If you have lived here longer than a summer or two, you know the old geography. City Springs was downtown. Morgan Falls was the river. You drove between them, and the drive was the whole point. August 2026 is the first month where that mental map stops making sense. The events calendar, the trail work, and a long-awaited restaurant reopening are all pulling the two ends of Roswell Road into a single walkable orbit.
Here is what a resident actually needs to know before the month gets away from us.
The Saturday that pulls everything toward the river
The single most Sandy Springs thing on the calendar this month is happening Saturday, August 15 at Morgan Falls Overlook Park. The city is running the inaugural Sandy Springs SUP Showdown, a stand-up paddleboard race on the Chattahoochee that the Recreation and Parks Department has been quietly building toward since it opened Springway Segment 2A last year. The event is pitched to paddlers from across the Southeast, but the more interesting story is who shows up as a spectator. For the first time, you can park at Overlook, watch a race, and walk 1.88 miles of paved boardwalk-and-concrete trail back toward Roswell Road without touching a car. That was not possible in 2024.
If you have not been on the completed section of Springway 2A, this is the weekend to fix that. The boardwalk over Orkin Lake is the piece people talk about, and it holds up to the hype.
What City Springs is actually running this month
City Springs' summer programming has quietly become the densest free-events calendar of any suburb in metro Atlanta. Here is the shape of August at a glance:
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Every Wed & Fri, 10 a.m. | Tai Chi with Florin Szondi of the USA Chen Taiji Center | City Green |
| Saturdays, 8:30 a.m.–12 p.m. | Sandy Springs Farmers Market, including the Dog Days of Summer with the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile | City Springs |
| Fri, Aug 7 | Movies by Moonlight: The Lizzie McGuire Movie | Heritage Amphitheatre |
| Various Fridays | City Green Live free concert series (gates 4 p.m., music 7:30) | City Green |
| Sun, Sep 6 | Concerts by the Springs: R&B, Inc. | City Green |
| Fri, Sep 4 | Movies by Moonlight: Spy Kids | Heritage Amphitheatre |
A few things worth knowing that the event pages bury. Dogs are not allowed on City Green during concerts, so the Farmers Market's Dog Days celebration is genuinely the one Saturday of the month to bring the dog to the plaza. Parking is free for concerts this year at the City Springs Parking Deck at 1 Galambos Way, and also at the South Lot at Blue Stone and Mt. Vernon. Do not park at City Walk or the former Ace Hardware center. The signs are being enforced, and towing is real.
The Concerts by the Springs series is the underrated one. It runs first Sundays only, one show a month, May through September. August 2 already featured Cat Ridgeway & The Tourists, so if you missed it, R&B, Inc. on September 6 is your last shot until 2027.
Rumi's is open again, and it is not the same restaurant
The Sandy Springs dining story of the year is that Rumi's Kitchen reopened on March 6 after being closed for nearly a full year. Chef-owner Ali Mesghali planned a $3.5 million renovation over six months. It became a nearly year-long project with a budget that almost tripled. The restaurant is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, which means most of us have some memory of the old room. The new one is a different animal.
The 22-seat curved marble bar is the piece you will notice first. Plaster walls were added specifically to fix the sound complaint that dogged the old space, and there is now a private dining room with a floor-to-ceiling mural by Dean Barger. Mesghali finally hired a dedicated pastry chef after a five-year search, landing Sohrob Esmaili, the 2021 Food Network Spring Baking Championship winner. The Persian ice cream sandwich made with profiterole dough and saffron-rosewater-vanilla ice cream is his, and it is the reason to save room.
"Our kitchen was too small, and the restaurant was doing six-times the sales from the original Rumi's. The interior was a little outdated, so we wanted to give it a fresh look to stay up with the times."
The menu is worth a second look even if you were a regular. The shish kabob is now wagyu with an Urfa chili rub and potato tahdig rice. There is a water menu with tasting notes, which sounds ridiculous until you sit through the pour. Sunday brunch launched March 15 and includes za'atar biscuits and gravy, Turkish eggs, and shakshuka. The wine list still leans into biodynamic producers from Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Armenia, and Georgia, which remains one of the most distinctive lists in metro Atlanta.
The Springway is why all of this suddenly connects
Here is the piece most residents have not tracked closely. In May 2025, the city cut the ribbon on Springway Trail Segment 2A, the first 1.88-mile stretch of a planned 5.6-mile loop around Morgan Falls. That opening changed the calculus of everything above. City Council approved the design and construction management contracts for Segment 2C at its February 3 meeting this year, and the Sandy Springs Conservancy's June newsletter confirmed the project team is now Kaizen Collaborative alongside the PATH Foundation. The full Springway master plan calls for 31.4 miles of connective trail across the city.
The current state of the network:
- Segment 2A: Open. 1.88 miles from Roswell Road at Cimarron Parkway to Morgan Falls Overlook Park, including the Orkin Lake boardwalk.
- Segment 2C: In design. 1.6 miles at an estimated cost of $14.5 million. The city has $5 million already budgeted from its trail fund and is pursuing a $3 million state grant, with awards expected this summer. The route will follow a Chattahoochee tributary past rock outcroppings and waterfalls to Grogans Ferry Road.
- Segments 2D and 2E: Not yet under construction. The Conservancy has been meeting with landowners along 2E and has secured support from property owners.
At its June 2 meeting, City Council raised the 2026 TSPLOST sidewalk and trail budget from $12 million to $16 million, with another $4 million tiered behind it. The county's 0.75% TSPLOST sales tax is on the November ballot for renewal, which is the number worth watching if you care about how fast the rest of the loop happens. Since 2014, the city has spent more than $54 million on sidewalks, paths, and trails. That is not a talking point. That is why a walk from your neighborhood to the river is a real conversation now.
Looking one weekend past August
Two things worth putting on the calendar before the month closes out.
The Blue Stone Arts & Music Festival returns to Blue Stone Road on September 25 and 26 for its fourth year. The city has confirmed the free two-day format, an Artist Market of more than 60 makers, an Emerging Artist Exhibit, and headlining sets from Nicotine Dolls and Allen Stone. Last year drew a serious out-of-town crowd, so if you live within walking distance, walk.
The other one is quieter. The city's Old Riverside Park project is transforming a 23-acre forested property along the Chattahoochee north of the Riverside Swim and Tennis Club. Construction is expected to wrap before the end of the year. It will not open in August, but it is the next park you will hear neighbors talking about, and the site is worth a drive-by now so you understand what you are looking at when it does open.
One more thing worth saying
The stretch of Roswell Road between City Springs and Morgan Falls used to be a five-mile car trip through parking lots. In August 2026, it is a concert calendar on one end, a paddleboard race on the other, a reopened flagship restaurant halfway between, and a paved trail slowly stitching the whole thing together. That is a different city than the one most of us moved into.
If you are curious what any of this is doing to home values along the Roswell Road corridor, or if you are simply the neighbor everyone asks about the market, the team at Watkins Real Estate Associates tracks Sandy Springs closely and is happy to talk through what the Springway build-out is quietly changing about the map. Get a Free Home Valuation whenever you are ready to see where your address sits today.
