July 23, 2026 — Thursday Edition

Happy Thursday, Durham. The dog days are officially here, and the city's answer is a very Durham one: put fifty makers and a band in the park and call it a Sunday. Add ADF's final bow, a farmers' market in full summer flex, and the Bulls rolling home for six straight at the DBAP, and the back half of July is going out with a full calendar. Let's get into it.

Saturday mornings, the pavilion at Durham Central Park belongs to the tomatoes. This Sunday, it belongs to everything else Durham makes.

The Durham Underground Market rolls into Central Park on Sunday from 11 AM to 3 PM — 50+ local vendors selling art, jewelry, vintage, candles, prints, and the kind of stuff you didn't know you needed until it was in your hand, plus food trucks and live local bands all afternoon, courtesy of a partnership with the Oak City Music Collective. It's a monthly series (fourth Sundays, roughly March through November), and mid-summer is when it hits its stride: the vendor list is deep, the bands play loose, and the people-watching is elite.

Here's why we love this one: it's the same park that hosts the farmers' market, doing the same thing for the city's makers that Saturday does for its farmers — giving the folks who create things a place to meet the people who'll love them. Come for a browse, stay for a set, leave with something you'll have to explain to your roommate.

Pro tip: it's a midday event in late July — the pavilion has shade and the food trucks have cold drinks, but do your open-sun browsing early or late, and let the 1 PM hour belong to the band and a lemonade.

📅 Sunday, July 26, 11 AM–3 PM · Durham Central Park, 501 Foster St · Free, rain or shine (Durham Central Park · The MAKRS Society)

East of Texas is getting close. The Winston-Salem Tex-Mex-and-barbecue favorite is still building out its second-ever location in the Reed Building at American Tobacco, with a summer target — which, checking the calendar, is now. Brisket and frozen margaritas three minutes from the ballpark, just in time for a six-game homestand: the timing writes itself. (NC Triangle Dining)

Boricua Soul deserves your homestand plans. While we're talking American Tobacco: the Puerto Rican-meets-Southern spot on the campus has been one of Durham's best pre-game moves for years — empanadas and mofongo, then a five-minute walk to first pitch. With six home games coming, you have six chances to get this right.

The frozen-drink index remains at season highs. Slushies, paletas, frosé, the works — every bar and scoop shop in town is leaning into the freeze. We consider this hydration-adjacent and officially endorse it.

One more quiet weekend, and then the ballpark lights come back on: the Bulls open a six-game homestand against the Gwinnett Stripers on Tuesday, July 28, playing every night through Sunday, August 2. It's the longest home run of the rest of the summer, the club's been living near the top of the second-half standings, and August baseball with something on the line is the good kind. Weeknight tickets are the easy get; the weekend games will move. Promos and tickets at milb.com/durham.

Late July, doing exactly what it said it would: low 90s and humid through the weekend, with the customary afternoon pop-up storm keeping everyone honest. The playbook by now is muscle memory — market and errands in the morning, AC or a matinee through the swampy middle, patios and park time once the sun eases up. Sunday's market runs 11 to 3, so hit the shade breaks, keep water on you, and check the radar before you commit to open-sky hours. The storms this time of year are loud, fast, and usually done by dinner.

Discover Durham's guide to the American Dance Festival. As the 93rd season takes its bow, this is the read that explains the improbable, wonderful fact at the center of it: one of the most important dance festivals on the planet happens in our backyard, every summer, on purpose. Read it now, thank us next June when you're the one with opening-night tickets. (Discover Durham)

Sunday afternoon, go stand in the middle of Durham Central Park and look around. There's a band playing for people eating shaved ice on a hill. There's somebody selling prints of the water tower two tables down from somebody selling earrings made in their kitchen. There's a dog in a bandana, obviously. None of it is fancy and all of it is ours — a park that spends Saturday feeding the city and Sunday showing off what it makes. That's the whole Durham trick, really: take a patch of grass, add the people who actually live here, and somehow it beats every attraction money can build. See you on the hill.

Much love, Durham. 🐂

— Michael & Anne · Written from Trinity Park ☕

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