The Belmar concert series ended on different dates. The city's Sounds Exciting! series, the ticketed one with lawn seating in the amphitheater at Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park, wrapped its six-show run on July 29 with Paul McDonald & The Mourning Doves closing out the season. If that was the only Belmar series you followed, the back half of July genuinely felt like the end of live music in the neighborhood.
Street Fest provided a second concert calendar at the Plaza, with a different organizer, a different night, no ticket required, and a final date of August 6.
Two Organizers, Two Calendars, One Neighborhood
Sounds Exciting! is a City of Lakewood production, staged at the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Amphitheater inside Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park at 801 S. Yarrow St. It ran six shows from June 17 through July 29, with gates at 5 p.m., an opening act at 6:15, and a headliner at 7:15. Tickets ran $13 in advance and $18 at the gate, or $60 for a season pass covering all six shows, sold through the Lakewood Cultural Center box office. The lineup moved through genres week to week: bluegrass from High Lonesome, soul and southern rock from Macon Music Revue, indie rock from Walden, a widely anticipated return from Hazel Miller & The Collective, Americana from Chatham Rabbits, and rock to close from Paul McDonald & The Mourning Doves. The beer garden, sponsored by Foothills Credit Union, added a new $6 pour from Westfax Brewing this season.
Street Fest was a different event entirely. It was produced by the Belmar shopping district, not the city, and took place a few hundred feet away at The Plaza at Belmar on Upham Street rather than inside the park. It ran Thursdays, June 25 through August 6, from 6 to 8 p.m., and it was free. Some nights added a silent disco from 8:30 to 10.
The free series outlasted the ticketed one by more than a week, and its final show was Thursday, August 6. If you assumed Belmar's music season had closed with Sounds Exciting!, you missed that another calendar had run alongside it.
How Belmar's Two Concert Series Connected to Local Restaurants
The two series aren't just different in cost and location. They're built to do different jobs for the plaza.
Sounds Exciting! was ticketed and had an on-site beer garden. Street Fest was free, and its event description encouraged attendees to grab dinner or drinks from Belmar restaurants before the music.
That distinction matters more this year than it has in past seasons, because Belmar's restaurant lineup has genuinely changed. Great Divide Brewery & Roadhouse opened at Belmar as a partnership between the Denver-based Great Divide Brewing Company and Vibe Concepts, the Colorado restaurant group behind its food and service program. Lady Nomada Mexican Kitchen is now part of the plaza's dining mix, alongside TStreet Roadhouse, a contemporary spot serving brunch, lunch, dinner, and happy hour with a menu built around burgers, tacos, and oysters. Mason's Dumpling Shop rounds out the current lineup, with KPot listed as coming soon.
Street Fest's invitation gave attendees a way to experience Belmar's changing restaurant lineup.
The Farmers Market Is the Actual Backbone
Both concert series get the attention, but the Downtown Lakewood Farmers Market continues beyond them. It runs Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with more than 50 food and craft vendors weekly, plus its own food trucks and live music.
If you're trying to answer the honest question of when Belmar's summer season actually ends, the market gives you the real number: late September, not late July. Anyone treating July 29 as the neighborhood's last hurrah is closing the book more than eight weeks early.
A Few Blocks Away, a Third Calendar Entirely
Belmar isn't the only organized scene nearby, and it's worth separating out because people tend to lump it in with everything else happening downtown. The 40 West Arts District runs along West Colfax Avenue, not through Belmar's plaza, and it's a state-certified creative district with its own nonprofit organizing body rather than the city or the shopping center. Its First Friday art walk happens once a month, with galleries across four hub locations opening at 5 p.m., maps available on-site, and live music and light bites layered into the walk. The First Friday art walk was scheduled for August 7.
During the summer, at least three organizers ran separate calendars within a few square miles of downtown Lakewood: the city's Sounds Exciting! series, the Belmar shopping district's Street Fest and farmers market, and the 40 West Arts nonprofit's monthly art walk. The events could look like one continuous "Belmar events" season, but each had its own organizer and schedule.
What Was On August 6–8
- Thursday, August 6: Final Street Fest concert, The Plaza at Belmar, free, 6 to 8 p.m.
- Friday, August 7: First Friday art walk, 40 West Arts District, West Colfax Avenue, galleries open at 5 p.m.
- Saturday, August 8: Downtown Lakewood Farmers Market at Belmar, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
That first week of August brought three events from three different organizers, after the last Sounds Exciting! encore had already taken place.
Belmar rewards the people who know its actual structure, not just its reputation. The same holds true for the housing around it. If you're weighing whether now is the right time to sell in Lakewood, or you're simply curious what a home near Belmar is worth given how much the plaza has changed this year, Shannon Petrone at Petrone Properties can walk you through what's actually happening in the market, the same way this piece walked through what had been happening on the plaza. You can also browse more of our coverage on living in Lakewood or start with a free home valuation whenever you're ready.
