A herd of rankings, expenses, crowds, and fines as we careen toward summer
5
The number of Music Festivals to jazz up the month of May:
Lovin’ Life Music Fest
May 3-5
This multiday, multigenre music festival is the first of its kind in Charlotte since CityFest Live! shut down two decades ago. The organizer, Southern Entertainment, has lined up more than 40 artists—including Post Malone, Stevie Nicks, Maggie Rogers, Noah Kahan, The Chainsmokers, and Petey Pablo—to perform on three stages over three days. The main stage will be in a three-block lot between North Brevard and North Caldwell streets in uptown, with additional stages and amenities in other parts of First Ward. Southern Entertainment—a local company that’s hosted other successful music festivals, like the Carolina Country Music Festival in Myrtle Beach—expects Lovin’ Life to draw as many as 30,000 attendees a day and hopes to make it an annual event. Uptown. General admission: $299
Breakaway Festival Presents: Another World
May 3-4
Headliner Excision performs both nights of this first-time bass-music festival alongside other EDM and hip-hop performers like NGHTMRE, Of The Trees, Svdden Death, Zomboy, and Bear Grillz + Bad News Bears. RV, car, and tent camping available. 18+. zMAX Dragway, Concord. General admission: $139
Hello Huntersville Music & Arts Festival
May 5
This annual family-friendly festival features local and regional musicians, as well as local food and beverage vendors, arts and crafts vendors, kids characters, and more. 1-6 p.m. Veterans Park, Huntersville. Free
The Malpass Brothers Bluegrass & Country Music Festival
May 9-11
Festival hosts and North Carolina natives The Malpass Brothers are joined by other bluegrass and country acts, including Gene Watson, Authentic Unlimited, Classy & Grassy, Caroline Owens, and The Bass Mountain Boys. Organizers invite musicians to bring their instruments for nightly jam sessions. Camping available. Family-friendly. The Denton FarmPark, Denton. Tickets start at $50
R&B Only Fest
May 25
This traveling, one-night music festival “blends world-famous DJ sets with surprise R&B artist performances.” Apex Laurent and Cam the TSTMKR host its Charlotte stop alongside DJs GabSoul and Magic. 5-11 p.m. Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre. Tickets start at $54.99
20th
The Charlotte metro area’s 2023 ranking in United Van Lines’ annual report on where people are moving.
Of the Charlotte area’s total, 64% were inbound. Five other Carolinas metro areas ranked higher: Asheville (19th); Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina (16th); Greensboro/Winston-Salem (14th); Wilmington (second); and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (first).
$500
The maximum fine for offenses like public masturbation, urination, and defecation under changes to the city code that the City Council passed in February. Council members had decriminalized them in 2022, allowing police to issue only citations.
15th
Charlotte’s ranking on a February Forbes Advisor study of the 25 American cities with the worst drivers. The study assessed 2017-2021 data on metrics like average number of fatal car wrecks per 100,000 residents per year (in Charlotte, 10.2) and number of fatal wrecks caused by drunk drivers (3.8). Charlotte is the only city from the Carolinas on the list.
No. 1? Albuquerque.
$2,935
The amount of money raised by Plaza Midwood resident Ramez Tadros—through GoFundMe and sponsors Sustain Charlotte and Birdsong Brewing—to pay for a Bike Lane Sweeper. Tadros got tired of debris in the bike lanes near his home, so he found a Portland, Oregon-based company that makes the sweepers, which users can attach to the backs of their bikes. It’s kept at the Innovation Barn in the Belmont neighborhood and available for free checkout.
768
The number of positions that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools must cut with the expiration of $190 million in federal pandemic relief funding. The district planned to shift as many of those employees as possible into other vacant positions, Superintendent Crystal Hill said in February.
$500 million
Kairoi Residential’s investment in the Charlotte market. The San Antonio-based developer is new to the city but working on five multifamily projects, including 5Line, a 434-apartment, 82-townhome complex at South Boulevard and Clanton Road. “We certainly believe Charlotte has flown under the radar a bit compared to Nashville and Atlanta, and we like that fact,” company development principal Tyler Sibley told the Charlotte Business Journal in February. (Could’ve fooled us.)
Greg Lacour
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