Grand Rapids expands social district to include amphitheater area
Posted By: mlive on March 31, 2026. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The city of Grand Rapids is adding the area surrounding the new Acrisure Amphitheater to the downtown social district where people can walk around and drink to-go cocktails outdoors. The Grand Rapids City Commission voted Tuesday, March 31, to expand the downtown social district to include five areas around the amphitheater at 201 Market Ave. SW, including along the river edge and extending down Market Avenue from Fulton Street to the railroad tracks. The expansion means that people will be able to purchase a to-go cocktail, beer, wine or other alcoholic beverage from qualified downtown businesses and drink them out on the sidewalks by the amphitheater.
Here are the exact parameters of the new expansion to the social district:
- River edge trail adjacent to amphitheater, from U.S. 131 to the railroad tracks
- Market Avenue from Fulton Street to the railroad tracks
- Extension of Weston Street, Oakes Street, Cherry Street, Williams Street and Bartlett Street to Market Avenue
- Addition of Finney Avenue
- Addition of Ney Avenue
The 12,000-seat Acrisure Amphitheater in Grand Rapids is scheduled to open May 15. In social districts, people can purchase to-go alcohol from an authorized bar or restaurant and consume it anywhere within the area of the social district called the commons area. These are generally sidewalks but can include outdoor seating as well. Drinks may be consumed only from designated cups with a certified social district sticker on them.
There are time restrictions to the social district. Drinks can only be consumed in public Sunday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 7 a.m. to midnight. Social districts were created during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to help struggling restaurants and bars with limited indoor dining capacity to accommodate more customers in the open air and increase sales and foot traffic.
Grand Rapids approved its first social districts and commons areas in July 2020. Sixty-seven restaurants in downtown Grand Rapids are licensed to participate in the social district, out of 111 available licenses, according to DGRI.
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