Are you going to Carolina Fest?

[urbancharlotte]

Originally Posted by Carolina Blue

I'm going! And I was one of those folks who stood in line hours for tickets to hear Obama speak Thursday night, so I'll be at that too. Regardless of your poltical views, this is the biggest event in the city's history. Everyone should want to be a part of it. The Presidential Experience is also something everyone can ejoy Presidential Experience | A nonpartisan tribute to Presidential History

I agree. I had planned on going out of town that week, but due to my job needing "all of the help they can get" during the DNC; I'll be here working. On the flip side, I will get the chance to see all of the DNC action/protests. This is a proud moment for Charlotte and North Carolina, but we all need to be realistic with our expectations. Charlotte (as much as I hate to say it) is still lacking big time when compared to the likes of New Orleans, DC, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando etc. Being that MANY of our visitors are very familiar with those aforementioned cities; imagine what their impressions of Charlotte will be. My point exactly. Charlotte has done very well by North Carolina standards, but we are still far from being a true destination city. Many of our first time visitors will be quick to remind us of just how much we don't measure up to cities "x, y, z".

With that said, Charlotteans (as well as folks from BOTH Carolinas) should just come out and enjoy our moment in the sun. This city won't impress the average visitor.....It just won't. So we should just come out in large numbers and support this "party" like we do with all other parties and get-togethers that this city has hosted. The Nation will be too busy talking about the hurricane clean up in New Orleans anyways. The so called "game changing event for Charlotte" that the city boosters were hoping for IMO will not happen. So my message to Charlotte is show some local pride and come out to Carolina Fest!

[jhartwell35]

Im sorry UrbanCharlotte, but Id kinda have to disagree with you. When I came to visit Charlotte back in June, I was very impressed about the class, beauty, and growth the city possessed. I know places like Atlanta and NYC have clubs on EVERY CORNER, but I doubt it if these visitors and politicians are gonna be expecting Charlotte to be like NYC. I think their expectations of Charlotte are gonna be a little lower, since Charlotte is not as well-known of a city as the aforementioned ones, so therefore when they do arrive in Charlotte, I think they will FIRST be impressed by the size and beauty and ease of the AIRPORT, then as they travel, they will be impressed by the shear SIZE of Charlotte, and then MOST IMPORTANTLY, they will be MORE than impressed by DOWNTOWN.
Im sure most people are going to fill up the EPICENTER and the NC MUSIC FACTORY, also COUNTLESS bars downtown. I dined at VITA while i was there, and to sit there and have a panoramic view of Downtown at night was absolutely AMAZING.

For shopping, many of them will go out to Concord and shop and eat, while probably on their quest to check out the Nascar campus. And/or they will go to SouthPark and spend their BIG money in the high-end stores out there, with plenty of good eats, and just an overall VERY BEAUTIFUL AND MANICURED AREA.

Being a former visitor myself, I think I can speak for most when I say that most would ASSUME that Charlotte is alot more smaller and COUNTRY than it is. I was surprised to see that it was VERY MUCH a CITY, with nice city living and amenities.

And theres still 6 or 7 more days til INTERNATIONAL coverage comes to Charlotte, I dont think NOLA will be a TOP story on every news station. It really wasnt as bad as people were saying. I have friends ALL over NOLA and they were saying alot of media was playing it up to get a good story. NO bad flooding down there. Just some wind damage and blown out windows downtown, trees down, thats about it.

I think people visiting Charlotte will be MORE than pleasantly surprised. Me and my friends were

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by SunnyKayak

Ugh, it good news and bad news lol Scissor Sisters are coming to the DNC to the Filmore on the 6th but... it is a private ticket event.

Even I was able to go, I would not want to see this group with DNC stiffies who probably dont get it.


I was in Uptown this weekend and they are buiding a huge stage in vacant lot across from old Wachovia Atrium.

The entrance is odd it has like truck containers like you see at ports stack on eacj other. Probably some kind security measure.

Those may be props, Sunny, to represent the lost jobs. We don't have factories filling them up & shipping them overseas.

[urbancharlotte]

Originally Posted by jhartwell35

Im sorry UrbanCharlotte, but Id kinda have to disagree with you. When I came to visit Charlotte back in June, I was very impressed about the class, beauty, and growth the city possessed. I know places like Atlanta and NYC have clubs on EVERY CORNER, but I doubt it if these visitors and politicians are gonna be expecting Charlotte to be like NYC. I think their expectations of Charlotte are gonna be a little lower, since Charlotte is not as well-known of a city as the aforementioned ones, so therefore when they do arrive in Charlotte, I think they will FIRST be impressed by the size and beauty and ease of the AIRPORT, then as they travel, they will be impressed by the shear SIZE of Charlotte, and then MOST IMPORTANTLY, they will be MORE than impressed by DOWNTOWN.

I hope you're right. Their expectations could very well be lower than what Charlotte has to offer. We'll see how it goes. Either way, I will be enjoying myself at Carolina Fest.