How to avoid Charlotte “fear of missing out” in 2016

Fortunately for you, your old pal TW is here to make sure you aren’t left checking Instagram in your pajama pants experiencing Extreme FOMO at all your friends who had the presence of mind to purchase tickets and plan accordingly ahead of time for these uniquely Charlotte events.

To the future!!!!!

January: Queen’s Feast

As we wrote earlier this month, Queen’s Feast is January 22 through January 31 and it dominates the Charlotte food scene. Don’t be the jamoke who shows up to Carpe Diem on the 23 seeing a crowd and saying “oh right it’s Restaurant Week, I forgot” and then meekly shuffling out the door and over to Noodles & Company once you realize it’s a 90 minute wait for a seat at the bar.

February: CIAA Tournament and Festivities

I work in Uptown and the prevailing sentiment for CIAA weekend for Uptown office dwellers seems to be “I’ll be working from home that Friday” as everyone avoids Uptown. This is a huge mistake. This weekend is awesome. The sheer volume of big name celebrities that come into town is staggering. My favorite part is how every flat area in Uptown with an electrical outlet to plug in a speaker becomes a party destination hosted by Doug E Fresh. Two years ago Jermaine Dupri had a party in the Urban Garden at 1BAC mere hours after I ate a ham sandwich in that very spot. Hilarious.

By the way, the single best resource I’ve seen for all things CIAA is @CLTParty. The depth and breadth of their commitment to this weekend is nothing short of amazing. Nobody cares about anything as much as @CLTParty cares about CIAA weekend parties.

Let’s go Golden Bulls!

March: Elizabeth 8k

March is quite possibly my favorite month because of the improving Spring weather, spring training, the NCAA Tournament, and St. Patrick’s Day, but the event to pencil into your calendar this year is the Elizabeth 8k. This year marks the 30 running of Charlotte’s oldest road race, and what is in my opinion the best race in the Charlotte area. It’s got a flat course, great scenery, and a fun post-race scene at Hawthorne’s Pizza with School of Rock performing. The 8k (roughly 5 mile) distance is also perfect because it’s more challenging than a 5k without requiring a full on training program leading up to it. Running this race followed by a brewery crawl whilst watching college hoops is the closest thing to heaven in Charlotte you can get.

April: Queen’s Cup Steeplechase

Every year I fail to plan ahead and make it out to the Queen’s Cup Steeplechase, the Charlotte area’s premiere horse racing event. The night before Queen’s Cup without fail I say to myself “aw man, Queen’s Cup is this weekend. I wish I had planned ahead.” That ends this year.

May: Wells Fargo Championship

South Charlotte’s signature event, this is the best place in town to wear your UNC or Clemson sweater vest. I feel like there’s always one day with terrible weather, one day with amazing weather, and two days that are overcast and windy. Choose wisely. If you plan on paying retail for tickets, get on them early. Otherwise you can be like everyone else in town and wait until someone offers you 15 free tickets Friday morning just after you’ve already made other plans.

June: Symphony in the Park Summer Pops

I have so much gear designed specifically to attend Symphony in the Park. Wine glass stands that stick into the ground. A blanket with a plastic bottom to keep out moisture. A picnic basket with like 12 settings of plates, plastic wine glasses and plasticware. So much stuff. Yet what happens every year? Weddings and beach trips always crop up until we’re finally in town and we say “this is the weekend we make it to Symphony in the Park!!” Then it rains.

Not this year. We’re picking a main weekend and a backup weekend and we’re going to make sure we hit up Symphony in the Park Summer Pops with gusto in 2016. You should too. It’s a truly great time. You don’t need advance tickets but you do need to get there early for a good spot. Like three hours early. These four Sundays are the Suburban Mom Super Bowl and they’re not messing around.

July: USNWC July 4 of July Celebration

This year July 4 is a Monday, which is ideal for maximizing your holiday weekend. Should you attend the festivities at the Whitewater Center, you will not be alone, so expect crowds. But be smart about it. I’d say go on Sunday and try to go early if you want to actually raft or zipline. If you’re just going for the beer and the scene, pack light for maximum flexibility for walking around.

Again, you don’t necessarily need to buy tickets in advance but you do need to plan ahead or else you’ll get sunburned whilst waiting in lines all day, which is by far the worst way to acquire a sunburn.

August: The Club Level Experience at a Panthers Preseason Game

So the Panthers have had an amazing season. Who knows how it ends but there’s no doubt that interest in this team is at an all-time high. This means that going to games is getting more expensive in 2016, but there’s a loophole. Twice a year, the NFL forces its teams to have two home preseason games, charging season ticket holders the same price per ticket as a regular season game. It’s such a scam. BUT, because no one wants to go to these games, as they feature few actual NFL players, the tickets are waaayyy cheaper than during the season. Also, at least one of the games is on a Thursday or Friday night, which is a unique NFL experience.

So here’s what you do: spring for the club seats to a Panthers preseason game. They’ll be 50% cheaper than a regular season game, you get the NFL club level experience, you’ll get to scratch that late-summer football itch and it will be on a weekend night so you can make a full outing of it. I highly recommend the club level aspect of this, as it will be August and therefore hot and humid and gross, and you’ll want some sweet relief.

Special Bonus Event Because the month of August is the Worst: Queen City Battle of the Bands

This event is awesome. Amazing venue, warm summertime evenings, intense competition. I love when there are big events that sell out Memorial Stadium. Seeing the stands full of people as the sun sets and the moon comes up behind that view of the skyline is one of the best moments you can experience in Charlotte. The Battle itself is an intense marching band competition between regional HBCUs and they are all in it to win it, so you’ll get some of the best performances, and the crowd is hype. There may have been tickets available to purchase at the gates this year, but the seating was at capacity, so buy your tickets in advance, show up early, and get ready to dance.

September: Yiasou Greek Festival and Festival in the Park

Ahhhh, September in Charlotte. Where literally everything good is crammed into four short weeks. The weather is amazing, football is back, and every single festival seems to happen all at once. In June when you’re planning trips out of town to catch the last few days of summer at the beach or are heading to your alma mater to catch a football game, make sure you plan around staying in town for either the Greek Festival or Festival in the Park. It’s your civic duty.

October: Bank of America 500

The Charlotte Motor Speedway’s signature event is also the only Saturday night race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, which creates for quite the atmosphere under the lights. The weather in early October is typically pretty great too, with the notable exception of this past year, when I went, and the race was postponed due to a biblical deluge that forced my buddy and I to eat an entire Bojangles tailgate package in the back of a CATS bus.

November: Thunder Road Marathon

This one you definitely need to plan well ahead for if you plan to run the race. Even if you’re in race shape now, the hill at mile 12/25 is there to make you realize you should have trained longer. Plus, the earlier you register, the cheaper the registration fee, and that can wind up being a pretty substantial amount.

Even if running a half marathon or marathon isn’t on your list of New Year’s Resolutions, stick around town this weekend and join a cheer party, or take the light rail into Uptown to partake in the post-race festivities. The city shuts down for this anyway, so you might as well join in rather than mutter to yourself how much you hate distance runners while you’re stuck in traffic.

December: Carolina Voices Singing Christmas Tree

The Singing Christmas Tree is a Charlotte institution. This year will be the 62nd year of the show. It’s basically the Hezekiah Alexander House of Christmas Programming in Charlotte. I went to it this past year at the Knight Theater and it was a great time.

I know planning for next year’s Christmas seems like light years away in January, but do yourself a favor and set up a calendar reminder on your phone right now to buy tickets in mid-November. They go quick.

So that’s your 2016, Charlotte-style. If your year is boring, you’ve got not one to blame but yourself.