Matthews Alive Festival

Oh what memories! Back in the 1980's and early 1990's, this festival was called Stumptown Festival. Just before I was born (in the 1970's), my parents, older sister and brother lived mere blocks from here and would walk to the parade then the festival and walk through the booths. Eventually, they moved a few miles away, then my younger sister, and all 6 of us would come to the parade, then walk through the area with booths carefully avoiding the ride area as my parents could not afford to let us ride any of them, or buy the food. Fast forward to my teenage years in late 1980's, early 1990's, where we would come with friends, ride the rides, go through the booth area, buy all we wanted.My last actual time I was able to walk through the entire festival was back in 2003, when I came down to help my mother after a surgery. My last trip to Charlotte (Labor Day weekend 2018), I dragged my parents here on the Sunday. We were early-ish. We walked through some of it, but were unable to enjoy the full affect as they were still opening.This is a small town festival that is fairly inexpensive to do. Homemade items for sale. Some of the booths with items for sale are in the elementary school, which has been updated since the last time I was here. There are stages with live music, and other entertainment. A great time to be had by all. I did not get many pictures of my own as I was busy chatting with my parents, but check out the links below.Parking can be difficult at best. Crowds can be thick in places.For more information:https://www.matthewsalive.org/https://www.facebook.com/MatthewsAlive

It was 7PM. I'd just gotten my car back (I have it on Turo, which is basically Airbnb, but with cars). Having been in the house all day, I hadn't been able to keep my streak going on Pokémon Go! This being an inscrutable state of affairs, I decided that, instead of driving home, I'd head to one of my main Pokémoning sites: downtown Matthews. I arrived, parking as I do most often in the library/town hall parking lot (small town = multi-use public buildings. The court house in chapel hill is also the post office for example). I takedown all of the gyms in the area, set my guys in them, and then go Pokémon walking. To my pleasant surprise, the legendary gym I was walking to happened to fall smack-dab in the middle of a whole festival! I'm never one to turn down the opportunity at giant smoked turkey legs and deep fried Oreos - both of which are available at multiple vendors along the main walk - so I decide to stop Pokémoning for the moment and take in the event. Live music is a wonderful thing, and they have an entire soundstage set up just for it. The genre of choice seems to be bad country, which ain't my bag, baby, so I keep it moving. I recommend going at night. There are few things in life as immediately disarming as neon lights against an ebony sky, especially when those lights signal funnel cake and rides. Oh yeah, there are carnival rides in full effect. All the good hurlers, too. The ones that make your kids sick. The ones from which memories are built.Anywho, so there I am, hunting for the best giant smoked turkey leg, when I catch the Devine odor of cured pork fat. I know this can only mean one thing: bacon. There's a vendor that wraps everything in bacon. EVERYTHING. IN. BACON. I had bacon wrapped BBQ. That's right, I was in pigception. And it was glorious. I also had a pretty decent crabcake sammich (bun as set dressing only, I swear) and I cheated a bit, and got a refreshing frozen blueberry lemonade. I didn't stay long, but what I saw left a good taste in my mouth (literally and figuratively). Then I went back to catching all the Pokémon, so, you know, I was productive.

Another Matthews festival! I haven't lived in the area long but this is quickly becoming an annual tradition for the family to check this 4 day fest out. Its my excuse to eat funnel cake and deep fried oreos! Also noticed this year they have deep fried Reese's! Whaaa? Yeah I'm a fat American and I'll have a double order of those! I also love walking through the arts and crafts section, this year seemed to be the biggest yet, lots of local folk selling neat hand made goods from Christmas ornaments to glass ware to dog scarfs it is a huge variety. They also always have some live music, featuring some cover bands usually not bad. They usually have little kid carnival rides and games although I usually skip these.All in all we always have fun at Matthews Alive. Can't wait to run the 5k then straight over for a hand squeezed lemonade and a deep fried something!

I was AMAZED by the infant changing room. If you have a baby, it could not have been easier for diapers. Not only did they have a special room in a cool building, but there were diapers, wipes, and hand sanitizer provided as well as REAL changing tables - not just plastic ones you find in bathrooms. There was also an area to nurse your young one if needed. I have never seen anything like this at an outdoor festival. We'll definitely go again! The only negative thing I can say is that parking was a bit confusing. We managed to find a spot kinda far away but it wasn't 100% clear that it was actually legal where we were parked!

First time at MAF. Drove in from Fort Mill once I heard about the Saturday night musical headliner. Parking seems to be a bit of a mess, if you can even find a spot.Did a little bit of walking around before the concert. Seems like a fun environment, albeit very packed. Alcohol would be a better addition, but it's the Carolinas - so, I'm used to those type of ho-hum boo-hoo festivals by now. Because the sound was awful we left early to head to a bar anyway.Speaking of awful sound, Joe Diffie was the headliner and it was a complete disrespect to he and his musicians to not be able to set the sound properly!

Ok full disclosure here, was a volunteer this year. Since, this is such a well-organized, small-town festival, that I enjoyed when my kids were younger, I felt I had to give back. You want to eat? If it's fried-it's here but, there is also BBQ ribs, home-made root beer and creamy ice cream. Nice eating tent behind the booths next to the craft area. Huge craftsman area with @ 50 different booths; silver jewelry, t-shirts, fudge, moonshine cakes, geodes, wood birdhouse's, etcetera. Great bandstand area; Stumptown Park with great acts daily and a headliner nightly. Park your chairs early!Lots of carnival rides and a little kid section with pony rides. Tons of free company give-aways that are a step above the norm. I would recommend it to all, especially young families.

Family, fun, good and shopping. What more could you ask for. Love coming here every year to see what's new and browse the vendors. A must see for Labor Day weekend.

This year's 27th annual Matthew's alive festival, what's the most exciting and the most fun. That I have had in the past years. Town of Matthews keep up the good work, thank you to all the firemen EMTs and the police in Matthews job well done. Hope next year is even better than this one, thanks to our wonderful mayor Philip Bailey.