If you have lived in Camas for more than a couple of summers, you have a mental map of July and August. Wednesday belongs to the Farmers Market. Thursday belongs to Crown Park. The last weekend of July belongs to bathtub races. That map still works. It has also, quietly, been redrawn.
This year the two weekly anchors of a Camas summer have both changed addresses at least once, the concert series has grown out of its one-park home for the first time in a while, and the calendar around Camas Days is denser than it has been in memory. If you are trying to plan a summer without pulling up three websites every Tuesday night, here is the actual shape of it.
The Thursday That Just Moved
The Summer Concerts in the Park series is back for a 29th year, and for most of that history you could set your watch by it: Crown Park, Thursdays, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. That is still mostly true. What is different is that on Thursday, July 27, the music turns into a fun DJ/radio format to kick off the celebration at the Riverside Skatepark Grand Re-opening, and additional pop-up concerts will take place on August 8 at a park to be determined and August 15 at Fallen Leaf Lake Park. Two of the six Thursday nights this year are not at Crown Park at all.
The other shift is what kicked the season off. Crown Park's grand reopening on July 2, 2026 ran from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and again from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 120 NE 17th Ave., with activities in the park, food trucks, games, an afternoon ribbon cutting, and the first concert of the summer series at 6:30 p.m. That gives residents a refreshed park to walk into for the concert weeks that follow.
Here is the Thursday lineup worth putting on the fridge:
| Date | Act | Location |
|---|---|---|
| July 6 | Collective Nation (modern dance hits) | Crown Park |
| July 13 | Pa'Lante (salsa and Latin jazz) | Crown Park |
| July 20 | Shades of Huey (Huey Lewis covers) | Crown Park |
| July 27 | SameWave Radio (DJ format, 4–7 p.m.) | Riverside Skatepark |
| August 8 | The June Bugs (folksy pop) | TBD park |
| August 15 | The 4 Kings (soul-jazz and groove) | Fallen Leaf Lake Park |
Two small logistical notes that matter for a real Thursday. Natalia's Too food concession will be available at most of the concerts, and you can support your local restaurants by purchasing take-out meals from a variety of Downtown Camas restaurants or from Top Burger, located across the street from the park. For the opening night, Razo's Tacos was on site with food for purchase, and Backpacker Pizza offered to deliver pizzas straight to the park, with preorders recommended so it arrives hot. If the pizza-delivery-to-a-park detail is new to you, you are not the only one. It is the sort of thing a resident who has been going for a decade would still miss.
The Wednesday Detour
The Farmers Market is where the resident map has genuinely rerouted. The Camas Farmers Market runs from 3pm–7pm every Wednesday from June 3rd to September 30th, 2026 in Historic Downtown Camas, which is roughly the schedule you remember. What is different is the address. The opening on June 3rd celebrated the market's 19th season in a temporary new location at 314 NE Birch Street, with a ribbon cutting by Mayor Hogan and President Shannon Van Horn.
If you routinely park in the same spot for the market, that spot may no longer be the right spot. The Birch Street footprint changes the feel of the walk between the market, the bakeries on 4th, and dinner afterward at Feast or Nuestra Mesa. It also means the market is now on the same block as several of the businesses hosting First Friday activity, which compresses the mid-week downtown circuit rather than spreading it out.
Two market details worth knowing before you show up hungry:
- Complimentary berry shortcake goes to the first 300 customers at the berry-themed market, made with fresh berries from Theony, Pheasant's Eye, and Annie's Berry Farms. Get there early or plan on a photo of someone else's dessert.
- Used veggies from the kids' veggie-car races get donated to local animal rescues to help feed the animals. It is a small thing, but it is the sort of small thing that separates a Camas market from a generic one.
What Camas Days Weekend Actually Looks Like
If a friend from out of town asks which weekend to visit, the answer is still the last weekend of July. On July 24th and 25th, 2026, the community of Camas celebrates with a parade, music, street vendors, bathtub races, a wine and microbrew street, and kid's activities, organized by the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce. The timing that is easy to forget: the grand parade is at noon on July 25, followed by bathtub races, and crafts and food court run 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with wine, microbrew, and music from 5 to 11 p.m.
