Lansdale looks at town events for 2026

 Get your calendar, Lansdale residents: A full slate of summer events is on the drawing board ready to be finalized later this month.

Councilmembers heard a preview last week of several town events in the works, including a new date for one.

“We approved, to come before full council, a number of events including all of the First Fridays,” said councilwoman Mary Fuller.

Each year, borough staff partner with town event nonprofit Discover Lansdale to host a series of block parties on the first Friday of each month, which in recent years have been hosted on Madison Street between Railroad Plaza and Wood Street, from 6 to 9 p.m. with different themes each month.

For 2026, First Friday events will be held on May 1, June 5, July 11 — “that’s the second Saturday, but Discover Lansdale has done that in the past to stay off of the 4th of July,” Fuller said — Aug. 7, Sept. 4, Oct. 2 and Nov. 6.

Several other events also secured votes from the public safety committee, including nonprofit Manna on Main Street’s Race to End Hunger starting at 8:15 a.m. on April 25, the North Penn Rotary Club’s Lansdale Day arts and crafts festival on June 6, and Discover’s annual Founders Day event on Aug. 29, all in the same locations as prior years. Fuller added a reminder about the latter: “Just remember the most important thing, it’s all about the fireworks.”

Also voted ahead was the 2026 edition of the Lansdale Beer Tasting Festival, scheduled for Sept. 12, in the same Memorial Park location as 2025, which Carroll said was his favorite choice so far: “Having attended at all of the venues in town, Memorial Park was such a delight: really appreciate that Courtney (Fox, parks director) has worked with us. It was wonderful.”

The next vote ahead was the annual Mardi Gras parade now organized by Discover and slated for Nov. 21, kicking off at Main Street at Mitchell Avenue at 1 p.m., and Fuller said this year’s parade will be the 75th anniversary event. Resident Rachel Gill asked if Discover could look into adding more trash containers along the route, saying she’s seen candy and other giveaway items end up in yards and lawns along the route, and Fuller said the event nonprofit would look into doing so.

Last of the events, the committee also voted ahead a motion granting free parking in the borough for Discover’s Restaurant Week, slated for Feb. 23 through March 1. Fuller said about 50 restaurants in town have signed on to that event, and police Chief Ryan Devlin said his department and the borough would publicize the noon to midnight free parking hours leading up to it. According to Discover, a second Restaurant Week is in the works, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 24-30.

Several other events were also voted ahead by the committee for full council approval, including an extension of the town’s contract with local nonprofit Merakey to provide a mental health coresponder who aids police with certain emergency responses. Last fall council held lengthy talks on whether to extend the contract for a full year or bring the co-responder in house as an employee of the police department, and said the short-term contract would give council time for further talks on other police personnel changes.

That extension runs from Jan. 1 through June 30, and Carroll said includes “the previous language, already agreed by council,” before the group voted it ahead for approval by the full group.

One more police-related item was also voted ahead: a motion to move forward with a new police hire using a list of candidates developed and vetted by the town’s Civil Service commission last fall, a hire Devlin said is meant to fill a pending vacancy when a current sergeant retires later this year.

Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 18 and the public safety committee next meets at 6:30 p.m. on March 4, both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.

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