Guide to Carowinds WinterFest 2023 with backstage interviews
Carowinds WinterFest 2023 is back for another holiday season, and we got a peek behind the curtain at the new Tacky Sweater Bar, the park’s transformation from Halloween to Christmas, and more.
What did the eight-year-old version of you want for Christmas? Ryan Allen, director of live entertainment at Carowinds, prompted this question as a starting point for his team in bringing WinterFest to life for 2023.
“That was our filter,” Ryan told us in a media interview. “We really leaned into the childlike wonder of what the holiday season could be.”
There’s an extensive line-up of live entertainment under Allen’s stewardship during WinterFest; however, the nighttime event also features a variety of experiences beyond live shows. For starters, five million lights line the trees, midways, and landscaping throughout Carowinds. Several of the park’s signature coasters are open, and an endless array of holiday food is exclusive to WinterFest.
We’ll get into all of it, and hear from creatives who are making WinterFest happen select nights at Carowinds now through Jan. 1, 2024. First, let’s take a look at what’s new this year.
New for 2023: Tacky Sweater Bar
Tacky Sweater Bar is the hidden gem of this year’s WinterFest. The holiday-themed bar with mid-century stylings sets up shop near Copperhead Strike.
Unashamedly, well, tacky, the new location’s decor is glitzy and in-your-face. Throughout the bar are private nooks with comfortable chairs. The cozy hideaway, which doesn’t require reservations or virtual queues, is a welcome addition to the WinterFest lineup.
Tacky Sweater Bar’s drink menu includes beverages served cold (like “Santa-Gria,” a mix of Sprite, Spanish red wine, and cranberry) and warm (like Peanut Buttery Winter, a cup of hot chocolate, peanut butter whiskey, and whipped cream). Tacky Sweater Bar also serves mocktails (like Icy Winter Breeze, a blend of lemonade and Sprite with a snowy rim).
It seems most guests don’t know Tacky Sweater Bar exists quite yet. On the first night of WinterFest, we stopped by the establishment three separate times to check on crowd levels, and Tacky Sweater Bar was nearly empty every time. It’s not likely to remain that way as more guests discover it and/or as the event’s crowds swell overall closer to Christmas. For now, though, you might just have the place to yourself.
New for 2023: “Tinker’s Reindeer Round-Up!”
Tinker is one of Santa’s elves, and something of a WinterFest mainstay. The character has starred in several stage shows at the event over the years. New for 2023, Tinker needs your help to save Christmas in “Tinker’s Reindeer Round-Up!,” a free scavenger hunt.
Pick up an activity map in Celebration Plaza near the park entrance to get started. As you enjoy WinterFest, be on the lookout for Santa’s reindeer scattered throughout the park at the locations designated on your activity map. Upon finding each reindeer, collect a pin from a nearby associate. When you’ve collected all of your pins, visit Santa at St. Nick’s Pics to redeem a medallion.
Free, kid-friendly activities returning from years past include a craft station operated by Sally Brown (Charlie Brown’s sister) and the North Pole post office, where guests can write letters to Santa.
New for 2023: Holiday Traditions
Guests can learn about holiday celebrations from around the world and from local Carolina residents at Holiday Traditions, a new offering in the park’s Crossroads area (between Camp Snoopy and Afterburn).
Allen suggested visiting on the hour to hear voiceovers from Carowinds’ leadership team proudly sharing their own holiday traditions.
In the Kitchen with Chef Loukas
What’s a holiday party without treats? While Carowinds Executive Chef John Loukas admitted he prefers savory over sweet, he and his team prepared a vast array of dishes in both categories for this year’s WinterFest.
Loukas’ favorite WinterFest menu item? The Gobbler, which he described as a “leftover Thanksgiving” sandwich. The plate was inspired by personal experience.
