Ashland Independent Film Festival
📅 Late April (5 days)
📍 Varsity Theatre, 166 E Main St
A five-day independent film festival often described as "Sundance, only warmer" — screenings, filmmaker conversations, and forums in an intimate small-town setting.
Official Site →
Ashland Culinary Festival
📅 November
📍 Venues around downtown Ashland
A weekend built for this directory's readers — local chefs, restaurants, wineries, and breweries of Southern Oregon showing off, organized by the Ashland Chamber of Commerce.
Official Site →
Ashland Chamber's 4th of July Celebration
📅 July 4
📍 Downtown parade route & Lithia Park
Ashland's longest-running community event — over a century of a morning parade down Main Street, a footrace, and a full day of live music and food booths in Lithia Park. One of the largest single-day gatherings in town.
Official Site →
Festival of Light
📅 Late November – New Year's
📍 The Plaza & downtown Ashland
Ashland's winter tradition for over three decades — the Grand Illumination lights up the Plaza to kick off a season of holiday displays, Santa's arrival, and seasonal performances downtown.
Official Site →
Lithia Artisans Market
📅 Weekends, late March – September, 10am – 5pm
📍 Calle Guanajuato, behind the Plaza
An open-air juried arts and crafts market on the creekside walkway behind the Plaza, running since 1983 — pottery, jewelry, woodwork, and live music from a guild of local artists.
Official Site →
Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market (Ashland Tuesday Market)
📅 Every Tuesday, March – November, 8:30am – 1:30pm
📍 ScienceWorks Museum, 1500 E Main St
A USA Today top-10 farmers market — local produce, artisan food, and handcrafted goods from growers across Jackson, Josephine, and Siskiyou counties, with live music most weeks.
Official Site →
Summer Concerts in Lithia Park
📅 June – August, Thursday & Sunday evenings
📍 Butler Bandshell, Lithia Park
Free outdoor concerts at the park bandshell all summer long, between the Ashland City Band's Thursday series and Epic Ashland's Summer Sounds — food trucks and a beer garden included.
Official Site →
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
📅 March – October
📍 Three theatres downtown (Angus Bowmer, Thomas, Allen Elizabethan)
The event that put Ashland on the map. A Tony Award-winning repertory theatre company staging Shakespeare alongside classic and new American drama across three stages downtown, running most of the year.
Official Site →More Ashland event calendars
For the full, current, day-by-day listings — including one-off shows and smaller events not featured above: