For most of the last three years, the walk down Town Hall Drive meant construction fencing, a shuttered playground, and a half-built amphitheater that kept slipping past its finish date. On July 31, a few thousand neighbors stood in front of that amphitheater and watched The Embers open it with beach music. The fencing is gone. The stage works. The question now is what to do with it.
That question matters more than a single ribbon cutting suggests. For years, Leland's Friday-night calendar leaked eastward across the Cape Fear to Wilmington venues and westward to Wrightsville Beach concerts, because Leland had no central stage of its own. This fall is the first one where the town holds its own gravity.
The Anchor That Finally Landed
The park at 113 Town Hall Drive is the largest single park investment in the town's history. Founder's Park has undergone $7.8-million in renovations recently, including a new playground, fitness stations, a veteran's memorial, walking trails, and splash pad and amphitheater. Construction on the park began in 2023 and was originally expected to be completed by late 2024. However, the project was delayed after town officials identified an alignment issue with the amphitheater and raised concerns about the quality of some of the original contractor's work.
The reopen happened in stages, which is why so many residents still think of the park as half-open. The park partially reopened in December 2025 during the town's annual "Leland in Lights" holiday event, giving residents their first look at many of the renovated amenities. The splash pad opened in the spring of 2026, leaving the amphitheater as the final piece. The July 31 ceremony closed the loop, and the amphitheater is now booked as a working venue. Town officials said Founders Park will host concerts, movies, festivals, and other community events going forward.
That last sentence is doing a lot of work. A permanent outdoor stage in walking distance of Leland Town Hall changes what a weekend evening looks like for households in Magnolia Greens, Brunswick Forest, Waterford, and the older neighborhoods off Village Road. The stage is the missing piece the calendar has been waiting on.
What Actually Fills September
The town wasted no time programming the space. The Town of Leland also launched its first "Live in Leland" concert series tonight, which continues through September with a mix of concerts and a theatrical performance. The full schedule can be viewed on the town's website. That is the first standing series the amphitheater has hosted, and it runs on residents' own doorstep rather than requiring a bridge crossing.
A few dates worth putting on the fridge:
- Live in Leland series, August through September. New amphitheater, Founders Park.
- Feast of the Pirates Festival, Saturday, September 12, 10 a.m. Belville Riverwalk Park, a short drive south along the river.
- Lend a Hand, Saturday, October 3, 8 a.m. to noon. Community service morning that meets at Founders Park before dispatching volunteers to projects around town. Lend a Hand returns Saturday, Oct. 3, bringing neighbors together for a morning of volunteering throughout the community. Choose the project that speaks to you, whether that means planting trees, picking up litter, helping with food distribution, paddling out for a stream cleanup, collecting donations, or taking part in a walk audit along Village Road. We'll meet at Founders Park at 8 a.m. for check-in and light refreshments before volunteers head to their project locations at 9 a.m. The event wraps up at noon.
- Leland Fall Festival, Saturday, October 25, 4 to 6 p.m. Northwest District Park, 1937 Andrew Jackson Hwy. Local businesses and community organizations will transform the park into a fall-themed wonderland, complete with creatively decorated booths along the pumpkin trail. Children are invited to dress in costume and trick-or-treat from booth to booth, collecting candy and enjoying an evening of fun seasonal activities. In addition to trick-or-treating, families can enjoy activities such as pumpkin painting, face painting, yard games, and more.
The concert series is the piece that would not have existed a year ago. It is worth noting how it came together: Sounds of Summer has been be a biweekly concert series held at Wrightsville Beach Town Park for 26 years; however, assistant news director, Kayloni Pachilis, said WECT hadn't planned to host it this year until Leland reached out. "We're only doing the one concert this summer," she said of the July 31 event. The July 31 concert was the pilot. The Live in Leland series is the town saying it can carry the calendar without borrowing Wrightsville's.
The Weekly Rhythm Across the Street
The amphitheater is the anchor, but the reason a Thursday night in Leland now feels different is the taproom across Town Hall Drive. Nestled right across the street from Leland Town Hall and Founder's Park, Leland Brewing Company proudly stands as a vibrant hub for locals and visitors alike. Their brand-new, state-of-the-art facility spans 8,000 square feet, housing both their brewing operations and a spacious, inviting taproom.
The weekly cadence on the LBC calendar reads like a schedule a resident could actually use:
- Thursday nights, Run Club with Fleet Feet Wilmington. Gather at LBC every Thursday night for Run Club with Fleet Feet Wilmington. Everyone's welcome!
- Tuesday nights, Sport City Rec's 8-Week Cornhole League. Sport City Rec's 8-Week Cornhole League is back at Leland Brewing Company on Tuesday nights.
- Every other Monday, Music Bingo in the taproom. Join us every other Monday for Music Bingo in the taproom! It is free to play and all ages are welcome, so come listen to some tunes and play to earn prizes!
- Family Feud Night, brought in by MC Events and Entertainment on a rotating schedule.
- Oktoberfest pours through September and October. LBC's Märzen is on tap in season and pairs neatly with a Founders Park concert night before you walk over.
The point is that a weeknight in Leland has fillable slots now that used to require the drive over the bridge. Add Brunswick Beer Xchange down the road, which runs cooking workshops like the Orecchiette Pasta night and A Night in Spain, and the shoulder-season programming in Leland starts to hold its own weight.
October's Two Anchors
October in Leland does something that most Cape Fear towns don't quite pull off: it stacks a service morning and a family evening in the same month, and both meet at municipal parks. Lend a Hand on October 3 is the town's civic anchor, with the option to plant trees, work a stream cleanup, or walk-audit Village Road. The Leland Fall Festival on October 25 is the family anchor, free, no ticket, pumpkin trail included.
Neither event is new. What is new is that both of them now sit in a park system that includes a working amphitheater and a completed splash pad, so the same neighbors who show up for Lend a Hand at 8 a.m. can come back the same afternoon for a concert without going home for a nap and a change of clothes. That was not the case a year ago.
The mayor put the intent plainly at the ribbon cutting. "Founders Park was designed to be a place where our community can come together to make memories, celebrate special moments, and enjoy everything that makes Leland unique," said Mayor Brenda Bozeman.
Why This Season Is Different
Leland has always had events. The Fall Festival, the In Bloom Festival, Leland in Lights at the holidays, the pop-ups at Leland Brewing, cornhole leagues, an Earth Day cleanup. What it did not have, until eleven days ago, was a physical center where those events could compound instead of scattering across parking lots and shopping-center back lots.
A permanent amphitheater does three things at once. It gives the town a recognizable stage that regional acts will route through, which is why WECT extended its Sounds of Summer footprint to Leland in the first place. It gives the parks department a venue capable of holding a September-long concert series, which the Live in Leland calendar now proves. And it gives residents a walkable Friday-night default within a growing town that, until this summer, had almost no walkable Friday-night defaults.
That is the small, specific shift in what daily life in Leland looks like this fall. The construction fencing came down. The center of gravity moved a few hundred yards toward Town Hall Drive. The calendar filled in behind it.
If you are a longtime Leland resident wondering what to do with a Friday evening between now and Halloween, the honest answer for the first time is: stay in town. If you are thinking about the long arc of what Leland is becoming and how that shows up in the way a home here actually lives, that is a longer conversation, and one Neil Leonard is always glad to have. Let's Connect.