“As chefs,” Loukas said, “we usually eat at midnight on Thanksgiving after the rush. We make our own sandwich” from the leftover dishes. As such, The Gobbler stacks sliced turkey breast, cornbread stuffing, cranberry mayonnaise, and turkey gravy on ciabatta bread. Loukas noted the bread is baked fresh every day, aligning with “the typical New York process of receiving bread,” as he called it. The Gobbler is available at Snowbird Diner (near Fury 325).
It’s no exaggeration to say the room of reporters who were gathered for Loukas’ presentation emitted a collective gasp upon the reveal of the next item: a bacon cinnamon roll. It’s exactly what it sounds like, and seems to be a hit. You can find it at Blue Ridge Fixins (near Copperhead Strike).
“This is the one that I think we might start to package and sell everywhere in the world,” Loukas joked about the bacon cinnamon roll. “The team really did an awesome job here.”
Other specialty items include a candy apple turkey leg, ginger snap cheesecake, white chicken pizza, pumpkin spice churros, deep fried cornbread, spicy guacamole, four styles of hot chocolate (mocha, cherry peppermint, s’mores, and pumpkin spice), and more. Check out the menus here.
Carowinds WinterFest 2023 Live Entertainment
From full-scale productions to atmospheric musicians, WinterFest boasts a lot of entertainment.
“Twas: A Merry Mishap” is a streetmosphere show that performed during the park’s pandemic-era holiday event in 2020 and makes its formal WinterFest debut this year. Performing in Carolina Boardwalk, the show involves audience participation to tell the story of “The Night Before Christmas.”
“Twas is one of my favorite shows that we’ve ever done,” Allen said. He continued, “When it comes to producing something new, we take a step back and say, ‘Who are we trying to make this for? Is this a family show, an adult-focused show, an atmosphere show?’ Once we can answer some of those filtered questions, it helps us figure out what we need to do and what our next steps are.”
Sometimes new experiments don’t land, and the team adjusts as necessary. For example, this year Allen and his staff planned on relocating Santa’s meet & greet to Camp Snoopy, but “very quickly knew it wasn’t the right answer,” Allen said. They switched gears to the original venue (St. Nick’s Pics, near Afterburn) in a turn-around of 12 hours. It’s all in a day’s work of theme park management.
WinterFest’s biggest productions are “Tinker’s Toy Factory” (an indoor show with live vocalists, dancers, and the aforementioned Tinker the elf); “Cool Yule” (a revue of holiday pop hits); and the WinterFest Wonderland Parade (which steps off at 9 p.m. each night of the event). Consult the park map or the Carowinds app (newly redesigned and debuting with WinterFest) for a full list of shows, performance times, and locations.
Photos by Ryan Carpenter
Rides Open During Carowinds WinterFest 2023
In addition to the park-wide seasonal activities, many rides operate during WinterFest, including Carowinds’ signature coaster, Fury 325, as well as the new-ish Copperhead Strike coaster (which opened in 2019). The park’s other head honcho coasters — Intimidator, Nighthawk, and Afterburn — are closed during WinterFest.
Aeronautica Landing, Carowinds’ aviation-focused land that opened last spring, celebrates its first holiday season with four of its new attractions open during WinterFest. Allen pointed out the decor for the area centers on penguins — flightless birds in a flight-themed land. Check out our report from Aeronautica Landing’s grand opening here.
Meanwhile at the center of the park, Carolina Skytower — the slow-moving, circular elevator attraction — offers a unique vantage point to look down upon the park’s millions of lights. See the full list of attractions open during WinterFest 2023 here.
Upcharge Experiences
Several WinterFest activities require an additional fee:
- Ice skating: $15 for 45 minutes (includes skate rental)
- Cookie decorating: $23 for four giant cookies, frosting, and sprinkles
- “Igloo” rental: $199 for private cabana with concierge service and amenities
Guests can purchase access to these experiences when buying WinterFest admission online, or upon arrival to the park (pending availability).
