If you have lived in Belmont for more than a season, you already know the town keeps a quieter summer schedule than Cambridge or Somerville. What is easy to miss is that the schedule exists at all. Three weeknight anchors, held within a mile of each other, carry the town from mid-June through early September. Miss them and July feels empty. Catch them and the week has a shape.
This year the shape has shifted slightly. The Farmers' Market crossed its 20-year mark, Payson Park's music series turned 35, and Waverley Square gained an unusual new tenant. Here is how a Belmont resident might actually use the summer.
Wednesday: The Concert Series That Outlasted A Park Renovation
The Payson Park Music Festival is the oldest of the three anchors and the least publicized outside town. Founded in 1990 by Tomi Olsen after a resident suggested the town could do more for itself, it now runs every Wednesday evening from mid-June through early September, weather permitting, with sets starting around 6:30 p.m. Admission is free.
The festival's endurance is the interesting thing. When Payson Park went under construction, the concerts moved up the hill to the green above the pool on Underwood Hill and kept going. When the pandemic hit,
