For ten summers, the 8th and 9th Street plazas have had one non-negotiable weekend on the calendar. That weekend is happening again this month, and then it is never happening again. At the same time, three of the plaza's food anchors are new, returning, or under new ownership. If you have lived in Greeley for more than a couple of years, the block you walk on Friday nights in September will not be the block you knew in June.
That is the story of August 2026 downtown. One long-running event is closing out, and the food side of the plaza is being reshuffled around it.
The Hinge Weekend: August 21 and 22
Monster Day has been the plaza's signature since 2016. This year it wraps for good. The final event is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 22, from noon to 5 p.m., with a Monster Day kickoff concert the night before, Aug. 21, from 6 to 10 p.m., transforming the 8th and 9th Street plazas and 9th Avenue into a monster mash complete with roaming creatures, photo ops, professional makeup demos, vendor booths, performances, face painting, kids' activities and the costume contest.
Ed Edmunds of Distortions Unlimited started Monster Day a decade ago, and this year he said that just like an old vampire, it is time to put a stake in it. Discussions are underway about an annual fall event formulated with the same spirit as Monster Day, but nothing has been named or scheduled yet, which means this is the last time the plazas will look like this.
Two practical notes if you are going:
- The Friday night kickoff concert is on the 9th Street Plaza, not the full footprint. That is where to be if you want the music without the Saturday crowds.
- Saturday spreads across 8th, 9th, and 9th Avenue. Parking pressure on 16th Street businesses will be real from about 11 a.m. onward.
What Is Replacing the Monsters on the Plaza
Here is the contrast that makes this August interesting. The plaza is losing its most-photographed weekend and gaining a full turnover of restaurant tenants inside the same three-block radius.
Smokin' Dave's BBQ
Smokin' Dave's BBQ has opened on the Ninth Street Plaza, filling what had been a gap in downtown's food offerings. For anyone who has walked the plaza during Friday Fest and wondered why the smoke smell suddenly makes sense, that is why. Ribs and brisket on a plaza that spent a decade smelling like kettle corn and stage fog is a real shift in what the block feels like on a summer evening.
Tres Amigos
The tequila side of the plaza changed hands too. Wyoming-born restaurant concept Tres Amigos is taking the Luna's Tacos and Tequila space in Greeley, marking the Cheyenne-based group's third location. The address stays a Mexican concept, the menu and ownership do not. If Luna's was your Friday-before-a-show reservation, treat Tres Amigos as new territory rather than a rename.
Roma
Then there is 16th Street. The Roma restaurant at 728 16th St. in downtown Greeley is reopening, after Alyssa Baker spent three years pushing pizzas there and the community absorbed the news of its impending closure last fall. The reopening lands in the same window as everything else on this list, which is why it counts as part of the August reshuffle rather than a footnote from last spring.
Three tenants, three different stories, one block. The plaza that anchored Monster Day for ten years now has a Wyoming taqueria, a barbecue smoker, and a returned pizza institution inside walking distance of each other. That is a different downtown from the one Greeley residents were eating in twelve months ago.
Friday Fest Is Still the Baseline
While all of that shifts, the weekly rhythm of the plaza has not moved. Friday Fest brings free live music, Go-Cup drinks, and a lively summer night out to Downtown Greeley's 9th Street Plaza every Friday evening from June through August.
If you have been meaning to actually use the Go-Cup ordinance this summer, you are running out of Fridays. The remaining August dates are the ones to build a plan around, and the August 21 Friday Fest slot doubles as the Monster Day kickoff concert. That is a rare overlap where the weekly event and the annual event share a stage.
A useful way to think about the next few weekends:
- Friday, Aug. 21: Monster Day kickoff concert, 6 to 10 p.m., 9th Street Plaza. This replaces the usual Friday Fest lineup.
- Saturday, Aug. 22: Final Monster Day, noon to 5 p.m., 8th and 9th Street plazas plus 9th Avenue.
