Koka Booth Amphitheatre

The Chinese Lantern Festival in Carey, NC is an amazing experience during the holiday seasons! Tickets on off days are reasonably priced with plenty to see. It provides a unique insight into the Chinese culture while also telling some of the Chinese most infamous tales; such as The Monkey King and other lore. They serve warm drinks and food at the festival if you get hungry. Overall a phenomenal experience and highly recommend for anyone to see.

Koka Booth is a great place to attend a concert or event. The Chinese Lantern Festival that occurs every year is a must visit. I really liked the food and drink options that they had for it this past year. Sign up for their email communications to stay up-to-date on what is coming here.

Koka Booth is a beautiful outdoor venue. I have not attended a concert here but did attend the Chinese Lantern Festival in 2021 and enjoyed how spacious this venue is. I enjoyed some spiked hot chocolate from the concession stand and watched the traditional performances during the festival at the main stage. I look forward to attending a concert here in the near future.

I love this venue! A first-class outdoor amphitheater with excellent sight lines and sound, which is very important for a music venue. The facilities are top-notch and very well maintained. Food and beverage options are terrific. The staff is very courteous and works hard to ensure that a good time is had by all. Of all of the outdoor venues I've been to, this is my favorite.

I enjoy seeing and supporting local talent and businesses. I've thoroughly enjoyed every event I've ever attended at Koka Booth. A great event space for all events.

Nice overall venue for concerts and other events. Tuesday was our second visit here, the first being in 2016 for the Chinese Lantern Festival. This time it was for the Robert Plant - Allison Krauss concert. Luckily, I wasn't the oldest person in the venue. My date (my wife) was like, "Robert who?" No babe, he was the lead singer for Led Zeppelin not The Who. Growing up we obviously had different musical tastes. No matter where you sit whether it be upfront or in the lawn area, you can still hear the music really well and see the stage. The concession area lines move really quick with fast and courteous service. On this night, there were four food trucks off to the left of the stage near the pond area. We patronized the Charlie Kabob truck.Parking at Koka Booth is fairly simple and easy. There is paid and free parking (while spaces last). The free parking is furthest from the entrance and can be a bit of a walk. Get there early and tailgate to avoid the traffic.

TLDR: Good fairly intimate venue with average alcohol and food sections. Lawn still brings good views, bring a chair, skip it in bad weather. This venue is somewhat dependent on which event and companies are involved hence the negative experiences some people had at a recent popular event. I have only a few check ins here but have been many times for various events and activities. The majority of the time, the staff is organized and it's clear where to park and how to get around. Larger crowds are becoming more common everywhere you may go in the triangle and as such bring some patience and come early. There's very limited covered seating here so plan accordingly if the weather is trash. Okay to bring chairs and blankets. Usually have wine/beer available and a few other small food items. Sometimes events will have a food truck option but usually I've found they stick to the normal concessions. Overall I've always enjoyed the things I've seen here and made a few memories.

Went to see Billy Strings. What a terrible venue when sold out - super long queues that were literally 2 miles long on a hot evening. Don't get me wrong - the security, bar and other staff were very nice, but I'd suggest (my opinion) that the sold out concert we saw was filled to over capacity. I'm no expert, but it seemed to me to be so packed that it was a personal injury waiting to happen. Interestingly, the only happy people in there were some who must have brought in some "smoking" items (the air was pretty heavy with weed smoke). I gave two stars for the staff mentioned earlier and also the shuttle bus drivers from the farther parking lots, which were about 2 miles from the venue. The bus drivers appeared to work on the principle of "no man left behind", which was very kind given the heat and the distance. I've been to this venue a few times over the years and always found it not great for the same reason - they pack it so full of people that it's not intimate in any way - I've found that Red Hat is WAY better than this when fully sold out. This is, of course, only my opinion - your mileage may vary!

Love the ambience but the food options need to strongly improve for the vegetarian. We need some real protein options and more than just a rice bowl. I planned to get the "veggie nuggets" tonight but then found out they were just cauliflower. Bleh! How about something with beans or chickpeas or eggs? So hungry right now as the soft pretzel and popcorn are not satisfying my belly.

Cute, BUT, not enough bathrooms- not even close. Not enough garbage cans....all were full all the time. Terrible traffic getting out. What ever you want to go see, it's not worth being stuck in a parking lot trying to get out for that long.