This festival just continues to grow each year! I genuinely love checking out Festival in the Park…read moreevery single year, because there's always something new to see. There's probably hundreds of vendors at this point, from food, drinks, desserts, artists, charities, jewelry. I mean there's SO much to see at this festival! My favorite part about it is the live music. My friends and I always bring a blanket and just come lay out there and enjoy the live band. This year it was actually the same singer as last year and she was great!!! Love her voice and she always sings upbeat songs everyone knows. It's always a whole vibe. We grab food and bring our own cooler and just pick a spot up on the hill and enjoy. That's exactly what we did this year too. For food I couldn't decide what I wanted so I kinda settled for a gyro and it was pretty good, all things considered. The fries we great though! Nice to have so many food options available though. I'll continue to come to this festival year after year!! Definitely a lifetime fan.

I enjoy FITP every year. The variety of vendors lets me purchase items I can't find in my weekly…read morejourneys. It's great to find something I've never seen before. I stopped by a cookie vendor, deliciousness! However, the food lines are typically ridiculously long. Not my speed. There should be a vendor who sells water only for one price. Parking is a task and requires a lot of patience. It may help to catch a ride and skip parking altogether.

Bottom line: The Cheerwine Festival in Salisbury is a busy and popular street festival to celebrate…read morethe regional soft drink favorite. Saw lots of Cheerwine merch/logos everywhere but not Cheerwine itself. This festival is extremely crowded and there are long lines for absolutely everything, do know that going into this one. Bring cash, you'll need it. The Deets: My friends and I made plans to hit the The Cheerwine Festival in Salisbury, NC this year. Cheerwine is a local/regional soft drink favorite, a black cherry flavored soda. Cheerwine has been made since 1917 and has been produced by the same family in North Carolina for all those years (big accomplishment in the food/beverage industry). I've been a Cheerwine fan since childhood so I was up for going to a festival bearing its name. We went down and back on Amtrak as there is a train station near to the downtown area the festival is held. I recommend going by train if possible as finding parking is not that easy for this event. Salisbury is not a huge town so you would expect that to be so. If you are not a fan of big crowds and long lines, then this festival is not for you. This festival is very "people-y" and there are long lines for EVERYTHING...food, beer/beverages, merchandise, craft/art/novelty items, cash machines (bring cash, most things here are not cheap)...everything. Of course the sound stage had a crowd around it as well. We even ducked into a local bottle shop to find some peace (see my prior review for this business) which we indeed found. My pics I took are from a pocket of peace I found outside of the crowded area. Of note, I did see that there were plenty of port-a-potties everywhere, even down alleys between buildings. While I saw Cheerwine logos and merchandise a-plenty at the festival, I really can't recall seeing any actual Cheerwine itself. Sad face. Lots of beer opportunities...not Cheerwine though. If you love those crowded street festivals, this event is your golden ticket. I found it was great to visit and experience but I'm not sure I would go out of my way to come back again.

I went to this festival in Salisbury on a Saturday. I should have expected it to be crowded,…read morebecause it definitely was which any festival would be on a Saturday. The mountainmelt food truck gave me magnificent grilled cheese with mac and cheese inside and a jam, and bacon. It was heavenly. For $12 it was worth it. Other than that there was just the regular Fair foods. It didn't really scream cheerwine to me except for all the cheerwine signs that were everywhere. There was a good police presence and I appreciated the stands to help people cool down. It was warm that day for sure, we just happened to go on a day that wasn't too bad. I expected a lot more vendors, and especially a lot more specialty food vendors that really focused on the cheer wine, didn't really get that from this event. So not that impressed, I wouldn't go out of my way to come here next year.

Oh what memories! Back in the 1980's and early 1990's, this festival was called Stumptown Festival…read more Just before I was born (in the 1970's), my parents, older sister and brother lived mere blocks from here and would walk to the parade then the festival and walk through the booths. Eventually, they moved a few miles away, then my younger sister, and all 6 of us would come to the parade, then walk through the area with booths carefully avoiding the ride area as my parents could not afford to let us ride any of them, or buy the food. Fast forward to my teenage years in late 1980's, early 1990's, where we would come with friends, ride the rides, go through the booth area, buy all we wanted. My last actual time I was able to walk through the entire festival was back in 2003, when I came down to help my mother after a surgery. My last trip to Charlotte (Labor Day weekend 2018), I dragged my parents here on the Sunday. We were early-ish. We walked through some of it, but were unable to enjoy the full affect as they were still opening. This is a small town festival that is fairly inexpensive to do. Homemade items for sale. Some of the booths with items for sale are in the elementary school, which has been updated since the last time I was here. There are stages with live music, and other entertainment. A great time to be had by all. I did not get many pictures of my own as I was busy chatting with my parents, but check out the links below. Parking can be difficult at best. Crowds can be thick in places. For more information: https://www.matthewsalive.org/ https://www.facebook.com/MatthewsAlive