Santa Snoopy, Holiday Icon
Like all Cedar Fair parks, Carowinds is home to the Peanuts crew. There are a few ways guests can celebrate the holidays with Charlie Brown throughout WinterFest:
- Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Plaza Stage at 5:30 p.m. featuring Santa Snoopy
- Character greeting at Camp Snoopy fountain with a Peanuts friend standing next to the Christmas tree Charlie Brown picked out from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
- “A Peanuts Guide to Christmas,” a live show inside the Harmony Hall dining location
At the flagship store inside Camp Snoopy, guests can find a large selection of Snoopy-themed holiday merchandise. Some items are exclusive to WinterFest and park-specific to Carowinds.
A limited selection of Peanuts holiday merchandise is available on Carowinds’ online shop.
Transforming Carowinds from Scary to Merry
The whole park was completely in Halloween mode less than three weeks before this year’s first WinterFest night on Nov. 17, 2023.
Allen said 90-95% of Carowinds’ autumn performers from Scarowinds and The Great Pumpkin Fest are also part of WinterFest. The cast’s preparation for this year’s shows began Nov. 1, 2023, so it’s a tight pivot for this extent of entertainment.
Both Scarowinds and WinterFest face different challenges. Theme park haunts like Scarowinds, Allen explained, must continually offer something unique that sets them apart from year-round escape rooms and other increasingly popular themed experiences emerging in a changing industry. That realm of competition didn’t exist when Paramount Parks, the former owner of Carowinds, began their Halloween endeavors at the park in 2000.
“The psychology of scare has shifted significantly,” Allen said, “and we’ve had to shift significantly, too.”
Meanwhile for WinterFest, Carowinds teams place their approach in a completely different mindset, far distant from paranormal horrors.
“Christmas and the holiday season is different,” Allen continued, “because the holidays mean different things to different people. There are some folks who this holiday season is tough [on], and so we get to build a place that feels like home.”
The creative process for WinterFest 2024 will begin shortly after Thanksgiving 2023. Park personnel usually starts planning about a year ahead for seasonal events.
“We’ve started Halloween conversations already for next year,” Allen revealed. “Summer is pretty much buttoned up, which is great.” He continued, “WinterFest is now officially six years old,” referring to WinterFest’s modern-day debut in 2017 following a brief stint in the mid-2000s. “We all, as a company, are saying, ‘What is the next version of this experience? What things are we doing that push the needle or that feel exciting or engaging?'”
Carowinds WinterFest 2023 Tickets
WinterFest continues at Carowinds select nights through Jan. 1, 2024. The event takes place 5-10 p.m. each night of operation, with the exception of New Year’s Eve (which will operate 5 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.). WinterFest is Carowinds’ only remaining park time for 2023; the park is not open for regular daytime operations.
It’s simply not possible to see everything within the five hours of WinterFest. That’s a good problem to have! To maximize your time, plan on arriving to Carowinds at 4:30 p.m. That way you can park your car and go through the security checkpoint prior to the event officially starting at 5 p.m.
Additionally, with so much to see and do, select a few priorities to focus on. You don’t need to have every moment planned; however, it’s smart to enter the park having already decided what’s most important to you: rides, shows, dining, or activities.
Single-night tickets start at $33. Season passholders can purchase bring-a-friend tickets starting at $25.
Gold season passholders for the 2023 operating season — as well as guests who have already purchased or renewed a gold season pass for the 2024 season — have unlimited WinterFest admission for all nights of the event.
Explore ticket options here.
Pro Tip: Dress in Layers
As a piece of parting advice, plan your WinterFest attire to include layers you can easily remove and put back on with ease. While most of the event takes place outside, the indoor offerings (namely restaurants and the “Tinker’s Toy Factory” show) are kept at toasty temperatures. They’re a nice escape from the cold on chillier evenings, but you might get hot if don’t have an easy way to remove a bulky sweater or otherwise immovable outer layer.