The overlooked half of the weekend is Sunday. Picnic in Color, a colorful and kid-friendly art event, takes place July 26th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., organized by the Downtown Camas Association. If you have kids who have peaked by Saturday night's bathtub races, Sunday is where the weekend actually gets survivable.
The lead-up matters too. The Camas Car Show on the last Saturday of June, June 27th 2026, from 2 to 7 p.m., brings classic and custom cars downtown while local merchants celebrate the height of summer throughout town. It runs a month before Camas Days and is the tell that summer is genuinely on.
The August Stretch Nobody Plans For
July is easy. Everyone shows up for July. August is where residents who have been here a while quietly get their favorite events, because the visitor crowd has thinned.
Three dates to hold:
- Thursday, August 13: Summer Nights Sips & Bites, a ticketed event from 5 to 9 p.m., with tropical cocktail sips, live island music, and local bites throughout Downtown Camas.
- Saturday, August 22: Camas Wine Walk, hosted by the Downtown Camas Merchants, from 3 to 7 p.m.
- Saturday, August 29: Camas Vintage and Art Street Faire, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., bringing antiques, vintage vendors, upcycled items, and a wide variety of art vendors to town, with food vendors and live entertainment.
The reopened park sits behind all of this. Camas Parks and Recreation Director Chris Witkowski, in a news release ahead of the July 2 event, said "We are very excited to welcome the community to all the new features at Crown Park. Plus, being able to share this milestone for Camas on the eve of our nation's 250th birthday weekend makes it even more special." That America250 framing is not just civic language. Crown Park will come alive with food, music, games, hands-on activities, and a heartfelt tribute to the land and people who came before us — all part of our America 250 Celebration, which is why the museum programming and downtown events are more coordinated this year than most.
Where Dinner Lives Between Events
If you are pinging between the market on Wednesday, the concert on Thursday, and Camas Days on the weekend, the restaurant question is really a walking-distance question. The downtown roster you are working with, in the shape residents actually use it:
- Feast@316 and Hickory Restaurant + Bar for a sit-down dinner before or after a concert.
- Nuestra Mesa, described by the business itself as an innovative take on Latin American food with a fun, hip atmosphere located in one of Downtown Camas' historic brick buildings, when you want something more energetic.
- Natalia's Cafe on NE Adams for morning-of-market breakfast, particularly with the retro-diner feel.
- Grains of Wrath Brewery, a popular destination for beer lovers in the Pacific Northwest, founded in 2017 by brewmasters Mike Hunsaker and Brendan Greenen, for the after-parade window when the streets thin out.
- Rakuzen Ramen House and Roots Restaurant & Bar for the cooler nights when the market cleared out at 7 and you did not plan ahead.
- Backpacker Pizza and Top Burger when you are eating on a picnic blanket at Crown Park.
The pattern worth naming: Camas has finally reached the point where you can string an entire summer Thursday together without moving your car. Market to concert to dinner to a Wine Walk on the same block another night. That was not quite true five years ago.
The Small Things That Trip Up July
Two civic details that catch newer residents out and are worth having in the back of your head:
The city has flagged fireworks regulations, sales, and discharge for July 4, 2026 in advance of the upcoming summer season, and no garbage collection Friday, July 3, in honor of Independence Day. If your bins normally go out Thursday night for Friday, that is the week they do not. It is the sort of thing that only annoys you the one year you forget.
The other is that the Camas Public Library is running its summer reading push this year, inviting the community to "Borrow Big" this summer. If your kids need a rainy-August plan between the Vintage Faire and the start of school, that is where it lives.
The through-line, if you want one, is this: Camas summer used to be a fixed circuit. The market was there. The concert was there. You knew the block. In 2026 the circuit still exists, but it has stretched. Two Thursday concerts now happen in parks most residents have not sat in for a season or two. The Wednesday market moved a block. Crown Park is new again. If you show up on autopilot, you will miss most of what makes this year different.
Which, for what it is worth, is also how neighborhoods change. Quietly, one Thursday at a time, until the map you carry in your head is a season behind the one on the ground.
If you have been thinking about what your Camas home is worth after a summer like this, or you are watching a neighbor's house go up and wondering what that means for yours, the partners at Oxford Street Partners would be glad to talk it through. Book a Consultation whenever the calendar clears.
