> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.richmonder.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Brown’s Island will be open for Folk Festival, says Venture Richmond - URL: https://www.richmonder.org/browns-island-will-be-open-for-folk-festival-says-venture-richmond/ - Published: 2026-09-16T20:04:13.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-16T20:04:13.000Z - Description: The park has been closed since December 2025 for a $30 million overhaul. - Author: Sarah Vogelsong - Tags: Local News, #lead Brown’s Island “will be open for the Folk Festival,” Venture Richmond CEO and President Lisa Sims promised Wednesday. “Certainly it is a tight turn. It's a big ask,” she acknowledged. “But we are on track to make it happen, so I don't have any doubts that it will.” The riverfront park, which is owned by the city and managed by Venture Richmond, has been closed since December 2025 for a $30 million overhaul that will add a new pavilion, public restrooms, an entrance accessible for people with disabilities, a splash pad and thousands of native trees and plants. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/4BD566B8-F90A-40D1-B41E-6F148D2EFBD2_1_201_a.jpeg) Lisa Sims said the park will also temporarily open for the Richmond Marathon later this year. Not everything will be complete by the time the Richmond Folk Festival starts on Oct. 9\. Parts of the island including the new terraces along the James River, the new buildings and planned gardens on the northern side of the island will be fenced off. Stages will have to be squeezed around a trailer used by general contractor Whiting-Turner. And much of the planned planting will be delayed until after the festival to avoid young plants from being trampled. Otherwise, the show will go on. “We don’t want fears about this space not being ready or not being accessible to keep people from the Folk Festival,” said Sims. “We also, though, want them to know it’s not finished yet.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/9F8964D8-E1DC-4059-87A5-78D3C1326A82_1_201_a.jpeg) Hookups will allow food trucks and vendors on the island. On Wednesday morning, the site was buzzing with dozens of workers getting ready to pour concrete on the rebuilt steps down from the arched 7th Street pedestrian bridge across the canal, laying paving stones on the “Breezeway” area beneath the Manchester Bridge and driving heavy machinery. New infrastructure that’s already complete includes circular structures on the southern side of the island that will provide permanent electricity and water hookups for vendors and food trucks. “We’ve never had that before. We were running cables from all across the island, water lines,” said Sims. “What we’re trying to do is make this a more robust park year-round, but also a better event space.” Also finished: a new wheelchair-accessible ramp down from the 7th Street Bridge that will provide better access for people with disabilities. So too is remediation of the island’s soil, which had seen contamination from many years of heavy industry on the site. [As design committee OKs revised Brown’s Island plan, members weigh corporate vibe vs. ‘wildness’What started as a push to plant more trees on the man-made island has evolved into a bigger project.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/icon/apple-touch-icon-1-67f96d8d-c569-4918-99f3-ecef096bae44.png)The RichmonderGraham Moomaw![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/thumbnail/Browns-Island-Plan-Update-01-30-2025-20-9eb3cc50-d4db-41c3-b4f3-f9ea5f350da2.jpg)](https://www.richmonder.org/as-design-committee-oks-revised-browns-island-plan-members-weigh-corporate-vibe-vs-wildness/) Construction will continue after the Folk Festival, when the island will again be closed. The park will also be briefly reopened to host the Richmond Marathon’s “finish line festival” on Nov. 14\. Planting is expected to occur from September to November, when 220 trees and 11,700 perennials and shrubs will be put in the ground. “Most are native,” said Lucy Meade, Venture Richmond’s director of economic development and community relations. “We’ll be bringing back the pollinators and the birds.” One exception: 14 cherry blossom trees included in the landscape design because, said Meade, “Richmond loves their cherry blossoms.” All of the work is on track to wrap up at the start of the first quarter of 2027\. While this summer’s heat waves were “miserable,” said Sims, they didn’t slow down the project: “Rain would have been worse.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/09/CCC28D0D-D7D2-4257-BEC7-13DE52719E2B_1_201_a.jpeg) The Folk Festival reopening marks a special milestone in a longer transformation of Brown’s Island into a popular gathering space for Richmonders. “When we started the Folk Festival, there wasn't a whole lot happening down here,” said Sims. “The Folk Festival really sort of changed how people saw the riverfront. They saw it as something that was more accessible, something that could be fun.” The sweeping project’s $30 million price tag is being split between the city and Venture Richmond, which has been raising its half from the private sector, including donations from companies like Dominion Energy, CoStar and NewMarket Corporation. Venture Richmond plans to open up the public phase of its fundraising campaign after the Folk Festival. Sims would not provide a specific amount of money that still needs to be raised but said, “We are not worried at all. We are very confident.” *Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at* [*svogelsong@richmonder.org*](mailto:svogelsong@richmonder.org)