Happy Tuesday, Walnut Creek!
💡 Did you know: The summit of Mount Diablo is the surveyor's starting point for property lines across most of northern California and all of Nevada. A deputy surveyor named Leander Ransom chiseled a hole in the rock up there in July 1851, planted a pole in it, and everything since has been measured from that spot.
It is a quiet week downtown, and that turns out to be the point. The best thing on the calendar is free and in a park: the Walnut Creek Concert Band plays Civic Park on Labor Day evening. Around it there are scorpions glowing under ultraviolet light on Mount Diablo, Center REP opening its season with Tennessee Williams, and two comedy nights three days apart that could not be less alike. Around Walnut Creek has a furniture store trading places, a new tenant for the old Aveda space, and an honest look at the hole where the Heather Farm Community Center used to be.
Let’s get to it.
— Sean Casey
🎶 The Town Band Plays Civic Park on Labor Day
Civic Park does one thing on Labor Day that it does no other night of the year. The Walnut Creek Concert Band sets up at six, the lawn fills with camp chairs and coolers, and for an hour the program runs through movie scores, musical numbers and marches. Free, no tickets, and nobody is checking whether you came for the music or the picnic.
Bring a blanket or low chairs. An hour is the right length for a holiday evening, and the park clears out well before dark, which matters if you have kids who have to be somewhere Tuesday morning. If you want to do this properly, the farmers’ market on Locust runs Sunday and a cooler packed there beats anything you would grab on the way.
📍 Where: Civic Park, 1375 Civic Dr.
📅 When: Monday, September 7 | 6:00–7:00 PM
💲 Price: Free
🦂 Neon Scorpion Hikes on Mount Diablo
We flagged these last week when the August dates sold out. The September hikes are open. A Lindsay Wildlife naturalist walks you two miles along the north face of Mount Diablo after dark, and under ultraviolet light the local scorpions glow green like little neon signs in the dirt. Ages six and up, hiking shoes and a jacket, and the flashlight is optional because the guide brings one.
Saturday was down to two spots at press time and Sunday still had room. Registration closes the Wednesday before, and Lindsay does not sell day-of tickets for hikes, so this is a Monday decision rather than a Friday one.
📍 Where: Mitchell Canyon Visitor Center, 96 Mitchell Canyon Rd., Clayton
📅 When: Saturday, September 5 and Sunday, September 6 | 7:00–9:00 PM
💲 Price: $20 members, $25 non-members, plus $6 cash for parking
🎭 Center REP Opens Its Season With The Glass Menagerie
Center REP opens its 26/27 season Sunday with The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams’ memory play about a St. Louis family coming apart in the 1930s, directed by artistic director Matt M. Morrow. It runs through September 27, so there is no urgency, but the Lesher on an opening weekend is its own kind of evening.
Worth knowing if you go: Center REP runs free talks alongside the production that are open to any ticket holder regardless of which night you booked. There is a Director Chat before the September 11 performance and a Cast Chat after the September 23 one.
📍 Where: Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr.
📅 When: Sunday, September 6 through Sunday, September 27
😂 Two Comedy Nights, Three Days Apart
Thursday is the small one. ØL Beercafe hosts its monthly Comedy Night, curated by the comedian tomjonze, with local and touring acts working for tips. The venue’s own description is the best pitch anyone could write for it: busking, but without a train ruining the punchlines, and with a beer legally in hand. One hour, free, on Giammona Drive rather than Main Street.
Saturday is the other end of the same idea. Best of San Francisco Stand-Up Comedy brings a touring lineup to the Lesher Center at 8:15 PM, 75 minutes, no intermission, recommended for ages 18 and over. Same week, two rooms, and about as far apart as live comedy gets inside one town.
📍 Where: ØL Beercafe & Bottle Shop, 1541 Giammona Dr.
📅 When: Thursday, September 3 | 7:30–8:30 PM
💲 Price: Free, tips for the comedians
🪩 Daft Punk Takes Over Retro Junkie
Retro Junkie goes full French-house Friday with a Daft Punk tribute night featuring Glitterazzi SF live at 9 PM, backed by LED-wall visuals. DJ Thomas Young and DJ Spades round out the night, so expect plenty of dance-floor energy well beyond the tribute set.
Come for the tribute set, stay for the DJs, and make a full night of it on Main Street.
📍 Where: Retro Junkie, 2112 N. Main St.
📅 When: Friday, September 4 | Doors 6:00 PM, live set 9:00 PM
💲 Price: $17.85
🌳 Around Walnut Creek
🗳️ Measure W is headed to Walnut Creek voters. Walnut Creek voters will see Measure W on the November ballot, a parcel tax measure for the Acalanes Union High School District, which includes Las Lomas High School. The district has faced more than $4 million in budget cuts over the past two years, and Measure W will ask voters to decide on additional local funding for district schools. You can read up on the measure and what it proposes before ballots arrive. Learn About Measure W
🏗️ Heather Farm stays a construction site into 2027. The old Community Center came down in March and the replacement, a combined community center and aquatic facility, is in the middle of an anticipated construction phase the city has scheduled from summer 2025 through 2027. The pond is fenced off, so there is nowhere to fish at Heather Farm right now. The Clarke Memorial Swim Center is projected to stay open the whole time. About 75 trees came out of the project area, and the city has committed to planting two for every one removed. Project Timeline
🪑 Downtown traded one furniture store for another. Yardbird, the outdoor furniture shop that opened at 1406 N. Broadway in 2023, has closed. Two weeks earlier, 7th Avenue opened its modular furniture showroom over at Broadway Plaza. Same category, two blocks apart, opposite directions. Beyond the Creek
💎 The old Aveda space has a taker. Rowan, the ear piercing studio and jewelry brand, is coming to Broadway Plaza. The pitch is piercing done as an occasion rather than a mall kiosk errand, with licensed nurses doing the work. No opening date announced yet. Rowan
👀 Looking Ahead: The Weekend After
Two for the calendar. The city brings Movies Under the Stars back to Civic Park on Saturday, September 12 with How to Train Your Dragon, gates open at 6:00 PM and the film at sundown, food available to buy, low chairs and blankets only and no pets. The next day, Joybound Around Town on Broadway takes over Broadway Plaza from 11 AM to 3 PM for the animal-lover crowd.
📍 Where: Civic Park • Broadway Plaza
📅 When: Saturday, September 12 • Sunday, September 13
💲 Price: Free • Free
Other fun notes…
🥗 Weekly Walnut recipe: Roasted Grape Crostini with Goat Cheese and Walnuts — red grapes roasted slow until they wrinkle, piled onto toast with goat cheese and toasted walnuts. The best thing you can carry to a picnic blanket in Civic Park.
🎵 Who we are listening to: The Paper Kites - Bloom — soft, slow, and about the right speed for the first week of September.
🙏 Positive news around the globe: More than 3,000 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs and tadpoles were released back into Southern California mountain streams. Read Article
✨ A town that still turns out for its own concert band is doing all right.
How are you spending the long weekend?
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