The woman behind that viral Charlotte airport video returns. Here’s where she visited.
You probably saw the video of her dancing in September. A traveler stranded overnight at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Mahshid Mazooji posted the video, “All Night Long at The Airport,” on YouTube around 5 a.m. Sept. 23. The link got picked up by USA Today and The Charlotte Observer, accumulating more than 1.9 million views and 15,000 “likes” in seven days.
The hype hit the internet after Mazooji convinced a handful of employees and stranded travelers at the Charlotte airport to join her late-night dance party when she missed a connection. As we reported in October, dancing to the beat of Lionel Richie’s hit “All Night Long” was her way of handling it.
She returned this month — still dressed in yoga pants and still smiling — to dance her way through the city beyond the airport at the invitation of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority (CRVA).
The CRVA developed an itinerary based on her interests.
“Like other travel writers and influencers we work with, we want to tell the story of Charlotte while providing a memorable way to experience the city,” CRVA communications manager Kristen Moore wrote in an email.
So instead of dancing her way through baggage claim and the empty air in front of American Airlines gate B7, Mazooji kicked her legs in the air in a whitewater raft at the U.S. National Whitewater Center.
She shook her hips with a dog from the pet adoption program at Aloft Charlotte Uptown, and again on a Segway with Charlotte NC Tours in Romare Bearden Park.
And she broke it down across the food and drink scene, from 5Church, to Salud Beer Shop, to Haberdish.
Her video from that trip is called “All Weekend Long in Charlotte” and features the Far East Movement song “Turn Up the Love,” featuring Cover Drive. The video was published Nov. 21 and had less than 1,000 views as of last night.
Maybe it didn’t go viral like the first video because people prefer watching something good come of something unfortunate. Maybe there were some gaps in her visit.
I would have also send Mazooji to The Punch Room or Stoke Charlotte for a drink, if she fully wanted to experience Uptown hotel night life. I would have sent her to Jeff’s Bucket Shop for karaoke, since she clearly loves to dance, and to Twerk for Your Beer at Lenny Boy Brewing Co., again, because she clearly loves to dance. Though it may not have fit into her weekend time frame.
Nonetheless, she certainly had her fun. Her video closes as she moonwalks into the Charlotte airport to head home, with a “Thank you Charlotte!” flashing across the screen.
And the video is just one more reminder that there are plenty of ways to pass the time here — relish it, even — just as Mazooji found there were plenty of ways to pass the time stuck in our airport. Don’t forget our list of 140 things to do in Charlotte.
Photos: Screen shots courtesy of Mahshid Mazooji/YouTube
This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 10:00 PM with the headline "The woman behind that viral Charlotte airport video returns. Here’s where she visited.."