Beer Salt and “Cupid Shuffle”: A guide to the free stuff at Speed Street

One benefit of working uptown is easy access to Speed Street. It opened Thursday, so Katie Toussaint and I used our lunch break to go wander around the NASCAR street festival.

I never carry cash — and I’m super cheap — so my goal was to find as much free stuff as I possibly could.

Not gonna lie: I was a little disappointed. But at least I got to dance and drink a little.

Here are the 7 free things I found at Speed Street:

(1) Beer Salt.

It’s exactly what it sounds like — salt for your beer. You take the salt and put it around the rim of your Bud Light to make it taste more … tropical? I don’t know, but the lime one tasted pretty good.

It’s not a bad idea, but this is one of those inventions where I wonder, “Who thought this was something the world needed?”

(2) Soft drinks.

OK, this one’s pretty boring, but they had some Lipton Tea and Coke Zero. Confession: I went to the Coke Zero booth twice.

(3) Basketball.

It’s one of those inflatable games with two hoops so you can compete against a friend. Katie beat me 11-3.

I literally made one shot. She plays tennis. I have no excuse.

(4) Sour candy.

Definitely ate the whole bag at my desk while writing this. I hate myself a little bit because of it.

(5) Cornhole.

Look at that form.

.@CoreyInscoe plays cornhole alone at #speedstreet. Because it’s free. pic.twitter.com/APqPkealAf

— Katie Toussaint (@katietoussaint) May 21, 2015

(6) Wine.

I don’t know anything about wine, but Katie does. She told me to get a (surprisingly large) sample of Rex-Goliath merlot. And some beads. For journalism.

Checking out some freebies at #speedstreet. #rexgoliath wine samples galore if your happy hour has started. pic.twitter.com/r0mVdOQThq

— CharlotteFive (@Charlotte_Five) May 21, 2015

(7) “Cupid Shuffle.”

I’m a huge fan of line dances. “Cupid Shuffle,” the “Wobble,” the Electric Slide. So of course I joined in. Katie was reluctant, but she did, too.

Things you can do for free at Speed Street: the Cupid Shuffle. (Yep, we totally did it. )

A video posted by CharlotteFive (@cltfive) on May 21, 2015 at 11:17am PDT

There are also free concerts this weekend: Parmalee and Corey Smith will be there tonight.

Maybe one of them will play the “Wobble” …

Corey Inscoe is editor of CharlotteFive. Follow him on Twitter @CoreyInscoe.

This story was originally published May 21, 2015 at 10:26 PM with the headline "Beer Salt and “Cupid Shuffle”: A guide to the free stuff at Speed Street."