FoodieLand brings 250 vendors to Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend, and tickets are online only

FoodieLand opens at Charlotte Motor Speedway at 3 p.m. today, September 18, and runs through Sunday, September 20. The traveling food festival brings more than 250 food and merchandise vendors to the speedway grounds in Concord, along with live music and games, and it is the largest event of its kind to land in the Charlotte area this year.

Hours are 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, according to the festival’s own event page. The address is 5555 Concord Parkway South in Concord, which is the speedway’s main entrance off Bruton Smith Boulevard.

Tickets are online only, and there is no re-entry

This is the detail most likely to ruin somebody’s evening. FoodieLand sells no tickets at the gate. Everything is bought in advance through the festival’s Eventbrite listing, and the organizers say events regularly sell out before the day. If you turn up at the speedway hoping to pay at the door, you will be turned away.

Tickets are timed by entry slot, though once you are inside there is no limit on how long you can stay. The festival will change a time slot for free through Eventbrite after purchase if your plans move. Children five and under get in free.

Re-entry is not allowed. A ticket is single use, so leaving to put shopping in the car or to find cheaper food outside means buying another one. Plan the visit as a single block of time, not a few passes through the afternoon.

Parking, rideshare and getting out again

Parking at the speedway is $10 per vehicle, payable by cash or card. General admission lots are entered from Concord Parkway South and Bruton Smith Boulevard, and space is limited across the three days. The organizers recommend carpooling or a rideshare, which is worth taking seriously on a Saturday evening at a venue this size.

Accessible parking is first come, first served and sits at the intersection of Concord Parkway South and Bruton Smith Boulevard. Guests should check in with the parking staff at that point and they will direct you to the ADA section. Rideshare pick up and drop off is at 5555 Concord Parkway South, the same address as the main entrance.

There is no light rail to the speedway. The Blue Line ends well south of Concord, so anyone hoping to avoid the parking fee is looking at a rideshare from Charlotte, and surge pricing on a Saturday night three days into a festival is a real cost to factor in.

What is actually there

The vendor list runs long and leans hard into things that photograph well. Birria tacos, quesadillas and burritos from Birrieria Michi. Lobster rolls, seafood fries and seafood mac and cheese from Blue Maine Lobster. Pasta finished in a cheese wheel, garlic lobster pasta and truffle cream pasta. Grilled bone marrow. Fried mac and cheese balls. Bacon wrapped jalapeños. Orange chicken and fried rangoon. Beignets, mini bingsoo and aguas frescas.

That is a fraction of the published list, and the mix is the point. FoodieLand is not a curated local event in the way Charlotte’s own food festivals are, and it is worth setting expectations accordingly. Most of these vendors travel the circuit with the festival instead of operating storefronts here. The Phoenix Raceway edition follows a week later, on September 25 to 27, with a comparable lineup.

For readers who want to eat the food that is actually made in this region, our guides to the city’s restaurants and taquerias are the better starting point. FoodieLand is a night out with a lot of choice in one place, which is a different thing and a perfectly good one.

It is in Concord, not Charlotte

Charlotte Motor Speedway carries the city’s name and sits in Cabarrus County, about 25 minutes northeast of Uptown on a clear run and considerably longer on a festival evening. The speedway anchors the Concord end of the region’s event calendar, and it has plenty else running around this weekend, which will affect traffic on Bruton Smith Boulevard.

It is also the weekend of the Duke’s Mayo Classic at Bank of America Stadium, with West Virginia and Virginia kicking off at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 19. Anyone planning to do both should look hard at the timings, because the two venues sit at opposite ends of the metro and Saturday evening traffic between them is not forgiving.

Who this suits

A group that cannot agree on dinner is the obvious case. So is anyone with a teenager, since the whole appeal is walking a long row of stalls and deciding as you go. Families with small children get in cheaper than they expect, because under fives are free and the grounds are flat and open.

It suits people who plan badly rather less well. Every constraint here is front loaded: buy the ticket first, arrive with a full tank, bring a card for parking, and accept that once you are through the gate you are staying. None of that is difficult, but all of it has to happen before you leave the house.

If you would rather stay closer in

Scarowinds opened for the season on September 17 and runs through October 31, which puts a second large ticketed event on the same stretch of I-77 corridor south of the city. That one is at Carowinds, down on the state line.

Our read: FoodieLand is worth the trip if you go on Friday evening or Sunday afternoon, buy the ticket now instead of at the weekend, and treat the $10 parking and the rideshare cost as part of the price of admission. Going in blind on Saturday night without a ticket is the way to end up eating at a drive through on Concord Parkway instead.

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