CHARLOTTE — An Asian culture and food festival in Charlotte was shut down by the fire marshal on Friday night.
Panda Fest in Charlotte was temporarily closed early on Friday evening due to outdoor cooking operations not meeting code requirements, but it reopened as scheduled on Saturday.
The Charlotte Fire Marshal required the early closure of Panda Fest at 7 p.m. on Friday to address code requirements related to outdoor cooking operations. The festival organizers worked with officials to resolve the issue, allowing the event to continue as planned the following day.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the Charlotte Fire Marshal required us to wrap up today’s festival at 7 pm due to outdoor cooking operations that needed adjustments to meet additional code requirements,” Panda Fest stated on Instagram.
Panda Fest told attendees that anyone affected by the early closure on Friday could request a refund through Eventbrite or use their ticket on Saturday or Sunday.
In addition to the festival’s temporary closure, Eventbrite, Panda Fest’s third-party ticketing vendor, experienced an unrelated outage on Friday night. The issue with Eventbrite has since been resolved, according to Abby Watkins, a representative for Panda Fest.
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