It’s not time to choose Team Hillary or Team Trump just yet, but it is time to vote for Creative Loafing‘s Best of Charlotte 2016.
Hit up our website at clclt.com/charlotte/BestofCharlotte2016/Page, where you’ll find the five usual sections — After Dark, Arts & Entertainment, City Life, Consumer Culture, and Food & Drink — and lots of categories. And that’s where you come in. We want you to fill in these sections by picking favorites. It’s all about you and the local people, places and things that you love. We added some new categories, like Best Doughnuts (Not that we’re trying to stump you or anything) and we kept a lot of the classics, including the ones that get folks riled up every year.
Rules and more information for Best of Charlotte 2016 voting are posted on our site, but as a rule of thumb just don’t do anything that you wouldn’t be able to do with real-life election voting. For all you rebels: You’ve already broken the first rule with all these write-ins.
We do welcome even the most outlandish responses, so don’t hold back on the things that are near and dear to your heart. But seriously, we don’t like shadiness here at CL, so no trying to vote multiple times and no voting for things outside of the Charlotte-area. If you list some thing like the Asheville-based brewery Wicked Weed for “Best Brewery,” we’ll be ignoring that vote (because as noted back in our April Beer Guide, there are more than 10 quality Charlotte breweries in the Q.C. alone. Another rule: If you’re wishy-washy and can’t decide about a category, do not fill in your top two choices. One. Only one vote per category. Also, make sure to fill out each section. N/A’s are always good for those few categories that leave you scratching your head and going ‘What?’ but we want the majority of the survey complete. You can carve time out of your day and take things section by section at a leisurely pace or you can be a true CL trooper and charge right through it all in one setting. We really don’t care how you do it, we just care that you get it done.
Online voting will go down for one month — meaning your absolute, no-exceptions deadline is Aug. 31. That gives us time in September to weed through everything and to tally up the votes.
Since we’re bringing back our Critics’ Picks this year — they didn’t run last year and we missed forcing our opinions on our readers — you can expect some snark. Sometimes winners aren’t quite sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing to pick up a Critics’ Pick. Most likely, it’s a good thing and if not, we urge folks to remember that they’re still getting exposure through our wisecracks. The truth helps and hurts, but we’re of the mindset that honesty is the best policy.
Our Best of Charlotte 2016 is always a hefty issue and it hits the stands on Oct. 5. That being said, we like to honor all of the winners and to pat ourselves on the back with a party. This year’s party is happening on Oct. 7 at McColl Center for Visual Art + Innovation. Back in 2013, when we last partied there, some staffers took it to another level by dressing up as zombies, our theme for that year.
This year we’re also planning a special theme — notice our vote now ad (look to the right) with masks. It’s a cosplay theme that welcomes comic, anime, Sci-Fi and supernatural characters — superheroes or villains — at our party. You don’t have to come dressed up, but it’d be cool if you did. We welcome the public to buy tickets and come party with us. Tickets will be available for purchase online closer to the party date.
We hope this week’s cover story by Corbie Hill on comic book writer Brockton McKinney and Charlotte Comicon might leave you inspired. Who wouldn’t want to try dressing up as the Gingerdead Man, who was concocted at a bakery from the ashes of a serial killer.
On another note about Charlotte Comicon, the event’s website boasts that 11 guests who starred in The Walking Dead will be there. Kudos if you can spot the ones who played zombies without their makeup.
The list goes on and on with other local and regional writers and illustrators slated to attend Charlotte Comicon. If you really want to shine at our Best of Charlotte 2016, we can’t think of a better place to go to people-watch and steal costume ideas.
Go check it out and go vote dammit.
This article appears in Aug 3-10, 2016.
