Rehoboth mixing up Bandstand concert nights next summer

Rehoboth Beach officials have agreed to move an unspecified number of summer concerts in 2026 from weekends to weekdays in an effort to gather information on how a change in the schedule could benefit businesses near the Bandstand. Commissioners voted in favor of the experiment during a meeting Dec. 19.

The city has offered free concerts at the Bandstand on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights for decades. In response to the size of the crowds continuing to grow, the city has temporarily closed the horseshoe around the Bandstand to cars during the concerts for the past few summers. In October, staff recommended a change in code that would make those temporary closures permanent during the concerts exclusively because it would allow for new signs to be installed and make enforcement of the closures easier.

This recommendation prompted a response from a handful of Bandstand-area business owners, who said having concerts every weekend night for 13 consecutive weeks during the busiest time of year hurts their business. The Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce’s downtown task force held a meeting in November at the request of the city to gather information.

Staff came to the Dec. 19 meeting with a number of recommendations they thought could help businesses in the area, but moving one of the concert nights was the option business owners favored.

Grant Willis, Sierra Moon co-owner, was one of half a dozen nearby business owners in attendance. He encouraged a compromise because, he said, it’s tough on businesses in the immediate area to have concerts every single weekend, all summer long. Just changing one of the nights to Tuesday or Wednesday would be pretty simple, he said.

Tom Ibach, Dolle’s Candyland owner, said the concerts are having a negative impact on business. It hits the businesses pretty hard because people are in town for a free concert, not to patronize businesses in the area, he said.

Commissioner Craig Thier recommended the city move some of the Sunday shows because data collected by the city shows the concerts on Sunday nights aren’t as busy.

Immediately following the meeting, City Manager Taylour Tedder said he would be discussing exactly how the concert schedule would work in the near future with Corey Groll, Rehoboth Beach Bandstand director, and present the information at a future meeting.

City officials are doing more than just moving around a few show nights to collect data.

As mentioned before, staff came to the recent meeting with a handful of recommendations to improve crowd control in 2026. Recommendations include better enforcement of pedestrians on sidewalks, better communication about temporary travel lanes during the concerts, continuing to solicit feedback from stakeholders, assisting with additional promotions of downtown businesses and having the streets department monitor the placement of benches.

Brooke Thaler, city communications manager, said the city is still planning to implement the proposed parking changes for the 2026 season because the city does think it will help with seating around the Bandstand. This will be communicated well before the season begins and during the season, she said in an email Dec. 22.

In addition to closures for the city’s concerts, the city allows organizations to request use of the Bandstand after filling out a special-event permit application. Businesses in the Bandstand area raised concerns that some events are too small to warrant closing down the area for an extended period of time.

City staff didn’t come with specific recommendations about changing the criteria at the Dec. 19 meeting. Commissioner Chris Galanty asked about this concern. The types of events and the criteria used to accept applications was a pretty big issue, he said.

Tedder said he and the team that evaluate the applications will be much more stringent about what constitutes a closure of the Bandstand.

“We definitely heard the businesses and want to reflect that in our future bookings of the area,” said Tedder, but he didn’t offer specifics.

The city will be looking at the frequency of Bandstand closures for events, as some may be unnecessary, said Thaler.

“That will be our first step, in hopes of keeping the Bandstand horseshoe inviting for pedestrians and customers of those businesses. We will communicate those when they come up,” said Thaler.