A summer of joy in downtown Loveland

PUBLISHED: August 30, 2026 at 6:55 AM MDT by the Loveland Reporter Herald - SEE RH ARTICLE HERE
WRITTEN BY SEAN HAWKINS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

Our team and loyal group of volunteers have been squeezing out the last bits of summer in downtown Loveland through our One Sweet Summer event series. And it’s been a wonderful and joyful experience. This summer has been one of the hottest we can remember but that didn’t stop folks’ desire to connect and celebrate community with friends and our local businesses in the heart of our Loveland. We are so grateful to our community and numerous visitors to Loveland for attending our events and helping us make this summer so fun and connected.

The events we produced this summer as part of our seventh annual One Sweet Summer series (would have been our eighth without 2020) are proving themselves as necessary community celebrations that bring new faces and regulars to downtown, provide a fun first look at our community for visitors and most importantly, a way to build a community pride in our wonderful city. We closed the series out this week with a concert by Denver-based Clay Street Unit that drew 2,000 people to downtown with a full spectrum of ages and dancing abilities present.

This summer our team produced a series of Wednesday concerts in the Foundry Community Plaza in July and August, Kids on the Plaza events on Wednesday in June, July and August, an Ice Cream Festival in June, a Blues and Cruise car show in May, fitness classes on Tuesday and Saturdays in June, July and August, a concert with Loveland Symphony in August and a Bluegrass and Brews festival in June. For almost all these events, we pay local artists to participate with us by creating free art activities for kids of all ages to be creative during the events and partner with the Loveland Parks and Recreation for a variety of games and fun activities. We do our best to feature local vendors, breweries and food at each event as well.

For me, I am filled with joy and happiness at each event as we get to connect directly with community members and neighbors. Here’s some of things that folks told us this year: “This is what Loveland is all about”; “It was so wonderful to walk down each week and simply hang out”; “Me and my wife have a date night each week at your concerts”; “this was so fun, great show, great vendors and great community” and many, many more. We’re thankful we get to do this work for the community and don’t take it for granted either. In conversations with many of the musicians that performed for us this summer, a consistent theme kept coming back. In 2026, people just need some time to relax, enjoy their community and disconnect for the all the challenges of life. I agree. And seeing folks smile, hug when they see friends, dance and simply relax is something I’m glad we get to play a role in.

I want to close by thanking our investor partners who help make our free series possible. It costs over $140,000 to produce the One Sweet Summer series with costs that include not only paying market rate for performers and artists, but also items like security, insurance, hospitality, permits, sound technicians and sound systems, yoga instructors, beer from local breweries and more. We are very grateful to First National Bank of Omaha, Breeze Thru Car Wash, the OBC Wine Project, Loveland Pulse, Visit Loveland and iHeart Media for their generous support to help making our events free and available to anyone who wants to attend.

Sean Hawkins is the executive director of the Loveland Downtown District. The Loveland Downtown District is a partnership of the Loveland Downtown Development Authority and the Historic Loveland Business Improvement District. He has lived in Loveland since August 2018. He can be reached via email at shawkins@lovelandpartnership.org or by text at 970-699-2856.