Ask anyone in Avon what's new this year and they'll point you toward Nottingham Park. AvonLIVE! on Wednesdays. SunsetLIVE! on Sundays, including tonight. A car show at the end of the month. That's the version of "new" the town's own marketing wants you to notice, and it's not wrong exactly. It's just not the point.
The things that will still matter here after Labor Day, after the Pavilion stage comes down and the food trucks roll out for the season, aren't on any events calendar. One is a trail that's been stuck in permitting and easement negotiations since 2010 and is finally supposed to open this summer. Another is a restaurant at the valley's biggest hotel that just changed its name for the second time in a handful of years. A third is a hibachi grill that moved into Chapel Square and quietly became one of the more interesting new tables in town. None of them come with a flyer. All three tell you more about how Avon is actually changing than the concert lineup does.
The Calendar You Already Know
To be fair to the calendar, here's what's left on it. The marquee, single-date festivals, the Avon Arts Celebration on July 25 and 26 and Dancing in the Park on August 6, have already happened. What remains through the end of the month is the recurring stuff.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sundays, Aug 9, 16, 23, 30 | SunsetLIVE! | The Terrace at Avon Pavilion |
| Wednesdays, Aug 12 and 19 | AvonLIVE!, final two nights of the ten-evening series | Harry A. Nottingham Park & Avon Pavilion |
| Saturday, Aug 22 | Cars in the Park, third annual | Harry A. Nottingham Park |
AvonLIVE! runs 5:30 to 9 p.m. with music starting at 6, food trucks, and the Hahnewald Bar pouring. SunsetLIVE! is the quieter, bring-your-own-chair version at the Terrace. Cars in the Park is still young as local traditions go, only in its third year, but it's already drawing entrants from outside the valley for a full day of vehicles against the Nottingham Park and Beaver Creek backdrop.
None of this is a bad way to spend a Wednesday or Sunday. It's just temporary by design. What follows is not.
Three Names, One Kitchen
The lobby-level restaurant at the Westin Riverfront Resort and Spa has now cycled through three identities in a relatively short stretch. Executive chef Angel Muñoz spent years running Maya, a Richard Sandoval concept, before the resort pivoted to Stoke & Rye, another Sandoval concept known for slow-smoked, tableside dishes, including a 52-ounce tomahawk steak flambéed with moonshine whiskey at the table. On June 22, Stoke & Rye gave way to Colletta, an Italian concept from the Indigo Road Hospitality Group, which also operates Colletta restaurants in Atlanta and Cary, North Carolina, according to the Vail Daily.
Muñoz stayed through all three. He describes Colletta as a gathering place rooted in Italian-American tradition, built as much for family-style dinners shared around the table as for a couple splitting a la carte plates. Sarah Grasseschi, the resort's assistant director of food and beverage, framed the goal as a room where guests could gather and celebrate in something warm and approachable.
"Italian cuisine reminds us that behind every dish there is history, territory, family and a very clear philosophy: respect the ingredient and cook with intention." — Angel Muñoz, executive chef, Colletta
Colletta is also reviving the resort's old Friday happy-hour tradition, previously called the Friday Afternoon Club, now recast as the Friday Aperitivo Club, with a spritz bar and pizza specials on the patio overlooking the Eagle River. The menu leans on scratch-made pastas and wood-fired pizzas that rotate seasonally.
Three names in one physical space over a handful of years is not typical turnover for a flagship hotel restaurant. It's a sign that even the valley's most visible dining room is still figuring out what locals and resort guests actually want, and is willing to gut the concept twice to find it.
Two New Doors in Chapel Square
A few minutes' walk from the Westin, Chapel Square, the four-building, nearly 12-acre mixed-use complex near the base of Beaver Creek, keeps filling in with family-run concepts rather than chains. The newest is Fuji Mt Sushi & Hibachi, which opened with five hibachi grills built for group dining.
Yimei Zhuo's family has run restaurants across Colorado Springs, the Denver metro area, and Woodland Park for 15 years, and Fuji Mt now brings that experience to the base of Beaver Creek, per the Vail Daily. The signature roll, tempura shrimp and yellowtail wrapped in avocado and topped with crab and tobiko, is named the Beaver Creek Roll, a small nod to where it landed. Zhuo described the hibachi format as built for larger groups, letting a table sit back while the chef works the grill in front of them.
It's a modest addition next to a trail extension and a hotel restaurant relaunch, but it matters for the same reason: it's permanent inventory in a retail corner that could just as easily have filled with another chain outlet.
Sixteen Years for 1.64 Miles
The EagleVail Trail opened in 2010, and extending it westward has been a goal of the EagleVail Metropolitan District ever since, according to the Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance. Sixteen years, a proposal that stalled repeatedly over steep terrain and private land, and a network of unofficial social trails crossing more than two dozen private properties later, the 1.64-mile extension is finally close to done.
The project needed sign-off from six stakeholders before a shovel could go in the ground: Frontgate Avon, the Aidan Group, Vail Resorts, the Town of Avon, the EagleVail Metropolitan District, and the U.S. Forest Service, which issued the final approval on August 12, 2024, per Vail Daily. Once finished, the extension will run from the trail's existing western terminus above Grouse Court out to the Beaver Creek roundabout, connecting into the Everkrisp Trail on the other end and completing a dirt-surface link between Avon and Minturn that never touches Highway 6. EagleVail Metropolitan District board chair Tim McGuire has pointed to accidents along that stretch of Highway 6 as one reason the disconnect mattered in the first place.
As of a November 2025 construction update from the Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance, crews were targeting a summer 2026 opening after volunteer work nights through the winter and into spring. If that holds, this is the summer the gap finally closes, for hikers, runners, and dog walkers who've been riding shoulder lanes on Highway 6 to make the same trip.
What Actually Changes When the Tents Come Down
After Labor Day, AvonLIVE! folds its stage, Cars in the Park hands out trophies, and Nottingham Park goes back to being a lake, a lawn, and a running path. What stays behind is the trail that finally lets you get from EagleVail to Minturn without a highway shoulder, a restaurant on its third identity still trying to get the room right, and a hibachi counter in Chapel Square that will be just as busy on a Tuesday in November as it is in August.
That's the actual shape of change in a town like this. The festival calendar is loud and temporary. The trail, the kitchen, and the storefront are quiet and permanent, and they're the ones worth paying attention to.
Knowing which is which, block by block, is the kind of local texture that matters when the conversation eventually turns to buying or selling in Avon. That's the work Ben Kleimer does every day in this valley. If that day comes for you, Work With Ben.
