The Green Fire, West Side Story, and 82 Kids in New Shoes

Eight hours in the car coming home from Monterey, Bella riding with us, home from the Coast Guard Academy. We were fifteen minutes from our own driveway in Mountain Home Village when the fire engines started passing us going the other way. Uphill. Toward home.

Then Watch Duty went off on my phone. Fire in Mountain Home Village. We looked up, and the sky was the wrong color.  The entire valley was covered in smoke.

We never made it home Monday night. Highway 38 was closed, the village was under an evacuation warning, and friends of ours made up beds for the three of us without being asked twice. Everybody is okay, and I wanted to lead with that.

Below: the Green Fire and the cameras that caught it, a free night of Broadway at the Bowl, the Theatre Festival's last show of the season, and 82 local kids who walked out of Kohl's with new shoes.

Let's get into what's happening around town.

The fire was reported at 5:42 Monday evening on the mountainside near Thurman Flats Picnic Area, off Highway 38. It started at 10 acres and was mapped at 33 within ninety minutes, with CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service working under unified command and the closure running from Bryant Street to Forest Falls.

By Tuesday evening it sat at 55 acres and 25 percent contained, cause under investigation. Crews held it inside their lines the first night. If you have hiked Thurman Flats with your kids on a hot Saturday, you know how close that is.

Here is the part that got me. That column showed up on an ALERTCalifornia camera at Redlands Municipal Airport, and the same week two new ones went live up there. Redlands KREI 1 and KREI 2, a city partnership with UC San Diego, now watch the north end of town and the river wash. Cameras do not put out fires, but somebody saw that smoke early, and early is everything. Clear your defensible space this weekend.

Source: Community Forward Redlands

Friday night the Bowl hands its stage to the Inland Master Chorale for West Side Story in Concert. Roughly seventy singers, a slate of soloists and a thirty piece orchestra under artistic director Joseph Modica. No sets, no choreography, nothing between you and the score.

And it costs nothing, which never stops being remarkable. The Bowl has charged no admission since Grace Stewart Mullen founded it in 1923 on the belief that music belongs to everybody regardless of what they can pay. A hundred and three seasons later, one woman's stubbornness is still buying our whole town a symphony.

Source: Redlands Bowl Performing Arts 2026 season

82 kids, new shoes, a lot of volunteers. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Redlands-Riverside paired each child with a volunteer and a $200 gift card at the Redlands Kohl's, with helpers from the Redlands Fire Department, the Elks Lodge and Amazon. One mother said it kept her family from borrowing money to get her son ready.

The Orange Drop is up for grabs again. The Chamber's Cocktail Competition returns to the Mitten Building August 20, twelve local restaurants and bars competing to create the 2026 Signature Orange Drop Cocktail. One orange, considerable civic pride.

Navy Band Southwest plays the Bowl Tuesday. Thirty-eight musicians, an armed services medley and a stack of big band and country. August 4 at 8 PM, free. If somebody in your family served, take them.

Two weeks of summer left. Redlands Unified starts back August 13. Consider this your notice to stop pretending August is far away.

Big nights just beyond the groves. These are not in Redlands, but they are close enough to matter.

Yucaipa Performing Arts Center, Yucaipa  —  Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical JR.
📍 12062 California St, Yucaipa, CA  |  🕐 Fri 6 PM, Sat 2 and 6 PM, Sun 2 PM, ticketed at yucaipaperformingarts.org
Legendary Kids Productions' summer camp cast performing the show they have been building all summer, and if Frozen at the Bowl left your kids wanting more, this is the same company behind it. Four chances across the weekend, box office opens 90 minutes before curtain, entrance through Uptown Park.

Yaamava' Theater, Highland  —  Nicky Jam, Friday, August 7
📍 777 San Manuel Blvd, Highland, CA  |  🕐 8 PM, 21+, tickets via AXS
Reggaeton's elder statesman, twenty minutes up the freeway. Next Friday, not this one, so you have time to sort a ride.

Hangar 24 Craft Brewery  —  Karaoke Night
📍 1710 Sessums Dr, Redlands, CA  |  🕐 6:30 to 9:30 PM
Low stakes, high commitment. The regulars are good and they know it.

Mountain Grove  —  Live & Loud Solo Sessions, check MTgrove.com/events
📍 27511 San Bernardino Ave, Redlands, CA  |  🕐 7 to 9 PM
Solo acoustic at the food court. Confirm location, some nights run at Citrus Plaza.

The Three Stags Irish Pub  —  Live Music, check @thethreestagsredlands
📍 328 Orange St, Redlands, CA  |  🕐 8 PM
Thursday is the locals' night.

Redlands Bowl  —  West Side Story in Concert, Inland Master Chorale
📍 25 Grant St, Redlands, CA  |  🕐 8 PM
The big one. Seventy voices, thirty piece orchestra, no admission charge.

Septembers Taproom & Eatery  —  Live Music, check @septemberstaproom
📍 515 Orange St, Ste B, Redlands, CA  |  🕐 8:30 PM
Late start, good patio, walkable from the Bowl for a second act.

Tartan of Redlands  —  Live Music, check @tartanofredlands
📍 8 E State St, Redlands, CA  |  🕐 Evening
Tight room, real whiskey list, music close enough to feel.

The Three Stags Irish Pub  —  Live Music, check @thethreestagsredlands
📍 328 Orange St, Redlands, CA  |  🕐 8 PM
Friday fills fast.

Ritual Brewing Co.  —  Live Music, check @ritualbrewing
📍 1315 Research Dr, Redlands, CA  |  🕐 7 to 9 PM
An industrial park taproom with no business being this good a hang.

The Three Stags Irish Pub  —  Live Music, check @thethreestagsredlands
📍 328 Orange St, Redlands, CA  |  🕐 8 PM
The loud night.

The Three Stags Irish Pub  —  Live Music, check @thethreestagsredlands
📍 328 Orange St, Redlands, CA  |  🕐 4 PM
Sunday afternoon session, my favorite hour of the week.

Monday night a lot of strangers drove uphill toward the thing we were driving away from. Thank you to firefighter, hotshots, pilots that fought the fire that kept our homes safe. 

Thank you to them, and to the friends who made up beds for my family on no notice.

Some of those same Redlands firefighters spent an afternoon at Kohl's this month helping kids pick out sneakers. That is the town, right there.

If you do one thing this weekend, go to the Bowl Friday night. Seventy voices, free, under the trees, in a town that has been giving that away for a hundred and three years.

And if you photographed that smoke column Monday, send it to me. I would like to run a few of your shots next week.

See you around town,
— Carlos Samaniego, EA
 RedlandsNow.com