A good time could be had by those who dared venture uptown in Saturday's 92-degree heat.
"Saturday was the time to dance, paint, eat - even watch a display of guerrilla knitting - as thousands hit uptown Charlotte for a day of 92-degree fun. It began in the morning at the corner of Fifth and College streets, where a hand-knit cape appeared on the Queen Charlotte statue, in honor of Worldwide Knit in Public Day.
"For more than 200 years she's been wearing the same dress," said Amy Rogers of Charlotte. "She needed a makeover." So Rogers and three other knitting artists brought unfinished bits of various knit garments and stitched them together on the spot.
The result was a colorful cape for the queen and sweaters for her two statue dogs. "When things are dire in so many ways," said Rogers, "it's nice to have a creative outlet."
Painting the skyline
On North Tryon Street at the McColl Center for Visual Art, kids grabbed brushes to paint a mural of Charlotte's skyline. Artist Raymond Burton outlined the work on 40 huge plywood panels. Then anyone who stopped by could fill in skyscrapers and clouds.
When the mural is finished this month, it'll serve as the construction fence at Charlotte Area Transit's North Davidson bus facility at 12th and North Davidson streets. "It's something they can drive by and point to and say, 'Hey, I did that,'" said Cassandra Thompson, 36, who brought her son and nephew straight from football practice to paint.
'Foom, bop, open, open!'
Next door to the center, a jazz dance class was grooving to Kris Allen's "Live Like We're Dying" as part of an open house at N.C. Dance Theatre's new headquarters. "Let's give me a foom, bop, open, open!" shouted teacher Rachel Tucker, showing a string of funky moves to a class of 14 girls, boys and a few grown-ups.
Classes in jazz, ballet, hip-hop and more were free all afternoon at the new $11.5million Patricia McBride & Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux Center for Dance.
Taste of Charlotte
Outside on Tryon Street, Renee Love, 38, drank a Miller Lite at the Taste of Charlotte festival while posing for a picture with a street performer dressed as the silvery statue of a chef. The statue act was so good that Love jumped when she realized the chef was a real guy - 16-year-old Myers Park High student Nicholas de la Canal.
"It reminded me of the Tin Man," Love said, as she stood amid festival-goers who were sampling crab cakes, ribs and wings. "He's like a magical ghost," said her 11-year-old son, Joshua."
~ Source: CharlotteObserver.com
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