Delray Beach The Set August 2026 Events to Know

Stand on SW 5th Avenue outside The Hive on a Thursday evening in late August and you will hear a sound check before you see anything worth photographing. A folding stage goes up between Libby Wesley Plaza and the low brick building at 34 SW 5th Avenue, a community space that keeps ordinary weekday hours, nine to five, Monday through Friday, and closes for the weekend like any other small office. Three blocks east, Sundy Village sits at the corner that has drawn attention this year, where construction continues behind fencing.

That corner is Sundy Village. This one is The Set, where a Thursday event is on the calendar this month.

The corner everyone's been watching

Sundy Village earned its attention honestly. Pebb Capital's seven-acre redevelopment at Atlantic and Swinton, designed by the architecture firm Gensler, received its Temporary Certificate of Occupancy for Phase One back in September 2025, and the property has been positioned since as downtown's next big food and drink destination, with six separate concepts slated for the site. Pebb Capital co-founder Todd Rosenberg framed the pace of that leasing when Phase One wrapped:

"Completing this phase with the majority of the campus leased affirms the strategy we envisioned from the outset."

Eleven months after that certificate, leasing and openings remain at different stages across the site. Barcelona Wine Bar became the first full-service restaurant to open on the campus, arriving January 17, with executive chef Javier Narváez, who previously ran the brand's Miami location, printing a new menu daily while keeping staples like jamón and Manchego croquetas in rotation. As of this month, that is still the only concept with its doors open. Delray Beach Craft Brewing is aiming for a spot inside the restored Cathcart House, one of the historic Swinton Avenue homes Pebb Capital preserved rather than demolished, but it has not landed a firm date. Two more tenants are still waiting on one. The full campus, including the reopening of the historic 1902 Sundy House at its center, is not expected to be finished until late 2026 or early 2027.

Sundy Village remains mid-build, with additional openings still ahead. Meanwhile, the two events that follow are on downtown's calendar next week.

Two free nights, three blocks apart

Thursday, August 27: Sounds of The Set. From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority, The Set neighborhood, and the West Atlantic Redevelopment Coalition present Sounds of The Set along SW 5th Avenue, running from Libby Wesley Plaza to The Hive. The Derek Mack Band headlines, and the Blackmer's Market lines the street with local small businesses, artists, and makers. It costs nothing to attend.

The Set is not a new name for the neighborhood. It grew up as a farming community west of the Florida East Coast Railway, incorporated into Delray Beach in 1927, and it remains the city's historically Black district, the same blocks that hosted last year's Art & Jazz on the Avenue in partnership with the Peach Umbrella Network. This year, Sounds of The Set brings live music and local vendors to the neighborhood.

Friday, August 28: Party in Paradise. One night later and a few blocks north, Old School Square Amphitheatre closes out its Summer Sunset Concert Series with a Jimmy Buffett tribute. The series runs the fourth Friday of the month through the summer, general admission is free, and VIP seating with a dedicated area runs fifty dollars a person for anyone who would rather skip the lawn-chair scramble. Gates typically open at five, with the featured act starting closer to seven thirty.

Old School Square sits on the same corner as Sundy Village, at Atlantic and Swinton, inside the restored early-twentieth-century school buildings that also house the Cornell Art Museum. The Delray GreenMarket, which ran every Saturday from May 30 through July 25 on this same lawn, already wrapped for the season before August began. The concert series did not pause. It closes out its own calendar on its own terms, a night after The Set closes out its own.

Two free nights, back to back, a short walk apart, offer two ways to spend an evening downtown.

One Wednesday of free parking remains

There is a third data point worth knowing before it disappears. Since June 3, every Wednesday has meant free parking, day and night, in every City-owned garage and surface lot downtown. That program runs through August 26, leaving one Wednesday still to come this month.

A three-month stretch of free downtown parking is not a small gesture. It removes the cost of parking for downtown visitors on Wednesdays during a period when Sundy Village has been under construction. The parking program ends the same week the Sundy Village conversation will likely pick back up around the Cathcart House timeline. Whether that timing is coincidence or planning, the practical effect for anyone downtown this month is the same: August 26 is the last Wednesday of free parking.

A Thursday in The Set

The Set, centered around Libby Wesley Plaza and SW 5th Avenue, has a Thursday event on its calendar. Sundy Village adds Class A office space, a landmark restoration, and Barcelona Wine Bar's daily-changing menu to downtown, with the rest of the campus likely to fill in over the next year.

For residents planning a week around downtown events, these dates offer two scheduled options. For readers following the civic calendar, the events sit alongside ongoing work at Sundy Village.

If you already call Delray Beach home, you know these streets change faster than any single headline can keep up with, which is part of what makes living here interesting. If a friend or family member ever asks you what it is actually like day to day, beyond the tourism copy, Scott Correale spends enough time on these blocks to have an honest answer, and the Delray Beach neighborhood guide is a good place to send them first.