This week was incredible and the weekend is going to be even better!

Here’s what happened this past week and all the big upcoming events;

Charlotte Stories that were featured in this video include; 

• The grand opening of the Foothills Public Shooting Complex
• York County’s freeze on all residential development
• Charlotte Native Macon Dunnagan Crowned Tanzanian Ambassador

Here are the top 5 things to do this weekend in Charlotte;

#1 The White Water Center’s Tuck Fest

Tuck Fest is a three-day festival that celebrates the outdoor lifestyle through competitions, exhibitions, demos, and live music, featuring St. Paul & The Broken Bones and Langhorn Slim & The Law. The festival will take place April 22nd through the 24th at the U.S. National Whitewater Center.

The festival features a variety of competitions you can participate in, including; trail running, kayaking, biking, climbing, stand-up paddleboarding, and adventure racing.

Check out more information here on TuckFest.org

#2 Top-Fuel Drag Races

NHRA drag racing returns will be returning to the zMAX Dragway April 22-24.

Join the fastest accelerating machines on the planet as they tackle the world’s fastest drag stip.

Every ticket is a pit pass, so come early to see your favorite drivers and their cars up-close before they bring over 40,000 horsepower down the concrete lanes.

For more information or tickets click here.

#3 Jimmy Buffet & Huey Lewis And The News

Jimmy Buffett, along with Mac McAnally and the other members of the Coral Reefer Band, will be playing Saturday at 7 p.m. at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, N.C.

The opening act for the show is ’80s pop superstars Huey Lewis and the News.

For more information or for tickets click here.

#4 2016 Charlotte Jazz Festival

This will be an incredible 3-day event hosted by the Levine Center for The Arts and The Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.

The main stage will be headlined by 2 performances by the critically-acclaimed Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra under the leadership of musical director Wynton Marsalis.

There will also be intimate club performances featuring local and national talent throughout the weekend, as well as a jazz dinner and happy hours.

For more information about Charlotte’s Jazz Festival click here.

#5 Stroll The Countryside on a Carolina Wine Tour

Within a 60 mile radius around Charlotte, there are over a dozen wineries of all shapes and sizes, including a cat-themed winery that just opened in York County!

Just southeast of Charlotte, you can live out childhood fantasies by enjoying some award-winning wine in a treehouse at The Treehouse Vineyards in Monroe. If you’re in the Lake Norman area, you can enjoy some local art with your wine at The Daveste Winery, or check out the largest family-owned vineard in North Carolina at The Shelton Vineyards.

The Chiquita headquarters vacated 6 floors of the NASCAR Hall of Fame building toward the end of last year, and now they found a tenant to sub-lease half of the 138,000 sqft space – the Charlotte Observer.

The Observer just announced that they will be moving out of their original 360,000 sqft building, a space they’ve occupied for 44 years, to move into 3 floors of the NASCAR building.

Local developer Lincoln Harris is now under contract to buy the old Observer building, which will soon be one of the largest developable tracts in Uptown Charlotte (9.4 acres – about 2 city blocks). They haven’t released plans yet as to what will be built on the site.

Over the past week, NC Governor Pat McCrory signed a new executive order that repeals parts of HB2 and expands equal opportunity protection for LGBT employees of the state.

Yesterday, he appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press to discuss why the bill was passed in the first place, and why he still stands behind some parts of it;

The governor said multiple times that the main reason behind HB2 was to block what he considered to be “government overreach” in the city of Charlotte.

“The city of Charlotte passed a bathroom ordinance mandate on every private sector employer in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the largest, 15th, 16th-largest cities in the United States of America. And I think that’s government overreach. It’s not government’s business to tell the private sector what their bathroom, locker room, or shower practices should be,” McCrory commented.

“This is a national debate that has literally come on in the last three months,” he also commented. “No one talked about it until Houston,” where the city overturned similar legislation to what was passed in Charlotte.

What do you think about HB2 and the governors new executive order?

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Charlotte is already home to some of the most entrepreneurial women in America, but this new movement is hoping to fuel even more dreamers.

She Flew the Coop follows four women who left something secure or stable to travel abroad and pursue a dream.

The journey starts with Sarah Batista, a single mom and former TV news reporter who left behind a decade-long career in 2013 to follow her “gut” and launch her own video/film production company, Stories to Inspire.

Sarah has always dreamed of becoming a documentary film director and after much hard work and perseverance her dream is becoming a reality!

In the full documentary, Sarah documents her own restlessness, fears and life-changing decision to downsize her life, sell her home and most of her belongings in Charlotte, NC to travel and interview three other women who “Flew the Coop” at one time or another.

It focuses on the question of “what would you sacrifice to pursue your dreams?” and delves deep into the fear and issues that keep women from going for it!

Some of the questions asked include;

What led up to you “flying the coop”? 

What did you sacrifice?

What happened when you left?

Please share and encourage others;

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The Charlotte Ballet just received their largest personal donation in history from the McColl family this past Saturday. They now plan on using the $1 million gift to completely re-develop the wildly popular “Nutcracker” play.

The show’s artistic director, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, plans on spending the entire $1 million on physical elements of this show, including; new unmatched costumes, hyper-realistic background elements, and a ‘magical’ growing tree that could become the new centerpiece of the play.

The Charlotte Ballet now hopes to outdo New York City and Chicago for the best Nutcracker performance in America;

Please share;

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