This is a big week downtown. The Hispanic Festival turns Calder Plaza into the busiest four blocks in the city, a youth all-star game carries a piece of Negro Leagues history onto the field in Comstock Park, and a brand new kitchen in Creston just flipped its sign to open.
Here is your week.
Grand Rapids Hispanic Festival
WHAT: The 48th annual Grand Rapids Hispanic Festival, a free two day street party built around live music, dancing, a mercado of Hispanic owned vendors, and a food row worth showing up hungry for. It is the largest Latin cultural celebration in West Michigan.
WHO: The Hispanic Center of Western Michigan, based at 1204 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. SW, has run this festival for more than four decades. It is the organization's premier event and its single largest fundraiser, and it exists to keep the community connected to its roots while putting Hispanic owned small businesses in front of tens of thousands of people in one weekend.
WHEN: Friday, August 7 and Saturday, August 8. One honest note: as of this writing the Hispanic Center has not posted 2026 hours. In recent years Friday has opened around 5 p.m. and run late into the night, with Saturday starting earlier. Check the festival's official map and schedule guide before you head down so you do not miss the act you came for.
WHERE: Calder Plaza, 320 Ottawa Ave. NW. In recent years the footprint has grown beyond the plaza itself and spilled onto Ottawa Avenue out front, so plan on a bigger space than you might remember.
WHY: Scale, for one. In 2023 the festival drew somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 people across the weekend, which makes it one of the largest gatherings the city hosts all year. The better reason is that every dollar spent inside the gates funds Hispanic Center programming: family support services, workforce development, language services, and youth education.
HOW: Admission is free. Calder Plaza sits in the middle of the government center cluster downtown, so the ramps and lots along Ottawa and Ionia are your closest paid options and they fill fast on a Friday night. If you would rather skip the hunt entirely, The Rapid and the DASH both drop you within a short walk of the plaza. Bring cash for the mercado and food vendors even though most take cards, because the lines move faster when you do.
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: Ted Rasberry Youth League All-Star Game
WHAT: The 48th annual Grand Rapids Hispanic Festival, a free two day street party built around live music, dancing, a mercado of Hispanic owned vendors, and a food row worth showing up hungry for. It is the largest Latin cultural celebration in West Michigan.
WHO: The Hispanic Center of Western Michigan, based at 1204 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. SW, has run this festival for more than four decades. It is the organization's premier event and its single largest fundraiser, and it exists to keep the community connected to its roots while putting Hispanic owned small businesses in front of tens of thousands of people in one weekend.
WHEN: Friday, August 7 and Saturday, August 8. One honest note: as of this writing the Hispanic Center has not posted 2026 hours. In recent years Friday has opened around 5 p.m. and run late into the night, with Saturday starting earlier. Check the festival's official map and schedule guide before you head down so you do not miss the act you came for.
WHERE: Calder Plaza, 320 Ottawa Ave. NW. In recent years the footprint has grown beyond the plaza itself and spilled onto Ottawa Avenue out front, so plan on a bigger space than you might remember.
WHY: Scale, for one. In 2023 the festival drew somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 people across the weekend, which makes it one of the largest gatherings the city hosts all year. The better reason is that every dollar spent inside the gates funds Hispanic Center programming: family support services, workforce development, language services, and youth education.
HOW: Admission is free. Calder Plaza sits in the middle of the government center cluster downtown, so the ramps and lots along Ottawa and Ionia are your closest paid options and they fill fast on a Friday night. If you would rather skip the hunt entirely, The Rapid and the DASH both drop you within a short walk of the plaza. Bring cash for the mercado and food vendors even though most take cards, because the lines move faster when you do.
NEW IN TOWN: Watusi
The building at 1220 College Ave. NE has had a hard couple of years. Mai's Thai relocated there, then announced a permanent closure in June, citing circumstances the family did not spell out publicly. Two weeks later somebody else had the keys.
Those somebodies are Sarah Andro and Delie Minnema, and the restaurant they just opened in that space is called Watusi. Andro has opened restaurants before and knows exactly how narrow the margins are right now. Minnema has not: he owns two tattoo shops in West Michigan and has professional kitchen experience, and this is his first time on the ownership side of a menu. That combination shows up in the food, which is scratch-made Southern at its foundation and openly weird at its edges.
