If you live in Westfield, you already know the season does not really begin on Memorial Day. It begins the Friday the folding chairs come out at Elm Street Plaza, and it does not end until the Starfires play their last home game in August. Everything in between is a rotation.
The useful thing to notice this year is how tight that rotation is. Almost every free, recurring, weather-permitting reason to leave the house on a summer evening in Westfield sits inside a triangle you could walk in twenty minutes. Learn the three addresses and you have the season.
The triangle that runs the season
| Night | Anchor | Address |
|---|---|---|
| Friday | Downtown Live! Friday Night Summer Concert Series | Elm Street Plaza |
| Sunday | Sunday Night Concert Series presented by Westfield Bank | Stanley Park, 286 Western Ave, Gate 2 |
| Variable weeknights | Westfield Starfires home games | Billy Bullens Field |
These are the load-bearing walls of a Westfield summer. Everything else, the brewery gigs, the WOW Center exhibits, the Wyben Fourth of July parade, sits on top of them.
Friday nights belong to Elm Street Plaza
The Downtown Live! Friday Night Summer Concert Series is the piece of the calendar most residents build their weekends around, because it is free, it is walkable from the whole downtown core, and the bookings actually rotate. The O-Tones played Friday July 10, Oakland Stroke was the July 3 booking, and The 413s opened the late-June run on June 26 at Elm Street Plaza. Music starts at 7 p.m., and if you have not walked the plaza before a set starts, you have not really used the series.
If you are new to the routine, the trick is to arrive before the opener and use the half hour to get a drink or a bite within a five-minute walk. The plaza sits close enough to Franklin Street and Elm Street that you can eat sitting down and still get back to a chair before the first song. That geography is the whole reason the series works.
Sundays are Stanley Park
The Sunday counterpart is quieter, greener, and a little older in its crowd. The Sunday Night Concert Series presented by Westfield Bank runs at 286 Western Avenue, Gate 2, with 6 p.m. start times, and the June 21 booking was 7 Bridges Road. That is Stanley Park, and Gate 2 is worth knowing specifically because parking and the lawn read differently there than at the main entrance.
Stanley Park is also where the daylight side of the summer lives. Zumba in the Park runs Tuesday evenings from 6 p.m. at 286 Western Avenue, Gate 2. That is the same address, the same lawn, three nights a week doing different work. If you are a resident who already treats Stanley as your default green space, the concert series is less a special event and more Sunday's version of Tuesday.
Bullens Field is the wildcard weeknight
The third leg of the triangle is the one that changes shape every week, because the Starfires' schedule is the only anchor here that has real away games. The team is in its eighth campaign at Bullens Field, and Opening Night was Friday, May 29, against the three-time defending Futures League champion Norwich Sea Unicorns. The Starfires also partner with local schools for Education Day Games, eight weekday contests in the first three weeks of the season starting at 10:30 a.m., which is worth knowing if you have kids or work from home and want a cheap morning out.
A few dates worth circling on the wall calendar between now and the end of the season:
- Wednesday, June 24: Banana Ball Night, with the Savannah Bananas' Vincent Chapman, "The Dancing Umpire," on hand to help officiate, joined by former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee
- Sunday, June 28: the fourth-annual Starfires Summer Classic, played at the Walker Memorial Grandstand in Forest Park against the Worcester Bravehearts
- Wednesday, July 15: the Starfires face the Vermont Lake Monsters at Dunkin Park in Hartford, with the game broadcast on NESN, along with the Worcester game the following day
- Saturday, August 8: the regular season finale, Fan Appreciation Night at Bullens Field
The Summer Classic is the odd one out here, because it is not actually in Westfield. If you have never been to a Starfires "home" game that isn't at Bullens, June 28 in Forest Park is the version of the team you can bring skeptical Springfield friends to.
Where to land before first pitch or after the encore
The reason the triangle matters is that it makes the rest of the evening decisions easier. You are already downtown, so the food and drink options that support the series are the ones within a short walk of the plaza or a short drive from Bullens.
A short list of anchors that residents already use this way:
- Great Awakening Brewing Co. for a pre-game pint and, on some Fridays, its own free live music. October Mountain Band played there free on Friday, July 10, at 6 p.m., which is early enough to catch a set and still make the 7 p.m. concert on the plaza.
- Hutghi's at the Nook, 8 Franklin Street, which sits inside the Downtown Music Series orbit. The Westfield State Homecoming Reunion Jam brings music faculty and alumni to the Nook on Saturday, October 25 at 6 p.m., and the venue hosts jazz nights during the school year, so it is a room worth learning while it is quieter in July.
- Bright Ideas Brewing for the Spark Sessions songwriter nights, a smaller-room alternative when Elm Street Plaza is too crowded or the weather calls it off.
- The WOW Center at 105 Elm Street, run by Westfield on Weekends. WOW is a founding member of the New Downtown Cultural District and produces programming there year-round, including PumpkinFest and DecemberFest. In July that means gallery hours and the occasional evening event a block from the plaza.
None of these are new. That is the point. Westfield's summer works because the venues are close enough to string together on foot, not because any single one is a destination.
The July 4 detail most residents forget
The city's fireworks are not downtown, and every year some new residents show up at Elm Street Plaza expecting them. Westfield's fireworks fire at 9:15 p.m. at South Middle School. If you are used to Chicopee's Szot Park show at 9:30 or Holyoke Community College's 9:15 start, the Westfield timing is on the earlier side of the regional pattern, so plan the drive accordingly.
The Wyben Fourth of July parade is the other piece of the day that regulars protect on their calendar. The parade steps off Saturday, July 4, at 5 p.m. in Wyben. Between the parade and the fireworks, there are about four hours, which is exactly enough time to eat somewhere and get to South Middle School with a chair.
What a resident's week actually looks like
Put it all together and a well-used Westfield week in July looks less like an events calendar and more like a rhythm. Tuesday is Zumba on the Stanley Park lawn if you want it. Friday is the plaza. Sunday is back to Stanley Park with a folding chair. Somewhere in the middle, one or two Starfires nights at Bullens, more if there is a promotion you like. The rest is dinner within walking distance of whichever anchor you picked.
The reason this matters, and the reason the triangle is worth thinking of as a triangle at all, is that it changes how you use the season. You stop asking what is happening this weekend and start assuming something is. That is a small shift, but it is the difference between a summer you remember and a summer that passes.
If you are weighing what your Westfield home is worth this summer, or thinking about a move that keeps you close to the downtown routine you have already built, Suzi Buzzee can walk you through it at your pace. Get your free home valuation and start the conversation on your timeline, not the market's.
