Plant a Park Fest wraps up summer of fundraising for Scott’s Addition’s first public park

Scott’s Addition is one of the hottest neighborhoods in Richmond, literally. It’s also one of the most park-starved corners of the city, an industrial-turned-trendy district full of breweries and apartments but short on shade and green space. That’s about to change, and organizers are throwing a party to help pay for it.

Plant a Park Fest lands at Brambly Park on Sunday, September 6, running from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 1708 Belleville Street. The all-day, all-ages, dog-friendly event is the finale of a summer-long campaign called “Raise a Glass. Build a Park.” from the Capital Region Land Conservancy, in partnership with Brambly Park, Capital Trees, and the Greater Scott’s Addition Association. The goal: raise the last chunk of money needed to buy a 0.43-acre lot at 3420 Norfolk Street and turn it into the neighborhood’s first permanent public park.

The music lineup does a lot of the heavy lifting for a festival like this, and this one leans local. Headliners are the Jared Stout Band and Afro-Zen Allstars, who picked up Style Weekly’s Best of Richmond title in 2025. Rounding out the day are Painted World, Prabir Mehta, Tiara & Andrew, Sun V Set, and Brian Caperton. Between sets, people can wander through artisan vendors and pop-up experiences, grab something from the Parousia Coffee Truck, and walk the actual future park site to see what they’re paying for.

Tickets are donation-based and available online, starting at $15 for general admission. A $38 tier adds a welcome cocktail and a limited-edition festival T-shirt. 100% of proceeds will benefit the park.

The land itself has a good story behind it. Christie and Kevin Barry ran Christie’s Fine Gardening & Creative Landscapes on the property for years. When it came time to let it go, they skipped the obvious move of selling to a developer and instead part-gifted, part-sold the land to the Capital Region Land Conservancy, a donation valued at more than $1.4 million. CRLC still has to come up with $600,000 to complete the acquisition, and thanks to lead gifts from the City of Richmond, the Community Foundation for Greater Richmond, the Greater Scott’s Addition Association, and the city’s 2nd District office, along with a wave of neighborhood “give back” nights and individual donations, the campaign is already 85 percent of the way there.

Businesses in Scott’s Addition have been carrying a lot of that fundraising themselves. Throughout July and August, association members hosted give-back promotions, and the push continued this week with a Greater Scott’s Addition Association night at the Flying Squirrels’ CarMax Park, where a cut of tickets sold through a dedicated link fed the park fund.

Once built, the park would be the fourth green space the Greater Scott’s Addition Association has helped create in the neighborhood since 2018, and it fits squarely into Richmond’s INSPIRE plan, which aims to put every resident within a 10-minute walk of a park. For a neighborhood known more for its urban heat than its shade trees, that’s not a small thing.

Anyone who can’t make it to the festival or one of the business give-back nights can still donate directly through CRLC’s crowdfunding page. The land trust has been at this kind of work since 2005, having helped protect more than 500 acres in the city of Richmond and over 16,000 acres across the region, including pieces of the James River Park System, Mayo’s Island, the Trail of the Enslaved at Brander Street, Jefferson Avenue Community Garden, and Dock Street Park.