Carolina Renaissance Festival proposes changes to avoid last year’s traffic mess

After an onslaught of complaints during the 2021 Carolina Renaissance Festival, its organizers have proposed changes to traffic and parking in an attempt to avoid last fall’s problems.

Some nearby residents and festival-goers found themselves sitting in two to three hours of traffic last year, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. Organizers pointed to the record crowds after the pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 festival.

“The seasonal festival is established and not going away, and the homes are not going away,” festival producer Jeffrey Siegel said in RenFest’s report. “We commit to presenting new ideas and new traffic control improvements with a goal to be a good neighbor.”

Festival organizers and community representatives met to discuss traffic mitigation efforts.

In a report released Monday, the festival proposed a series of changes to help mitigate traffic, including:

▪ detours for non-festival traffic;

▪ expanded traffic signs to draw attention to the N.C. 73 entrance with real-time updates;

▪ relocation of the Poplar Tent Driveway entrance is underway and could be completed in time for this year’s event.

RenFest will use the same professional parking service it hired last year after pandemic-driven staff shortages, in addition to off-duty law enforcement officers, according to the report.

RenFest tickets

Ticket sales also will look different this year, festival organizers said. Rather than sell general admissions tickets that allow visitors to attend any of the 16 event dates, tickets will be date specific with more limited availability. Attendees can only buy tickets at the on-site box office if that date is not sold out.

Siegel advises visitors to purchase tickets online as soon as they become available this summer. The festival will remain open in the case of rain, but if it were to close due to “unsafe weather conditions,” ticket holders will be refunded or receive a ticket for a different date.

The festival also will open 30 minutes earlier, at 9:30 a.m. This measure is “intended to conclude parking more rapidly for peak arrival traffic,” the report says.

This year’s RenFest will take place on Saturdays and Sundays from Oct. 1 to Nov. 20. The festival, which started in 1994, is located on a 250-acre farm at N.C. 73 and Poplar Tent Road in Huntersville, just north of Charlotte.