TOWN OF WINDSOR
AGENDA REPORT

Nelle Herman, Recreation Division Manager 

2026 Summer Nights on the Green Summary Report

Recieve a summary report of the 2026 Summer Nights on the Green concert series and provide comments and feedback for Town Council consideration.

The Town of Windsor hosted the 24th season of Summer Nights on the Green (SNOG) in 2026. This season included the following events:

• 5 Family Movies on the Green: July 7 - August 4
• 12 Thursday Night Farmers Market: June 4 – August 27
• 10 Thursday Night Concerts: June 4 – August 6
• 2 Farm Night Concerts, hosted by the Windsor Certified Farmers Market: August 20 – August 27

The concert attendance was estimated to be an average of 3,000 people per night over the course of the ten-week series on Thursdays. Both the bike valet and concert shuttles saw steady use throughout the season. The bike valet average was approximately 85 users per night; that’s down from an average of 94 users per night in 2025. The total number of bike valet users in 2026 was 1,021. The total riders for the two shuttles over the course of the season was 1,958, which is an average of 163 riders per concert from the two locations combined. This is just under the total number of riders from 2025 which came in at an average of 165 riders per concert.

Band Selection Committee

The Band Selection Committee (Committee) meets beginning in December each year leading up to each concert season to review and select bands for the concert series. This year the Committee was made up of the following members: one Town Councilmember, one community member as a two-year alternate for the Parks and Recreation Commissioner seat, the Windsor Certified Farmers Market (Farmers Market) Manager, the Sound Technician, and one community member. The Committee meetings are facilitated by Town staff. Band submissions were opened up online on September 1 and stay open through December 31. The Committee reviews each submission, selects a lineup, and determines availability and pricing of each band.

Farmers Market Partnership Agreement

The Town and the Farmers Market entered into an agreement to collaboratively work together to implement the 2026 Summer Nights on the Green concert series. Under this agreement, the Town took over responsibility for securing all the contracts with the bands, staffing the green room, and the Farmers Market was responsible for providing meals for the band, managing Bike Bucks and operating the Thursday night farmers market.

Due to budget cuts in the 2025-2027 adopted budget, the Town reduced the number of concerts offered from thirteen Thursdays to ten. The Farmers Market stepped up to offer two Farm Night concerts in the last two weeks of the season to make it a total of twelve concerts. Not only does the community benefit by gaining two more concerts but the non-profit groups and the farmers market vendors also reap the rewards in the form of two more weeks of additional revenue. 

Waste Less Windsor

In an effort to reduce waste at the concert series the Town once again partnered with Waste Less Windsor, a group of community members dedicated to the cause. One of the main goals of Waste Less Windsor is to reduce waste during the concerts and divert more materials out of the landfills and into recycling or compost bins. The overall diversion rate for the 2026 concert season was 67.13% this is up slightly from 2025's diversion rate of 64.77%.

Research shows that common diversion rates without volunteers or signage is in the 10%-25% range, with household baselines about 35% and maximum rates on the high side are 85%.

According to Waste Less Windsor, the Summer Nights on the Green 67.13% diversion rate suggests we had very effective waste management practices in place (proper bin placement, good signage, and high attendee awareness) as this significantly exceeds what would be expected from events with no recycling infrastructure or guidance.

Additionally, Waste Less Windsor converted all the vendors at the Thursday night market off of plastic cups, keeping as many as 4,000 plastic cups out of the waste stream. Waste Less Windsor also provides volunteer opportunities for Windsor High School students to learn about recycling and earn volunteer hours for their courses.

Non-Profit Alcohol Concessions

The following four concessionaires contributed $6,155 to offset the cost of security associated with enforcing the alcohol service boundary around the Town Green, per the State Department of Alcohol Beverage Control: Windsor Lions Club, Windsor Chamber of Commerce, Windsor Rotary Club and Windsor Kiwanis Club.

The table below represents the revenue earned through alcohol concessions at SNOG by each service club over ten weeks of concerts in 2026. This funds raised by these concessionaires goes back into the community through the service club projects and community benefits. 

Family Lawn Games

At all twelve Thursday concerts, the Town offered free drop-in family lawn games on the south lawn area of the Town Green. During the concerts staff facilitated activities such as soccer, bean bag toss, and large format board games. Participation was steady during the concerts, attracting children and their families to engage in play together.

Thursday Night Concert - Revenue and Expenses

The following table is an overview of the revenue and expenses for the 2026 concert series and is also included in Attachment 1.

Family Movies on the Green

The Family Movies on the Green series ran for five weeks with an average of 200 participants per night. The cost of running Family Movies on the Green was $16,767 (Attachment 2) which includes the movie contract, supplies, staffing costs and security services. Over the last three to four years Parks & Recreation along with Windsor Police have been tracking the increase in attendance of teens. The addition of security services was added two years ago as a safety measure in response to an incident during the later hours after the movies. With a budget reduction in the 2026 season and an interest in public safety, an earlier movie start time using and LED screen on the Town Green was approved by Town Council. The LED screen came at a higher price, thus the reduction in movie nights from 8 to 5 per season. This earlier movie start brought more families out to come and enjoy the movie and still get home at a reasonable hour. Due to the increased price for the LED movie screen, Town staff partnered with People 4 Parks Foundation to sponsor and present two of the five Family Movie Nights. With this gracious partnership, we were able to successfully offer five movies within the approved budget.

There is currently no fiscal impact associated with this summary report.