A 40-acre farm on Buffaloe Road in Knightdale is trading its petting zoo and meadows for stage lights and food trucks this Saturday, as the inaugural Live At Present Arts and Music Festival brings a full day of performances, cultural showcases and a charitable cause tied to a deadly disaster overseas. Organizers expect roughly 3,000 people to pass through Haven Farm for the event, which runs from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and is aimed largely at Triangle-area professionals and families between 25 and 45.
The festival was founded by immigrants from Nepal who wanted to give back to the North Carolina community that welcomed them, according to CBS17. Organizer Yubak Karki invited locals to attend with family and friends, and co-organizer AJ Bhattarai told the station the festival can support victims in Nepal by participating in causes like this one. The station reports the event is billed as an inaugural festival focused on community connections and showcasing local talent, featuring emerging artists, local vendors and culinary entrepreneurs.
Festival proceeds carry real weight this year. Organizers say the event will donate proceeds to widowed military families and to people affected by recent flooding in Nepal, per the station's report, though the exact split has been described differently across materials — some promotional pages cite 10% of overall proceeds going to widowed military families, while more recent announcements put the figure at 20% of proceeds benefiting both military families and Nepal flood relief combined, according to information published on the event's own sponsor page.
A Disaster That Reshaped the Cause
The Nepal relief effort responds to a catastrophe that unfolded less than two weeks before the festival. On August 26, a Himalayan glacial collapse triggered flash floods that killed more than 1,300 people and left nearly 5,000 missing, according to UN News. UN officials called it Nepal's deadliest natural disaster since the 2015 earthquake, a scale of loss that gives the festival's fundraising component an unusually urgent backdrop.
That tragedy also connects directly to the artist headlining the bill. Curtis Waters, born Abhinav Bastakoti, is a Nepal-born musician who relocated to Cary at age 17 before breaking through internationally with his viral 2020 hit “Stunnin',” according to background compiled on Wikipedia. He is recognized as the first Nepal-born artist to achieve international success, and his own path from Nepal to Wake County mirrors the immigrant story behind the festival he is headlining.
A Cultural District Built Into the Grounds
Festival admission also includes access to a dedicated Nepali Mela cultural district, a section of the grounds built around authentic street foods like momos and traditional teas, an artisan craft marketplace and a presentation stage for Nepali-led startups and digital platforms, according to AsiaCarolinas. That programming reflects the region's demographics: Wake County communities including Cary and Raleigh serve as the main hub for North Carolina's growing Nepalese American community, which ranks among the fastest-growing Asian American groups nationally, per the Statistical Atlas.
General admission tickets start at $25 and cover musical performances, art installations, food trucks and the cultural district, according to a report from Raleigh Magazine. The Town of Knightdale lists the festival in its municipal business directory under categories including Launch Knightdale Business, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, and Minority Owned, a designation that formally marks the event as a locally recognized minority-owned enterprise.
A Growing Corner of Eastern Wake County
Haven Farm itself is a family-owned, Black-owned and woman-owned property roughly 15 minutes from downtown Raleigh, featuring a modern barn, meadows, overnight lodging, a petting zoo and a farm shop, according to Visit Raleigh. Beyond hosting Saturday's festival, the farm runs weekly Front Porch Fridays with live music and food trucks through October, along with monthly community campouts, per Triangle on the Cheap.
The festival's debut also lands amid a period of fast growth for Knightdale. The town recently approved the 1,000-home Suncrest housing development, and Siemens has been adding 350 tech and manufacturing jobs across Knightdale and neighboring Wendell, part of a broader wave of population and development increases across eastern Wake County this year.