It was 7PM. I'd just gotten my car back (I have it on Turo, which is basically Airbnb, but with…read morecars). Having been in the house all day, I hadn't been able to keep my streak going on Pokémon Go! This being an inscrutable state of affairs, I decided that, instead of driving home, I'd head to one of my main Pokémoning sites: downtown Matthews. I arrived, parking as I do most often in the library/town hall parking lot (small town = multi-use public buildings. The court house in chapel hill is also the post office for example). I takedown all of the gyms in the area, set my guys in them, and then go Pokémon walking. To my pleasant surprise, the legendary gym I was walking to happened to fall smack-dab in the middle of a whole festival! I'm never one to turn down the opportunity at giant smoked turkey legs and deep fried Oreos - both of which are available at multiple vendors along the main walk - so I decide to stop Pokémoning for the moment and take in the event. Live music is a wonderful thing, and they have an entire soundstage set up just for it. The genre of choice seems to be bad country, which ain't my bag, baby, so I keep it moving. I recommend going at night. There are few things in life as immediately disarming as neon lights against an ebony sky, especially when those lights signal funnel cake and rides. Oh yeah, there are carnival rides in full effect. All the good hurlers, too. The ones that make your kids sick. The ones from which memories are built. Anywho, so there I am, hunting for the best giant smoked turkey leg, when I catch the Devine odor of cured pork fat. I know this can only mean one thing: bacon. There's a vendor that wraps everything in bacon. EVERYTHING. IN. BACON. I had bacon wrapped BBQ. That's right, I was in pigception. And it was glorious. I also had a pretty decent crabcake sammich (bun as set dressing only, I swear) and I cheated a bit, and got a refreshing frozen blueberry lemonade. I didn't stay long, but what I saw left a good taste in my mouth (literally and figuratively). Then I went back to catching all the Pokémon, so, you know, I was productive.

Geeze, I can't remember the last time I've been to a county fair. They are still as awesome as I…read moreremember...plenty of games and rides to keep adults and children entertained for hours. I had a fabulous time! But I'm dedicating this review to what I consider to be the best part of the fair....Funnel Cakes. Yep. That's no a typo I meant that fried doughy goodness is one of the main reasons I went to the fair....don't judge me! I'm going to put it to you like this whoever created the funnel cake is a genius! I mean fried dough is already awesome but top it with powder sugar and it's nothing shy of a piece of heaven on a plate. Yum. My only regret...I should have gotten two...haha Yep. Totally coming back again! It's definitely worth a visit.

We love coming to this fair every year, and yes of course everything is overpriced but the…read morenostalgia of the fair and all that it entails excites my son. I must admit I love this particular fair for a totally different reason......the grilled corn on the cob, which is reason enough for me to attend:-)

Last Saturday was the 10th year of the Stanly County Winter Wine Festival in downtown Albemarle…read more The wine festival is held at the Market Station, rain or shine! As it is in the winter, they put tarps/screens whatever they are called down the side of the building to prevent any bad weather coming in, as well as use heaters through out. As it was cold and rainy this past Saturday, it took me a little bit to warm up when I got there. What you need to know: 1. Usually around 15 or so NC wineries attend the event - lots of wine to drink! 2. Bring a bottle of water. I wish we had as you just go from one table to the next to drink away! And it would have been nice to have something to cleanse the palet. 3. Speaking of cleansing the palet. Bring crackers. I think I saw only one or two tables selling crackers/cheese type snacks, but we never went to those tables. Would have been nice to have little small crackers that you see when you go to wineries for a tasting. Only one winery had that at their table. 4. We wish we had also brought one of our own cups/water bottles. Again, when you go tasting at a winery, they usually have something to pour unwanted wine out. None of the wineries had this and some of these places did not have good wines. 5. If you have a wine that you like, go ahead and purchase it. They have a place you can pick up all your wine you bought at the end. We did not do this as we wanted to evaluate the wines along the way - as one winery might do a muscadine wine better than the other. The bad thing about this, is we went back and some of the wineries had already run out of what we wanted to purchase. It wasn't just one winery, but a couple. So some came unprepared with the amount that was going to be bought, at least this year. Luckily, one of the wineries that had sold out of what we wanted, was only 5 minutes away, so we stopped by on the way home. Overall it was a fantastic time and you can drink a lot of wine in a short amount of time. Some of the wineries are generous with the pours and some are not. We left with a great amount of wine, and really could have bought a lot more as these NC wineries produce a lot of great wine! Just had to start getting reasonable with our purchases. :)

Absolutely loved this ballon fest! We only went on Saturday and tickets online were $25 but kids…read moreunder 6 were free! We got there at 7:30am so parking was super easy! Definitely get the parking pass ($15), totally worth it especially if you have a young kiddo like we did. Parking and the event is in a grassy field. We packed water, snacks, blankets and even clothes to change when it warmed up in the afternoon. We planned to stay for the morning balloons and the afternoon balloons so we were prepared. The balloons were so cool. And we were really close. They also did tethered balloon rides and balloon flights for purchase. There were plenty of food stands , drinks areas and vendors. There was also a kids area with shows, bounce houses and hay bails for chilling. They only had porta-potties but never had to wait in line. They also do a night glow and for $2 you could walk inside a balloon getting inflated. This was such a fun family-friendly event with great photo opps. There were a lot of people but never felt overly crowded. We will be making this a family tradition!

