For 26 years, if you wanted an outdoor concert on a Friday evening in the Cape Fear region, you drove east to Wrightsville Beach Town Park. Sounds of Summer has been a biweekly concert series held at Wrightsville Beach Town Park for 26 years, and WECT hadn't planned to host it this year until Leland reached out. The station is only doing the one concert this summer, and it is happening on our side of the bridge.
That is a small detail with a big implication. Leland has spent the better part of a decade being described as the growing residential side of the Cape Fear River. On July 31, from 5 to 8 p.m. at 113 Town Hall Drive, the town stops being described that way and starts acting like a place with a center.
What Actually Opens That Evening
The event is billed as the grand opening of Founders Park, formerly Leland Municipal Park. If you have driven past the fenced site on Old Fayetteville Road for the last two years wondering what was taking so long, the answer is a substantial rebuild. Founder's Park has undergone $7.8 million in renovations recently, including a new playground, fitness stations, a veteran's memorial, walking trails, and a splash pad and amphitheater.
The night runs on a set schedule:
- 5:00 p.m. — Gates open. Attendees can enjoy games behind the amphitheater, a trail of community organizations, the new splash pad, and the updated playground.
- 5:30 p.m. — Mayor Brenda Bozeman officially opens the event with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the amphitheater.
- 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. — The Embers featuring Craig Woolard perform in the newly completed amphitheater. Known for helping define the Carolina beach music sound, The Embers remain one of the region's most beloved live acts.
If you have kids, the splash pad is the headline. If you do not, the amphitheater is. It is the piece of infrastructure that changes what Leland can host going forward, and the town is not being subtle about that ambition.
The Beer Garden Is the Thesis
Read past the concert lineup and the actual news is quieter. Food trucks will be on site throughout the event, along with the park's first beer garden featuring Leland Brewing and Brunswick Beer and Cider for patrons 21 and older. Outside alcohol is prohibited.
The park's first beer garden. Not a temporary vendor tent. A designated pouring space, licensed on public parkland, featuring the two breweries that opened within a mile of each other in the last four years. That is a policy decision, and it tells you what kind of civic space Leland is trying to build.
The two participating breweries have distinct roots worth knowing if you are going to be drinking their beer at a town event:
Leland Brewing Company sits at 133 Old Fayetteville Road, directly across from Town Hall and the park itself. The business opened after being built from the ground up on an approximately 2-acre plot across from Leland Town Hall. Inside the freshly constructed 8,000-square-foot building is a two-story taproom with a bar downstairs, tables for guests, and an upstairs mezzanine with leather couches and chairs. The taproom will be, quite literally, a two-minute walk from the amphitheater.
Brunswick Beer and Cider sits about three miles south at 1313 S. Dickinson Drive, inside The Villages at Brunswick Forest. Brunswick Beer and Cider opened in the fall of 2022 with a more traditional brewery setup, brewing most of their drinks in house or pulling them from their sister location, Wrightsville Beach Brewery. If you have wondered whether their ciders travel, the fact that they scored a national medal recently suggests the answer is yes. A Silver Medal winner at the 2025 US Cider Open, their semi-sweet cider has a classic lemonade pop balanced with agave, and additions of lavender bring subtle floral notes.
The two breweries pouring side by side at a town-run event is the kind of small thing that only happens once a community has enough of its own institutions to stage them together.
Who Is Feeding You
The food truck lineup is the other tell. Every one of the operators listed has a following on this side of the river, and the mix reads like someone in the parks department actually eats in Leland:
| Truck | What to order |
|---|---|
| Glizzies on the Go | Specialty hot dogs |
| Hanna's Hawaiian Ice | Shaved ice, non-alcoholic |
| Taste N Seize | Rotating comfort menu |
| Seaview Crab Company | Seafood, local sourcing |
| Old South Pretzel Company | Soft pretzels |
Participating food trucks include Glizzies on the Go, Hanna's Hawaiian Ice, Taste N Seize, Seaview Crab Company, and Old South Pretzel Company. Bring cash for the ones that prefer it, and bring a chair. Guests are encouraged to bring a picnic blanket or lawn chair for the concert.
