This Mother's Day weekend there’s quite a few options for spending some time with mom or maybe other special people in your life. Andy Smith, arts and culture editor for Charlotte magazine joined WFAE’s Mark Rumsey to talk details about what's happening around the Queen City.
Mark Rumsey: So the Charlotte SHOUT!Festival is wrapping up its two-week run with a full schedule of events from concerts to community discussions. What are some highlights in your view?
Andy Smith: This is a really unprecedented thing that's happening across the city with the public art and the big bunnies in Uptown that I'm sure everybody's seen. But I think they're really going to stick the landing with these concerts this weekend. [There's] Anthony Hamilton, Charlotte's own. There's Umphrey’s McGee. So I mean and there's going to be things popping up all over the place.
There's also going to be a massive public art installation called Constellation, and there'll be music and lights mixed together. So I think if you just, you know, take a cursory walk around uptown Charlotte this weekend, you're going to find something crazy to take a look at for a few minutes.
Rumsey: And would it be possible to be sort of wandering around Uptown and come across an event, concert or some other activity and not even know for sure that this was part of Charlotte SHOUT!?
Smith: Oh absolutely. I mean, it's sort of tucked in the corners here. There are, like I mentioned, those bunnies. If you're walking just by the green all of a sudden you can see these enormous inflatable things ... you can see it's also a lot of very Instagrammable moments you can kind of see for yourself.
Rumsey: It sounds like it. All right. So one more shot at Charlotte SHOUT! Also on the festival front Andy, there's a new festival in town right?
Smith: Yeah, End to End. The subtitle is a confluence of innovation. Very lofty, but it's this mix of tech symposium, mural festival and music. Camp North End has been the site that's sort of been growing and active over the past couple of years and I think this is one of the biggest events that they've thrown so far. So there are going to be like 14 murals going up on these industrial doors this weekend. And one of the big artists coming in are the London Police, a European duo who are known for doing murals across the world. So it's really cool to see them in town alongside David Wesley and all these artists that are sort of local treasures at the same time.
Rumsey: And these murals that are going up for End to End, are they going to stay in place there at Camp North End?
Smith: Yeah. This is just the latest round of missiles that have been added to this enormous site and they're just collecting them as they go at this time. So if you ever want a good walking tour of the arts, I think that's a great place to start.
Rumsey: Very good. So if one is looking for a confluence of innovation, that's the place to be. On a different note for the weekend starting tonight and through Saturday, there is an option for some comedic relief with Nicole Byer. She's a standup comedian, writer and just general media personality — including a baking show that streams on Netflix. What should we expect from her stand up appearance?
Smith: Well yeah. She's a hilarious comic. I mean we see her on that show, which is all about people who lack the confectionary perfection of a lot of other reality TV shows. But Nicole Byer is also the host of a podcast called “why won't you date me” where she brings people on and they kind of critique her Tinder profile and talk about why they may or may not date her. So you know you're going to see someone who's really vulnerable and self-deprecating, but really funny at the same time.
Rumsey: And Nicole Byer will be performing when and where?
Smith: At the Charlotte Comedy Zone from Thursday through Saturday. It's sort of one of the gems of the music factory over there. It's been going on for several years now.
Every Thursday, tune into All Things Considered on WFAE 90.7 for our latest Weekend in Entertainment segment featuring voices from Charlotte's media scene bringing you the latest music, cultural and social events.
