With just over two months to go, LEAF Global Arts announces the headliners and official poster for the 30th-year celebration of LEAF Festival, returning October 16–19, 2025 to Lake Eden, Swannanoa | Black Mountain, NC. After pivoting and revisioning through COVID, Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina, and NEA budget cuts, this milestone year stands as a vibrant tribute to the journey shared—and a joyful invitation into new chapters.
A poster bursting with LEAF history
The 30-year artwork—created by Tommy Lee (Sir Tom Foolery) with designer Lauren Breher—beautifully weaves symbols from LEAF’s past (including the trailblazing elephant and wise owl) with new magic unfolding from the “book of LEAF.” It’s a visual toast to the theme “Live Life Like a Festival.”
Headliners & featured artists
The 2025 lineup radiates across the poster’s concentric rings:
Headliners: Valerie June, Arrested Development, Jackie Venson, and Victor Wooten & The Wooten Brothers.
Also performing: Solas, Jonathan Scales Fourchestra, Making Movies, Beausoleil avec Michael Doucet, Natu Camara, MAMA, Firas Zreik, Flamy Grant, Black Legacy Project, Zar Electrik, The Secret Agency with Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Resonant Rogues, Admiral Radio, Samara Jade, Tumbao, Las Montañitas, Josh Blake’s Jukebox, Quraishi Roya, Ustad Shafaat Khan, E’Lon JD, and Takumi Kato.
From the open pages “Since 1995,” more artists leap out: Engine Room, LEAF International Costa Rica, The Flying Honeys, Option 22, Playing with Fyre, Masankho Banda, LEAF Kono Band, Black Sea Beat Society, Bilingual Birdies, The Change, Billy Jack Sinkovic, Augustin Palomo Ramos, Street Creature Puppet Collective, Chinobay, Lazybirds, Annie Gaia, Lucy Isabel, DJ-Taco-Shel, Baliti, Unifire Theater, Earthshine Nature, Les Amis, Haviken Hayes, Astronauts, Budda Budda & The Esumi Kids, Carol Rifkin, Monika Guerra, LEAF Southern Fried Poetry Slam, Sariyah Idan, Billy Jonas, Toybox Theatre, What’s Shakin’, Mountain Circus Arts, Rawtools South, Comedian Ritch Shydner, and Quadre’ Stuckey—& many more!
What to expect
LEAF Festival connects people to the world and to each other through music, dance, art, poetry slam, healing arts, earth skills, workshops, childcare, camping, lake fun & more—all set at storied Lake Eden.
Tickets and details: theLEAF.org.
