Todos Santos Plaza Thursday Concerts in Concord This Summer

Ask a longtime Concord resident what the plaza is known for musically, and most will mention the old jazz festival, the one that filled the 12,500 seats at Concord Pavilion and pulled in names like Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie. That festival is the version of Concord's music history that gets written up. It is also the version that went dark for fifteen years. The plain Thursday-night series happening a few blocks away in Todos Santos Plaza right now, the one with a farmers market and a folding-chair crowd, has never missed a summer.

That is worth sitting with if you already live here and treat the Thursday nights as background noise. The free series is not the festival's understudy. It has quietly become the more durable of Concord's two music traditions, and this September it briefly closes the loop between them.

How the plaza actually got its music history

The Concord Jazz Festival started small, an outdoor music event in a city park in the summer of 1969, organized by Carl Jefferson, a local Lincoln/Mercury dealer and serious jazz collector who wanted to turn a summer fair into something bigger. The first year, held on an undeveloped field next to Concord High School, drew more than 17,000 people. From there it grew into one of the country's premier jazz events, eventually filling the 12,500-seat Concord Pavilion with acts like Dave Brubeck, a Concord native, along with Rosemary Clooney, Woody Herman, Mel Torme, and Pancho Sanchez.

At some point the festival stopped running every year. After a fifteen-year hiatus, it came back once, in 2019, for a single 50th-anniversary show, and hasn't returned as an annual event since.

Todos Santos Plaza's Thursday series is a separate, smaller tradition. Going by this year's official count, the 37th annual series, it traces back to around 1990, and it has run every single summer since without a gap. While the ticketed festival went quiet for a decade and a half before its one nostalgic comeback, the free market-and-music night downtown never missed a year.

What's left of the 2026 season

The series runs every Thursday from June 4 through September 24, with the farmers market opening at 4 p.m. and the concert starting at 6:30. Half the summer is already behind us. Here's what's left if you haven't been keeping track:

The September 10 date is the one worth circling. Steve Snyder's Big Band is playing a night of big band jazz specifically framed as a tribute to the festival that used to headline just down the road. For one Thursday, the plaza that quietly kept the tradition alive gets to acknowledge the louder tradition it grew up next to.

The logistics locals already half-know

If you've been going for years, you probably have your own routine. If you've been meaning to start, a few details make the difference between a good night and a crowded one. The plaza fills up fast for the bigger draws, so arriving by 5:30 gives you a real shot at a spot before the crowd settles in. Parking is free at the Todos Santos Parking Center on Concord Avenue between Salvio and Pacheco, and at the Grant Street Garage between Grant and Colfax. Concord BART station is a short walk, which is the easiest way to skip the parking question entirely.

The farmers market itself runs later than most, staying open until 8 p.m. on concert nights instead of wrapping up in the early evening. Right now that means almonds, apricots, blackberries, cantaloupe, cherries, olive oil, and the usual rotation of local cheese, honey, and baked goods, on top of the food trucks that show up for concert nights specifically.

It's easy to mix this up with Concord's other market. The Tuesday farmers market at the plaza runs year-round, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with the first hour set aside for seniors and others at greater risk. It has no concert attached and no evening hours. If you're planning a Thursday-night outing and someone tells you they went to the plaza on a Tuesday morning for produce, that's a real thing, just a different one.

What's actually within walking distance

Two of downtown Concord's better-known beer spots sit close enough to the plaza that you can eat and drink without touching your car keys. Side Gate Brewery & Beer Garden occupies a historic building at 1822 Grant Street, directly across from Todos Santos Plaza, and keeps a family-friendly taproom and beer garden going with food trucks most days. E.J. Phair Concord Alehouse sits right inside the plaza itself, a smaller, no-frills brewpub known locally for the Ditzy Blonde Ale and the Facepuncher IPA. If you're the type who likes to plan around a beer flight before the music starts, both are a two-minute walk from wherever you park your folding chair.

The Concord Visitor Center is also tucked into the plaza, at 2151 Salvio Street, Suite T, which is worth knowing if you've ever wanted the printed beer trail map or just want a paper guide to hand a visiting friend.

Why this is the story, not the nostalgia

It would be easy to write about Todos Santos Plaza the way most coverage does, as a nice backdrop for a bigger, older, more famous festival that used to define Concord's summer. That framing gets the order backward. The festival is the one that stopped. The plaza series is the one that didn't, and on September 10 it pauses to acknowledge the tradition it grew up alongside.

If you're already spending your Thursday nights here, that's a fact worth knowing next time you're setting up a chair. If you're new to Concord and building your own summer routine, it's as good a place to start as any.

Gallegos Boaman Group works with people who already know this rhythm of Concord life, the Thursday nights, the Tuesday market, the walk from BART. If a move within or into Concord or the wider Lamorinda area is somewhere on your mind, even loosely, give us a call today.