There is no denying that Asheville is a city in flux.

Each year sees new businesses open, longtime businesses close and the opening of more breweries as Ashevillians worry about affordable housing and short-term rentals become a staple of local election debates.

If nothing else, Asheville is a city to eat, drink and be entertained — as evidenced by the estimated 10 million people that visit our mountain town each year.

As the year comes to a close, Asheville will be losing two spaces where artists have been entertaining locals and tourists alike.

Citizen-times photographers spent an evening documenting these spaces and their final performances before they are swept away by the tides of change.

Toy Boat Community Art Space

“More than just a venue, this place is kind of family,” said Amber Shehan, a veteran of Asheville Vaudeville of about five years, whose performer name is Millie Van Illa. Toy Boat Community Art Space is closing this month to make room for a French Broad Brewing Company expansion.

Toy Boat opened at its current location behind Biltmore Village in 2012 and was founded by a group of performers who made up the Runaway Circus. The group's members helped build the venue with the vision of creating a circus and performing arts school with a performance space as an outlet for the artists’ pieces.

MORE: French Broad River Brewing expands, displacing Toy Boat Community Arts Space

With several artists who were involved with the Runaway Circus as well as Asheville Vaudeville, the two groups were a natural fit.

Asheville Vaudeville performed at the Toy Boat for the last time Saturday, which also marked the venue’s final event. The show combined a variety of acts including burlesque, stand-up comedy, trapeze, and song and dance, many of which served as a theatrical eulogy to their home that was the Toy Boat.

As performer Elizabeth Evans sang “you’re always welcome in this weird family, we know you want to be,” to the tune of “Jingle Bell Rock,” she promised the audience in a quivering voice that she was not going to cry. In a lighthearted jab at French Broad Brewing Company, Evans continued, singing, “then some real meanie butts bought up our space, they want to make more beer.”

Jim Julien, a performer with Asheville Vaudeville who has been involved in the organizing of their shows since about 2008, lamented that losing the Toy Boat meant parting with a home that was also a convenient practice space.

“It’s a pretty funky space, and we have a lot of very funky artists and it felt very homey for most of us. It was a space that we decorated and built ourselves. Toy Boat was always available for folks that needed it and that’s going to be a resource that’s going to be very tough for us to find a replacement for,” Julien said.

Despite the Toy Boat closing, Asheville Vaudeville will continue to perform, although they will be a traveling show in 2018. One of the challenges they anticipate will be finding venues that can accommodate their eclectic array of acts.

“That's really gonna be a sore point as we start touring, finding places where we’re allowed to spit fire without the fire department getting called,” said Shehan, with a laugh.

Although all of the cast members at Asheville Vaudeville had heavy hearts in facing the news of their loss, Shehan offered some optimism in what is otherwise an uncertain time for them.

“With every change, there are good and bad points. We have this opportunity to try new venues, get to know new people, a new audience that may not have otherwise come to Toy Boat.”

From Shehan’s perspective, the loss of Toy Boat will leave a void, not just in the Asheville Vaudeville family, but in the Asheville community at large. It is also much to her chagrin that the tireless work of Nina Ruffini, owner of Toy Boat and others who helped create it will be in vain.

“It’s just kind of sore because they put so much work into this space - blood, sweat and tears - and community funding helped start the place, so it’s a whole community’s loss, not just the folks on the lease.”

The Altamont

“It’s the last stand at The Altamont Theater,” Richard Barrett joked as he arranged chairs in neat rows Friday night in the 150-seat music venue on Church Street downtown.

Just hours later the chairs would be excitedly swept aside by concert-goers creating their own dance floor in the black-curtain-lined listening room.

Friday’s show featuring an Altamont favorite, Brooklyn-based Americana band, Yarn, was one of the last for the venue.

The theater opened in 2010 and was taken over by Barrett and business partner Sam Katz in 2015. It must close at the end of the year.

Building owner Brian Lee will be renovating the building to create condominiums for short-term rentals.

“The theatre holds great sentimental value for us and converting the space is most certainly an emotional decision,” Lee said in a September statement. He and his wife originally renovated the building to include the theater in 2010. That involved fixing a nearly collapsing roof and adding green aspects, such as solar panels for hot water, the statement says.

Lee has already been operating short-term rentals in part of the building, along with the theater, for almost seven years. The renovations, which will leave the building intact, will expand that business.

“There’s lots of music venues… but not quite like the Altamont, it’s a very unique spot,” Barrett said. “I would definitely say that it benchmarks a lot of overdevelopment maybe in our downtown area. It’s a sad thing, but they’ve gotta make way for more tourists.”

On Friday, Hendersonville residents Donna and Bob Northway had nabbed seats in the VIP front row as they prepared to see Yarn for the fourth time.

“We love it so much and wish every music venue could be like this, the acoustics are phenomenal,” Donna Northway said. “And you get a seat, you don’t get a seat at The Orange Peel,” she added with a laugh.

Although Yarn has played just about every venue in town, Barrett feels Asheville will lose some of its musical diversity with Altamont's closing.

“There’s certainly a contingency of bands that really, sadly, don’t fit in other venues in this town, this is a perfect venue for them,” he said. “I imagine they’ll disperse to different areas and then I’m sure there will probably be a contingency of folks that just don’t have Asheville as a stop.”

Disappointment at the closing of The Altamont spread among Yarn fans as they entered the building, hit up the bar where Barrett was serving up drinks, and found their seats.

When the listening room’s door closed, however, all was seemingly forgotten as the band took stage to cheers and applause.

“I understand why they’re doing what they’re doing,” Bob Northway diplomatically said before the show, guessing how high the taxes must be for the building’s prime downtown location.

“It’s a sad price of progress,” Donna Northway added. “We’re losing a great venue.”

The Altamont Theater has two shows left as it wraps up this week, including the Asheville improv comedy group Reasonably Priced Babies. Details can be found at thealtamonttheatre.com/events