town. College town
Very community oriented. I'm an hour or so away from a national park (Smokies) 2 national forests (Pisgah and Nantahala) and 5 minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway. (Which is also technically a National Park)
I can find bluegrass nearly any night of the week and we have drum circle every Friday in good weather. Random people come to play music together in a park and people from all walks of life listen and dance.
If you've never been here you need to visit at LEAST once. I'm completely in love