Phenomenal event, not too crowded, great for families and couples. Do not miss this annual event.read more

We went to the festival on Saturday evening and it was a great experience. We were able to find…read moreparking a block away so that was convenient. To purchase food from the booths you had to purchase tickets. One ticket was the equivalent of $1. Wrist bands for beer were also $1. There were tons of options for food. BBQ, sandwiches, sausage, wings, spring rolls, tacos, desserts, ice cream, the list goes on. I really liked the variety. It allowed everyone to get something to their liking. We wanted to try a couple different things so my boyfriend and I grabbed a couple different items to share. We got a hickory smoked slider and mac and cheese from Camel City BBQ, spring rolls and wings from Milner's, and a wrap from Bib's. Everything was really good! We brought chairs and a blanket to sit down and were able to find a nice place in the shade to sit down. We stayed long enough to enjoy Bob Margolin's hour long set and have our dinner. There were a lot of people there but it wasn't so overly crowded that you couldn't move through the crowded smoothly and the wait for the food booths wasn't very long at all. Overall it was a great experience.

This was a very packed event! Had lots of vendors very good food, good beer, great great crowd, and…read morevendors were extraodinarily nice. Was great to mingle around with all the different people in town or that are back in town now with college starting so this is a definite must go to event next year one of the Better downtown walking events lots of fun. They need to work on parking for next year

This festival should have started earlier. The queues were horrendous! Not sure if the vendors knew…read moreit would be this packed. The planners could have a map showing where the vendors would be located. Sometimes, it was hunt looking for the trucks since not all were on Spring Garden street. There were some excellent food choices,

Visited this event for the first time in years and was pleasantly surprised but not overwhelmed…read more It's a perfectly fine way to spend your weekend but it does coincide with the same weekend as Festival in the Park in Charlotte so it's probably not as populated as much as it could be. That being said, I had a good time with my kids and girlfriend. Not a whole lot for adults here, pretty much geared towards children with bounce houses, etc and fair like rides that they will enjoy for sure. In short, this is a good event to browse some local crafts and food as well as some kid friendly rides but if you're like me, you'll be ready to leave within an hour. Not a terribly large event.

Went to the one held at Veteran's Park. Plenty of parking. Lots of space for vendor tents and to…read moreset up a picnic. Only went on Friday where the wristband of unlimited rides was &20 that day only. Kids had fun getting on every ride as many times as they wanted. I sat in the shade listening to the band on stage. We cooled down with fresh squeezed lemonade and satisfied our sweet tooth with funnel cake. Great family oriented festival that was very well organized.

WHY DID I WAIT SO MANY YEARS TO COME HERE!!!!…read more Wow, I had TOO much fun this year at the Carolina Renaissance Festival with a group of friends. We went on a Saturday around 11am and there was light traffic getting in, but it moved quickly and flowed smoothly. The parking situation was very organized and quick. The lot is massive but they have staff every step of the way so it was seamless. We walked a little ways to the entrance but everyone is in costume so the people watching started immediately and that was so fun! Before you even enter the gates to the festival they have some cool vendors out front. There was even the Tardis from Doctor Who and I lost my mind with excitement!!! I couldn't believe it!!! That encounter really set the pace for the rest of the day because I was on cloud 9 before we even entered the park!!!! Once we entered it was really like stepping back in time. The festival grounds were clean and the buildings looked in great shape. All the staff I encountered were kind and helpful. There's so much to see and eat. I thoroughly enjoyed a turkey leg, loaded baked potato, roasted pecans and pumpkin ale! Honestly, this was such a great time!!!! I cannot wait to go back next year. We left about 2:30 pm because we really had so much fun in such a short time. This worked out too because we completely avoided the traffic leaving. It was really a perfect trip! Soooooooooo much fun!!!!

This was my first ever time making it to the Ren Fest and I was very pleased with the experience!…read more Be warned, it's extremely busy and they will sell out so buy your tickets in advance. The car line to get in and out was quite long, but overall it's a smooth experience. Free parking, but you will end up walking about a mile to the entrance so comfortable shoes are a MUST. The main thing I wanted to experience was a turkey leg, and they did not disappoint! The price is definitely steep at $16 each, but they are huge and delicious. Cash only but ATMS are all around. Expect to wait in line for anything and everything and arrive early to any shows you want to see because seats fill up fast. I enjoyed the Witch Trial comedy show where they actually chose one of my friends as a volunteer and it was hilarious! The Joust was fun and had some unexpected twists, but the bleacher seats are sooooo uncomfortable. The Falconry show was my favorite. We got to interact with the Raven and give him tips. The birds fly super close to you and might even touch your head when going over. I'd recommend anyone visiting at least once! It's a worthwhile experience. Expect to spend a chunk of change, and you should definitely dress up! Of course, you won't stand out if you don't, so don't worry about that. Anyone will fit in here and feel welcomed by the environment.