The Restaurant Wave Running in Parallel
The park opening is timed, whether by design or coincidence, to a stretch of new dining arrivals. If you have felt like every drive down US-17 lately reveals another construction fence coming down, you are not imagining it.
The near-term openings, in the order they will affect your dinner options:
McAlister's Deli at 1109 New Pointe Boulevard has been the most closely tracked opening in town. McAlister's Deli received a building permit in March and interior work on the deli has been going on for a few months. Interior work like the kitchen hood system was still being completed as of early September, and area supervisor Barry Brewton said staff training would start Sept. 22, with the restaurant opening approximately one week after training.
Little Caesars is taking the former GameStop space. Located in the Shoppes at Westgate shopping center, Leland's first Little Caesars will be take-out only, as stated in a project document obtained by StarNews.
Texas Roadhouse is the largest of the incoming projects. Texas Roadhouse is set to open a new location in Leland Town Center in 2026, according to C&S Commercial Properties, with a sketch plan for the 7,926-square-foot restaurant submitted and under review.
MOBA Beer Co. is worth flagging separately, because it fills a space many locals watched close. A brewery that unexpectedly closed in December is gaining new life as new owners take over a commercial space in Leland. The Museum of Beer and Art is preparing to open its doors at 9600 Ploof Road, with the goal of blending beer, art and live music, and MOBA Beer Co. will be located in the former Mannkind Brewing space. The establishment will have two signature sippers, an IPA and a German Pilsner, in a 5,000-square-foot space with regular live music and rotating art exhibitions.
Four openings in a market of this size, inside a twelve-month window, is not organic drift. It is developers reading the same growth curve at the same time.
Practical Notes for the Night
A few details worth pinning down before you head over:
- Parking will be tight. There will be limited parking available at Founders Park, but overflow parking is offered at First Baptist Church, 517 Village Road, with multi-use paths allowing direct access to the park. Walking in from Village Road is the smart move.
- The multi-use paths are new. The park build included a nearly mile-long paved multi-use path (0.6 miles) perfect for walking, jogging, and fitness, which means the connection between the church lot and the amphitheater is not a shoulder walk down a road.
- The splash pad is open the same night. Bring a towel if you are coming with small kids.
- Community organizations are set up on the trail. Participating community organizations include Animal House - Wilmington, Chick-fil-A Leland Town Center, Lifepoint Church, American Legion Post 68, GLOW Academy, and Leland VFW.
The Mayor's Framing
The town's own framing of the space is worth reading closely, because it is not the usual boilerplate about a 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.
The word to notice is "unique." Leland has historically defined itself in comparison to Wilmington, sometimes to Southport, sometimes to the beaches. The Founders Park pitch is that the town has enough of its own texture now to be described on its own terms.
Why This Matters If You Already Live Here
If you moved to Leland five years ago, your Friday-night default was probably a drive over the bridge. That default was rational. The town did not have an amphitheater, a beer garden on public land, two breweries within walking distance of each other, or a concert series with regional pull. It does now, all in the same twelve-month stretch.
The practical implication is small and immediate. On July 31 you have somewhere to be that is close enough to walk home from, staffed by food operators you already recognize, pouring beer from two producers whose taprooms are minutes from the park entrance. The larger implication is that the geography of a normal Leland weekend is quietly redrawing itself around 113 Town Hall Drive. Concerts, farmers markets, festivals, and the Leland Fall Festival all now have a purpose-built venue to land in, and the town has signaled through the beer-garden decision that it intends to program the space actively.
Whether that shifts how people talk about Leland at dinner parties in Wilmington is a slower question. For the people already at home here, the shift is already in the calendar.
If you have friends or family thinking about a move to this part of the county and you want a straight answer about what daily life actually looks like around Founders Park, Brunswick Forest, or the Old Fayetteville corridor, Thirty4 North Properties Group lives and works in these neighborhoods. Reach out anytime.
