If you live in Camas, you already know what the last weekend of July looks like from your front porch. Traffic re-routes off 4th Avenue, the bathtubs come out of storage at City Hall, and someone in your neighborhood mentions the parade route like it needs explaining. It doesn't. What actually deserves a plan is everything the festival kicks off after Sunday cleanup.

Camas Days turns 50 in 2026, and the Camas-Washougal Chamber has themed it "Broadway Comes to Camas." That headline weekend gets the crowds, but for residents, the more useful thing to know is that the Downtown Camas Association and Parks & Rec have stacked the six weeks after it with quieter, walk-up-friendly evenings that most out-of-towners never hear about. If you treat Camas Days as the opener rather than the whole show, your summer downtown gets a lot better.

The Weekend, In One Screen

The official Chamber hub has the full schedule, but here is the shape of it, so you can decide which parts to show up for.

C-TRAN is running a shuttle from Camas High School at 26900 SE 15th Street into downtown on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which, if you live north of Lacamas Lake, is genuinely a better option than hunting a spot on Birch. Clark County Today reports the festival draws close to 16,000 people across the two days, so plan the parking accordingly or don't park at all.

Eating Around A Full Downtown

Here is the friction most locals have already learned the hard way: on Camas Days weekend, walking into your usual dinner spot at 6:30 p.m. does not work. The Chamber estimates around 120 craft and commercial vendors plus 14 food vendors on the streets, and the sit-down restaurants absorb the overflow.

A few useful splits:

Book ahead, or don't try. Feast At 316 on Dallas, The Hammond Kitchen + Craft Bar out on 34th, and Roots Restaurant & Bar all fill fast on parade nights. If you want a real dinner between the Grand Parade and the evening beer garden, reserve on Monday, not Friday.

Walk-in and forgiving. Natalia's Cafe on Adams runs a 1950s-diner format that turns tables quickly, especially at lunch after the Kids Parade. Adams Street Bar & Grill next door has enough bar seating to absorb a spontaneous group. Nuestra Mesa handles a walk-up crowd well, and Backpacker Pizza on 3rd has been running strong since it opened, with dine-in plus a workable takeout window if you'd rather eat in Crown Park.

Beer without the beer garden. Grains of Wrath at 4th & Adams has been the anchor craft brewery downtown since 2017, and it stays open through the festival. If the $8 gate at the wine garden isn't your thing, the taproom is a two-minute walk from the parade route. Caps N' Taps also stays open, and Tommy O's at the Camas Hotel does Pacific Rim food if you want something farther from festival fare.

Morning coffee before the crowds. Daily Paper Coffee Roasters is the local pick, and on Saturday of Camas Days it's the most useful reservation you don't need. Get in before 9 a.m. and you'll have downtown to yourself for about ninety minutes.

The Weeknights That Actually Matter

This is the part that gets missed. Camas Days is a two-day sprint. The Downtown Camas Association and Parks & Rec have programmed roughly six weeks of lower-key summer events that reward showing up on foot, and they're the ones locals should be blocking on their calendars.

• Thursday, July 16, 6–8 p.m. — Free Summer Concert in the Park, Dorothy Fox Park. Camas Parks & Rec kicks off the summer concert series with Quinton Parker and Friends. This is on the west side of town, not downtown, so if the Camas Days footprint is not your speed, this is the softer entry point.

• Thursday, August 13, 5 p.m. — Summer Nights Sips & Bites. The DCA runs this as a downtown walking event. Registration moved to the Fuel Medical lobby this year, which matters if you've done it before and are used to the old location.

• Saturday, August 22, 3 p.m. — Camas Art & Wine Walk. Different format from Sips & Bites, more gallery-centric, and it flows through storefronts along 4th and Cedar.

• Friday, September 4, 5–8 p.m. — First Friday: Celebrate Art. The DCA has confirmed hands-on stations in the Journey lobby including quilling, basket weaving, and pottery, plus a self-guided mural tour that now includes the new Molly Keen mural on the back of The Livingston Apartments, visible from 5th Ave. If you have not walked past that wall since spring, it is worth the block.

• Sunday, September 27, 8 a.m.–3 p.m. — Camas Plein Air Event, hosted by RedDoor Gallery. This is new enough that most residents haven't caught on. Artists paint on location around downtown all day, with a reception and awards at RedDoor from 4–6 p.m. and $2,800 in cash prizes. The finished paintings hang and stay for sale at RedDoor through October 25, which turns a one-day event into a five-week reason to keep dropping in.

The pattern here is worth noticing. Camas Days delivers volume. The events after it deliver access. If you have friends visiting from Portland or Ridgefield who want to "see Camas," the weeknight walks in August and September are the ones that show them why you live here.

Small Things Worth Knowing

A few odds and ends that came out of following the schedule closely:

• The Kids Parade lineup starts at 10:30 a.m. at the Camas Library, not at City Hall. If you've been staging on Franklin because that's how it used to run, check the current map on the Chamber site before you arrive.
• The Beer & Wine Garden allows minors on Saturday between 2 and 5 p.m. only. After 5, it's 21-and-over with a paid gate. Family plans get simpler if you time dinner around that.
• The Softball Tournament runs Saturday 8 a.m.–7 p.m. and does not use the downtown footprint, so parking near the fields is separate from parade parking.
• The Ducky Derby drawing happens Sunday at noon at Picnic in Color, on Cedar between 4th and 5th. If you bought a duck, that's the pickup event.
• LiveWell Camas runs its own First Friday Unplugged series if you want live music in a sober, all-ages room. Different vibe from the wine walks.

After The Parade

The stretch from mid-July through late September is when Camas is most itself. The weekend of the 25th is the loud version. The Thursdays and Sundays that follow are the version residents remember at Thanksgiving.

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