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.

I went this year and we had a fabulous time. Be aware that it has now been renamed to "Carolina…read moreClassic Fair". The food is everywhere and as exotic as you might expect from a fair (fried Oreo's, anyone?), but is high priced. Can you go to a fair and NOT get a funnel cake? They're $15, but it's once a year... They have a good selection of rides though the lines were long on Friday night and I would expect they would be even worse over the weekend. Parking is $10 at the Wake Forest Coliseum (a short walk), which is safer than parking in someone's yard (for the same price). It's $10 per person to enter, if you order online, and then you'll spend $20 every 4 rides (roughly). It can add up quickly, but so can the level of enjoyment.

Nice family time on a weekday afternoon. We decided to go on Thursday afternoon before the evening…read morecrowd and it was perfect. It was a breezy day and the sites gave me such a nostalgic feeling of old timey trips to the fair when I was young. I especially enjoyed watching children enjoy the rides and families just strolling happily and peacefully.

This was a cool event that I assume will get better from year to year. I was able to meet some…read morefellow Yelpers and had good conversation and had my tasting glass "customized". Some of the tasting lines were slow moving. But with so many vendors it didn't slow down my tastings. I have to admit that I only visited half of the stands because once I found a couple of bottles that I liked, I was done. I purchased a few bottles, stretched out my folding chair near the stage and enjoyed a beautiful day out. I purchased four bottles and left with one :) The entertainment was very enjoyable; the SB Band really kept the crowd hyped! The down side was the food situation. Porterhouse was there and they never disappoint. But with only 2 trucks, 3 if you count the pizza slice trailer, the wait was ridiculous AND outside food was not an option :( I expect better next year, I can't wait.

This was a great event! My friend and I had a blast!…read more The parking was a little rough. We had to park in the grass, and unfortunately when we tried to leave, the entrance to that parking spot was blocked off so we had to drive very carefully off the median onto the road. They do have carts that will transport you to and from your car, but we decided to walk. The line seemed extremely long when we first got there, but we got in pretty quickly. Make sure you bring your ID's because they do check before you enter. They give you a complementary wine glass, along with a brochure listing all of the wineries in attendance, which was nice. There are a lot of wineries, but I expected to see more than were there. We skipped a few because they had just typical wines. I'm not usually a big wine drinker, but after spending the day tasting different kinds, a few have definitely won me over! If you ever go in the future, be sure to stop at Southern Charm Winery's tent (if they're there). I literally loved every single wine they had to offer. My favorite was the Edisto Black. It is amazing! I'd have to say they are officially my favorite winery. Shadow Springs Vineyards has a very good strawberry wine. The lines were a little long, but that was to be expected. The band was great! I also loved the location, being it is in the same parking lot as one of my favorite restaurants (Moose Cafe). Be sure to stop there on your way out!

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.

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

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:-)

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.