The signature is a sandwich Minnema calls the knuckle sandwich: turkey knuckle, cheddar, and blueberry barbecue sauce on toasted milk bread. It was a runaway hit at one of the preview pop-ups the two hosted through July while they renovated. Elsewhere on the board you will find an oxtail sandwich with fried plantains and mango banana slaw, plantain chicken sliders, and wings and ribs glazed in peach jalapeño or hot honey. There is also the PBDT, which stands for Peanut Butter Delie Time and is a grilled peanut butter and jelly with housemade jam, cream cheese, and crushed Doritos. Sides run collard greens, red beans and rice, buttered sweet corn, mushroom onion rice. Desserts are seasonal and homemade, which lately has meant blueberry crumble and strawberry crunch cake.
The menu is built to rotate around what is actually in season and available locally, so what is on the board this week may not be there next month. That is deliberate. "Nothing is ever even frozen, and I think that's very important," Minnema told WOOD TV 8. "We just want to feed people as good as we can."
They spent the weeks before opening running pop-ups specifically to meet the neighborhood before they needed the neighborhood. "Just opening our doors, cooking a few things, having people come in, taste them," Andro said. "And it's been really awesome. You know, we've really got to know people already. We've had people that have come every day that we've been open."
Andro is clear-eyed about why they built it this way. "As so many mom-and-pop businesses are closing, we want to find a model that works to be sustainable," she said. Watusi officially opened its doors this weekend. Go early in the run, while the owners are still standing in the dining room asking you what you think.
Watusi, 1220 College Ave. NE, Creston, near Carrier Street.
THE NO FOMO LIST
Nine more things worth leaving the house for.
Mon 8/3 | The Nuance, Concerts in the Park. Free, all ages, 7 to 8:30 p.m. at John Collins Park, 650 Lakeside Dr. SE in East Grand Rapids, overlooking Reeds Lake. Bring a chair or a blanket and get there early. No grills, and dogs stay leashed. Cancels for rain or high wind with no makeup date.
Mon 8/3 | Jesse Welles with Steph Strings, Meijer Gardens. Welles is making his Gardens debut. Ticketed through AXS, free on-site parking, tiered lawn seating, and you can bring a picnic and a low-rise chair.
Wed 8/5 | Men at Work with Toad the Wet Sprocket and Shonen Knife, Meijer Gardens. Three bands, one amphitheater, an absurd amount of nostalgia per ticket. Same drill: AXS, free parking, bring a blanket.
Thu 8/6 | Relax at Rosa. Free lunchtime music at Rosa Parks Circle, 135 Monroe St. NW, noon to 1:30 p.m., with a rotating lineup of food trucks. Runs weekly into late September. The easiest possible way to make a Thursday better.
Thu 8/6 | Thursdays on the Terrace at GRAM. Laura Rain and the Caesars with 88.1 FM WYCE on the museum terrace, 5 to 9 p.m. Free, with food trucks, a cash bar, and free access to the galleries until 9. Three floors of art including Decadent Spirit and Jerry's Map.
Thu 8/6 | An Evening with The Beach Boys, Meijer Gardens. A returning favorite in a 1,900 seat amphitheater. If you have been meaning to do one Gardens show this summer, this is a strong candidate.
Thu 8/6 to Sat 8/8 | The Cosmic Takeover Tour, LMCU Ballpark. Three straight nights of UV reactive baseball: black lights, neon gear, and a field that glows. Limited premium seating available. Check the Whitecaps schedule for first pitch times before you go.
Sat 8/8 | Sunset Cinema: Interstellar. Free outdoor movie at 8 p.m. on the Studio Park Piazza, 123 Ionia Ave. SW. Bring a blanket, seating is first come first served, outside snacks are allowed, and the Studio Park(ing) ramp at 120 Ottawa validates with a purchase from One Twenty Three Tavern.
Sun 8/9 | Sound Bath in the English Perennial Garden, Meijer Gardens. 8:30 to 10 a.m. with Karen Ison Watson of Cosmic Dragonfly Wellness. Registration required and these fill up. While you are there, CHIHULY is on view through November 1, and this is the only 2026 showing in America.
That is the week. Go do something.
See you next this weekend.