Editor’s note: Want to help close down East Broad Street for Halloween? Fill out this volunteer form to be added to the organizing list!

Programming note: Due to some travel disruptions, I’ve shifted to Sunday sends for this weekend and next weekend. Thanks for your patience.—Dave.

Crashing a family cookout is considered poor form. But when the “family” is the entire East End, and the “cookout” is a free, all-day music festival to support public education in the arts, all are welcome.

That’s exactly how Samuel Brown hopes people feel about the 2026 East End Festival, which takes place Saturday, September 26th from 11am-7pm at Shockoe Bottom’s 17th Street Market. “The best way to view the festival is like an open-door to a family cookout,” he told The Lookout in a recent phone call. The former East End resident, community safety coordinator, and mentor at Peter Paul Development Center is now serving as a project manager for this year’s fest. It’s a new way for him to experience the event: a seasoned bassist, for years he played East End Festival stages with various bands.

This year, it’ll be Brown’s fellow Richmond area musicians taking the stage later this month to soundtrack the East End Festival’s packed schedule of family-friendly activities and vendors. And there are a lot of them. “We’re talking about the Richmond Symphony, we’re talking about the No BS! Brass Band, we’re talking about Lenny Holmes,” he said, rattling off the first three of the six acts that are slated to perform. They’ll be followed by The DAP Mallory Band (“kind of like your uncle’s favorite jazz band, so soulful”), James Saxsmo Gates (“he’s a professor at Virginia State University!”), and Sounds Funny Band (“their feature artist Micah Bam-Bamm White is full of energy.”)

All this live entertainment is totally free for attendees—a welcome treat at a time when Virginia gas prices are creeping back up towards their all-time highs.

“We want folks to come and enjoy,” said Brown. Being that the East End Festival was founded in 2016 to raise money for arts programs in Richmond Public Schools’ badly underfunded East End branches, he hopes that attendees will reroute the money they might otherwise have spent on tickets into donations to the event’s “Bucket Brigade,” which will be out in force to collect cash for the kids. (For the cashless, donations can also be made via QR code on the day-of; the festival accepts contributions on a rolling basis through its GiveButter page.) “We’re definitely partying with a purpose,” said Brown.

And about that cookout: the stacked musical lineup will provide the aural ambiance for a moveable feast at the 17th Street Market. The menu is laden with local favorites, including Sweet Temptations by Teresa, Soul-Ice, and Blessed Meals on Wheels. Many of the food and drink vendors are affiliated with the Richmond Black Restaurant Experience, which is partnering with the event for the first time this year. “An easy marriage,” said Brown.

To keep young East Enders (ages 5-8) engaged while adults eat, drink, and be merry, programmers have created a “Kid Zone” with adult chaperones to watch over a “game truck experience,” Velcro soccer darts, an interactive challenge called “The Arena,” and more. “That’s the essence a family event, and we'll also have the [Greater Richmond Transit Company] Art Bus and the Richmond Public Schools Lit Bus,” said Brown. “It's just gonna be a lot of fun over there in that area, and that's gonna be on the other side of the plaza, so you won't feel like you're right in the concert on on the Main Street side.”

To get people to and from the party, GRTC will be running shuttles from 10:30am-7:30pm to three separate parking areas in the East End, as well as the area’s Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority locations. The transit allowed organizers to move the festival back to the Bottom after holding the 2025 event in Chimborazo Park.

“We wanted to bring it more back to a central location so everybody can have that East End experience,” explained Brown. “The 17th Street Market has always historically been a place where people have come to share artisanship […] We're really kind of bringing the essence of that back.”

Possum Poetry is original verse written exclusively for The Lookout by Penelope Poubelle, the Lookout’s litter critter-at-large. If you spot roadside trash you’d like her to immortalize in doggerel, email a photo to [email protected]. All submissions anonymous!

It’s taken Richmond’s Department of Public Works the better part of a year to activate just 10 red-light cameras around the city. If that seems like a long time for a little progress, it should: earlier this year, a trade journal reported that New York City underwent a five-week spree to put the devices at 50 intersections each week, with a target of installing 450 total by the end of 2026.

Still, as of late August, Richmond finally turned on its 10th array at Fairfield Avenue and Mechanicsville Turnpike. It’s the East End’s second red-light camera set-up (the first, at E. Main and N. 25th Sts., was activated this past spring), and it will issue warnings for 30 days from August 27th, then switch over to $50 tickets.

The Richmonder has previously reported that Richmond can install as many as 23 red-light cameras under state law. But a spokesperson for the city, Jensen Gavulic, told The Lookout that’s all for now:

The Richmond Police Department may be relieved to hear it. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Samuel Parker reported last week, its own officers have been caught by the cameras running lights in marked squad cars more than 100 times since they were turned on earlier this year.

Severe thunderstorms midday Saturday threatened to throw a wrench in the works—er, a stick in the spokes—of the seventh-annual Ride and Dive, the summer-ending sortie in which Richmonders of all stripes take to the streets en masse to cycle to all seven of the city’s public pools. We’ve been very lucky with the weather in past years,” Alex Fisher, the Church Hill resident who has organized the annual outing since 2019, told The Lookout earlier this week by text. “This was the first time it’s ever been an issue.”

And boy, wast it—until the skies cleared around 1:30pm. Fisher rallied a rain-soaked, swim-ready peloton that, having been denied a plunge at Fairmount Pool due to the lingering thunder, struck out for Woodville, the second stop on his previously tested route. (As he has for years, he conducted a dry run for Ride and Dive VII a week prior to the actual event to gauge conditions on the city’s notoriously sketchy roads and bike lanes.) “By the time we got to Hotchkiss (pool #3) we had over 100 people,” Fisher said.

Despite some recurrent rain showers throughout the afternoon, Ride and Dive VII was a success. “This was the smoothest the ride has ever gone,” figured Fisher. “A couple flats that were quickly fixed, I gave away a tube to somebody and there were plenty of volunteers to help change tires.” Volunteers stepped up to “cork” cross-streets, keeping direct interactions with cyclists and cars to a minimum. Fisher reported no major safety incidents—no mean feat in a city with streets as dangerous as Richmond’s.

“The make up of the ride was different this year,” Fisher said. “Most years I personally know a lot of the participants. This year I only knew a couple.” Word has clearly gotten out.

Happenings on The Hill is a digital bulletin board for events, causes, and other items of interest to East Enders that don’t necessarily merit full editorial treatment. Got something for a future edition? Email the relevant details, links, etc. to [email protected] for consideration!

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