- Friday, Aug. 28: Last standard Friday Fest of the season.
After that final Friday, the plaza's summer default resets. Go-Cup drinks in your hand at 7 p.m. on a Friday is a June-through-August thing, not a year-round thing.
When the Plaza Turns Indoor: Moxi in Late August and September
As the outdoor calendar winds down, the block's music center of gravity moves half a block east to the Moxi Theater. If you have been treating Moxi as somewhere to check when a specific band is announced, the late-summer run is actually worth scanning as a batch.
| Date | Show |
|---|---|
| Aug. 27 | Ward Davis |
| Sept. 5 | Sean Matchett's DOG TUNES, the music of Sabrina Carpenter in Jazz School |
| Sept. 9 and 10 | Jeff Dye stand-up, early and late shows |
| Sept. 10 | Cory Branan |
| Sept. 25 | The Ultimate Doors, tribute to The Doors |
| Sept. 26 | Giovannie and the Hired Guns |
| Sept. 27 | Bumpin Uglies with Artikal Sound System |
| Sept. 30 | Psychostick with Galactic Empire |
That is a country-jazz-comedy-tribute-Texas rock-reggae-metal run inside about five weeks. The dates come straight off the Moxi Theater calendar. What it tells you about the block: as soon as Friday Fest ends its outdoor season, the plaza does not go dark, it just moves indoors and pays a cover charge.
Pair a Moxi show with dinner and you have a straightforward answer to the "what should we do on a Thursday" question for the rest of the quarter.
The Other August Thing Worth Putting in Your Phone
The WeldWerks Brewing 5k and 10k runs in Greeley as part of the 2026 Colorado Brewery Running Series, which is the kind of event that sneaks up on you if you do not train for it. Even if you are not running, the finish-line window at WeldWerks is a good reason to be on 9th Avenue when you would not otherwise be.
Combine that with the Downtown Greeley Gift Card, which is accepted at 40-plus local favorites for dining, shopping, and exploring downtown, and August is the month to actually spend down the balance you have been holding since last Christmas. A dead card in a drawer does not help a downtown block.
What August Is Setting Up for Fall
Zoom out from Monster Day and this August is really the first act of a longer story on the plaza. Downtown Greeley has Oktobrewfest with beer, music, food, and family-friendly fun; Greeley's first-ever Restaurant Week serving up two weeks of limited-time specials and local favorites; and Trick or Treat Street with families strolling the plazas collecting candy and enjoying spooky activities all queued up between now and the end of October.
Two of those matter more than they sound.
Restaurant Week is new. A first-ever citywide restaurant week landing in the same year three plaza tenants change hands is not an accident. It is downtown's answer to the question of how you get residents back into rooms that used to be Luna's, that used to be closed Roma, that used to be an empty storefront where Smokin' Dave's now sits. If you have been curious about any of them, Restaurant Week is when the menu risk gets subsidized.
Trick or Treat Street is the Monster Day succession plan, whether or not it is called that. Distortions Unlimited is stepping back from producing a signature October-adjacent event, and the Downtown Development Authority still has a plaza to program in the last warm weekends of the year. Watch what Trick or Treat Street looks like this fall. It is the closest thing to a leading indicator of what October on the plaza becomes without Monster Day pulling the calendar.
The Short Version
The plaza you walked in June is not the plaza you will walk in September. Monster Day is ending. Smokin' Dave's, Tres Amigos, and a reopened Roma are the new anchors. Friday Fest has three weekends left. Moxi is where the music lives once the outdoor season closes. Restaurant Week and Oktobrewfest fill the fall.
If you own a home within walking distance of any of this, that turnover is the kind of thing that makes people ask you what is new downtown. Now you have an answer that is a month old, not a year old.
And if you are thinking about the block for reasons beyond a Friday night out, whether that is a first home near downtown, a right-sizing move, or curiosity about what a corner house in Greeley is worth in a market this active, that is what we do. The Harvey Home Team works this corridor every week. Call me. Seriously.
