August 27, 2026 — Thursday Edition

Happy Thursday, Durham. This is the weekend summer clears its throat before the big goodbye: back-to-back fireworks nights at the ballpark, an R&B festival in the old park where Bull Durham was filmed, a hometown band's ten-year party, and two new shows opening at the Nasher today. It's also the week the city said goodbye to a Fayetteville Street favorite and got a first look at what's replacing the empty corner by the Lucky Strike tower. Let's get into it.

The old Durham Athletic Park has hosted a lot of things since the Bulls moved out — including one very famous film crew — but Saturday it gets something it was built for: a full house on a summer night.

R&B in the Park runs from 4 to 11 PM on the DAP's grass and grandstand, and the bill is built for singing along. Carl Thomas — "I Wish," "Emotional," a voice that defined a decade of slow jams — and Chrisette Michele, the Grammy-winning singer behind "Epiphany" and "A Couple of Forevers," headline. Around them, the lineup leans hard on local: RnB Terrell, Flow $tro, Just Once, and Something for the People, with a DJ rotation (Brian Dawson hosts, with Kool Sheed, Problem, and Grant) filling the gaps so the music never actually stops. Food trucks line the concourse, there are multiple bars, and VIP seating exists if you want a chair with your nostalgia.

What makes this one work is the venue. The DAP is small, historic, and walkable from everything — a festival there feels like a block party with a stage instead of a parking lot with a fence. Bring a blanket, bring people who know the words, and plan on staying until the lights come up.

Pro tip: the DBAP fireworks go up after Saturday's game ends, and from the DAP's upper seats you've got a decent shot at catching them over the skyline between sets. Two shows, one ticket. Parking near Corporation Street will be tight — plan to park downtown and walk.

📅 Saturday, August 29 · 4–11 PM · Durham Athletic Park, 500 W Corporation St (Tickets)

Nzinga's Kitchen closes after 12 years on Fayetteville Street. Chef Zuri Hester opened it at 25 as a breakfast café in 2014 and turned it into a Hayti anchor — honey-hot chicken sandwiches, jumbo wings, house slushies. She's heading to nursing school, and a farewell event is set for September 26 at the Phoenix Event Center, with proceeds helping send the Hillside High band to the Sugar Bowl. Thank you, Chef. (Hey Durham)

East of Texas lands at American Tobacco for Labor Day. The corner of the Reed Building by the water tower becomes North Carolina's first Tex-Mex barbecue room — Central Texas smoked meats alongside enchiladas, queso, and fresh tortillas — from Winston-Salem's Claire Calvin, a James Beard Fellow and sixth-generation Texan. Doors open in time for the holiday weekend, with a grand-opening run September 3–6. (American Tobacco)

Pregame on Blackwell, postgame on Rigsbee. With fireworks two nights running and a festival four blocks away, the downtown dinner rush will start early both nights. Eat by 6 if you want a table, or go the walk-up route — the food trucks at both parks are the path of least resistance.

Norfolk took the first two, and the series has been the one-run, back-and-forth kind that makes late August feel like a pennant race — which it is. The good news: the weekend is where this homestand was always going to be won. Fireworks Friday and Saturday, State Fair Night and Champ the Bat Dog on Saturday, then TruckFest and Kids Run the Bases Sunday at 1:05 to close it out. The Bulls already hold the season series against the Tides; a strong weekend keeps the stretch-run math friendly heading into a road trip and the final homestand, September 7–13. Get the Saturday tickets now — that one sells. (Fireworks schedule)

Summer, but negotiable: highs in the upper 80s to around 90, lows finally dipping toward the upper 60s overnight, and — for once — a mostly dry forecast. Friday carries the only real shower chance, and it looks like a passing one rather than a fireworks-canceling one. Saturday is the keeper: warm afternoon at the DAP, comfortable night for the walk between shows. Sunday afternoon baseball will be hot; sit on the third-base side for the shade.

2 — fireworks nights this weekend · 4–11 PM — R&B in the Park hours · 10 — years of Sopadelic · 12 — years Nzinga's fed Fayetteville Street · 2 — new Nasher exhibitions opening today · 1:05 — Sunday's first pitch, and the last home game until September 7

INDY Week on the Durham label where Dolly Parton found a "little spot of heaven." Sugar Hill Records, founded here by Barry Poss, spent decades turning bluegrass and roots music into a national catalog — and this piece traces how a small Durham operation ended up with Dolly, Nickel Creek, and a shelf of Grammys. Read it before Saturday's festival for a reminder that this city has always been a music town. (INDY Week)

Every city has an old ballpark story. Ours has a movie about it, which means we can be forgiven for getting a little sentimental when the DAP fills up. But here's the thing about Saturday: nobody's there for the nostalgia. They're there because a singer they loved at seventeen is standing on the grass where a minor-league team once made this town famous, and the fireworks from the new park are going up over the old one, and for a few hours the whole timeline of Durham is visible from one set of bleachers. That's the trick this place keeps pulling off — it doesn't replace what came before, it stacks the new on top of it and lets you see both at once. Go stand in the middle of it.

Much love, Durham. 🐂

— Michael & Anne · Written from Trinity Park ☕

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