Downtown Covington Runs Two Different Friday Nights. Most People Only Know One.

This Friday, barricades go up on Columbia and Boston Streets at 4:30 p.m. By 6, classic cars, each at least 20 years old, start filling in along what regulars call Car Club Alley, the stretch of South Columbia between Boston and Rutland, parking first come, first served until the spots run out. Food trucks roll in. A local art market sets up under the Association's tent. By 9, the barricades come down and everyone drifts home or into whatever restaurant still has a table.

If you live in Covington, you already know this event. It's the Final Friday Block Party, and it happens on the last Friday of every month from March through October. What you may not know is that a week or two earlier, on the third Friday of that same month, a completely different gathering happens at the opposite end of the same street, and it has almost nothing in common with the one you're picturing.

The other Columbia Street

Walk Columbia Street all the way to where it dead-ends at the water and you'll find Bogue Falaya Wayside Park, home to a gazebo, a scattering of picnic tables, and a small landing that was once a working boat dock. On the third Friday of the month, March through October, that landing becomes a stage for Sunset at the Landing, a free acoustic concert series presented by Heritage Bank of St. Tammany, the City of Covington, and the Covington Farmers Market.

There are no cars here. No food trucks, no vendor tent. People bring their own chairs and their own coolers and sit in the grass while a jazz trio or a bluegrass band plays from what used to be a dock. Past lineups have included acts like The Groove Kings and The Magnolia Sisters, the kind of regional names that don't need a marquee to draw a crowd that already knows them.

According to Visit The Northshore's 2026 concert schedule, this year's Sunset at the Landing dates run 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on March 20, April 17, May 15, June 19, July 17, August 21, September 18, and October 16. That's eight evenings, one every month, always the third Friday, always at the water.

Same street, different week, different crowd

Here's the part that's easy to miss if you've only ever attended one of these: they never happen on the same night. The Block Party owns the last Friday. Sunset at the Landing owns the third. Depending on the month, that's one or two weeks apart, and it means a resident who thinks of "Friday night downtown" as one recurring thing has actually only met half the calendar.

The two events don't just differ in timing. They differ in almost every other way too.

The Block Party is loud and social, built around commerce and community pride. Cars have to be 20 years or older to qualify for display, and the Association reserves final say on what counts. Vendor tables belong to Association member businesses. It's downtown showing off what it has.

Sunset at the Landing is the opposite instinct. No cars, no vendors competing for attention, just a lawn, a river, and a band. The Covington Farmers Market helps sponsor it, which tracks: the market itself runs on the quieter, produce-and-conversation register that the concert series shares.

Why this matters if you live here

If your mental model of downtown Covington's Friday nights is built entirely around the Block Party, you're not wrong, you're just missing a second, gentler tradition that runs on its own separate week and asks nothing of you but a folding chair. Plenty of longtime residents have never made it to Sunset at the Landing simply because nobody told them it existed as its own thing rather than a smaller version of the same event.

As of today, the 2026 season for both series still has room to catch. Sunset at the Landing has two dates left this year: September 18 and October 16. The Final Friday Block Party has three: August 28, September 25, and the October 30 edition, which doubles as a Trunk-or-Treat and closes out the season with a Halloween theme for families.

After October, both go quiet until March. That doesn't mean downtown does. The Covington Trailhead, the museum and amphitheater building a few blocks off Columbia, runs its own separate calendar entirely, hosting things like the Halloween trick-or-treat event and, come December, Covington by Candlelight. And when the Friday series wind down for the year, downtown's biggest single weekend takes over: the Three Rivers Art Festival, held every November since 1997, has grown from 49 exhibiting artists to roughly 200 and now draws upwards of 60,000 visitors to the same streets that hosted classic cars all summer.

Picking your Friday

If you're new to either event, the practical difference comes down to what kind of evening you want. Want noise, food trucks, and a stretch of restored classics lined up along Car Club Alley? Go to the last Friday. Want to sit in the grass with a glass of wine and listen to a bluegrass band while the sun goes down over the Bogue Falaya? The third Friday is yours, and you'll want to check the Sunset at the Landing Facebook page ahead of time, since lineups are usually announced only a week or two before each show.

Either way, you're standing on the same street. It just depends which Friday you show up, and which end of it you walk to.

Patricia Conaghan has spent years learning what makes Covington's neighborhoods tick, not just what a house is worth, but what a Friday night here actually feels like. If you're thinking about what it means to call this town home, or you're already here and want to talk through a move, reach out to Patricia Conaghan any time. Let's talk about your next move.