August Charlotte Region Fairs and Festivals (Concord, Salem: 2013, home, activities)

[SunnyKayak]

Tis the season of exploring fairs and festivals in the region. If you know of one feel free to add.
If something noteworthy of the event add that too Try to keep within realms of the current month to make it easier to find something going on .

August 23-25 Southern Ideal Home Show
The Park Expo Center (formally Charlotte Merchandise Mart) [clickable link for directions]
2500 E Independence Blvd, Charlotte, NC
Schedule of events Southern Ideal Home Show - Charlotte - events schedule
Exhibitors http://www.southernshows.com/hfc/?show_exhib=1

August 24-25 Reptile & Exotic Animal Show -Repicon Charlotte
Cabarrus Arena & Events Center [clickable link for directions]
4751 N Carolina 49, Concord, NC ‎ Schedule of events Repticon Charlotte Page
Last year Repicon

Repticon Charlotte 2012 - YouTube

August 24-25 Charlotte Pride Festival & Parade
Festival: Saturday - Noon til 10 pm Sunday- Noon til 6pm
Parade: Sunday - 1pm
Levine Avenue of the Arts District [clickable link for directions]
South Tryon Street Charlotte
Schedule of Events 2013 Charlotte Pride Festival at the PNC Bank Festival Zone | Charlotte Pride 2013 {closer to event link will include map & stage schedule}
Entertainers this year include:
Season 9, 2nd highest score 'Dancing With The Stars' grammy award winning artist 'MYA'


Mýa
8th contestant of season 4, 'The Voice' "Judith Hill"


Judith Hill
Queen of Bounce , New Orleans popular late night TV show guest and a festival hip hop twerking favorite 'Big Freedia'


Big Freedia

[cltpeep]

I really enjoyed this (mostly) free festival last year. It's BookMarks in Winston Salem. This year it's on September 7th - lots of variety: fiction, non-fiction, cooking, music, children's activities. Like Novella used to be but without the crowds and the tickets.

http://bookmarksnc.org/

[SunnyKayak]

Biggest crowd ever at Charlotte Pride.

[tylerSC]

Interesting that conservative Charlotte is now having a gay pride parade, but will no longer have the annual Carousel parade on Thanksgiving day. I guess times are changing.

[SunnyKayak]

Originally Posted by tylerSC

Interesting that conservative Charlotte is now having a gay pride parade, but will no longer have the annual Carousel parade on Thanksgiving day. I guess times are changing.

Nice size crowd from the parade more than double of last year festival. This first pride parade in Charlotte in 19 years. First time a Mayor in the parade who was a grand marshal.
My partner took video of the parade for me, I was running a bubble gun, Ill post the video later in the week.

This is some of the crowd exiting parade going to the fun pride festival to me seem more crowded than a speed street.

[topchief1]

Originally Posted by tylerSC

Interesting that conservative Charlotte is now having a gay pride parade, but will no longer have the annual Carousel parade on Thanksgiving day. I guess times are changing.

You do know that the organizers of the Thanksgiving parade lost a lot of funding, and didn't have enough time to make it up, right? They are still trying to get the funds together to ensure next years happens.

[tylerSC]

Exactly. Looks like all the corporate sponsors in Charlotte such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo chose to sponsor the Gay parade rather than the Carousel. And Belk decided instead to sponsor Project Runway rather than the Thanksgiving parade like in the past. No comment or criticism, just an observation.