Two Thursdays ago, if you'd wandered into Tri-City Park on North Kraemer Boulevard around 6 p.m., you'd have needed a wristband. The following night, you wouldn't have needed anything but a lawn chair. Same park, back to back evenings, two completely different events with two different organizers, two different rulebooks, and only one of them tied to what the rest of Placentia has been building toward all year.
If you assumed both nights were part of the same summer concert series, you had company. The city's own event listings show how easy that mix-up is to make.
A ticket one night, a lawn chair the next
On Thursday, August 6, the Placentia Chamber of Commerce ran its 12th Annual Taste of Placentia at Tri-City Park, a ticketed food and business showcase with presale tickets at $45, day-of tickets at $55, and VIP tables seating ten for $650. Live music came from 80z All Stars, and the Chamber's own promotion pointed to more than 100 vendors, restaurants, breweries, and wineries pouring and plating from five to nine that evening.
The very next night, the city's free Concerts in the Park series closed out its 2026 run at the same park with New Romantics, a Taylor Swift tribute act, capping a lineup that had run through the summer with Soto Band, Neon Nation, a Bruno Mars tribute, and The Dreamboats on the preceding Fridays. No ticket, no VIP table, just the Cultural Arts Commission's usual 6:30 p.m. start and a couple of food trucks parked along the grass.
One event has been running for twelve years and is organized by the Chamber of Commerce as a paid fundraiser. The other is a City program that has never charged admission. They happened to land on consecutive nights this August, which is coincidence, not coordination. But the coincidence is worth noticing, because it's a small example of something bigger happening across Placentia's calendar this year.
Why the mix-up matters more in 2026
Placentia was incorporated on December 2, 1926, which makes this its Centennial year, and the city has spent the last eighteen months building actual infrastructure around that anniversary rather than just marking it with a plaque. A Centennial Steering Committee, formed in early 2025 and meeting the second Monday of every month, split its work across five subcommittees covering marketing, sponsorship, historical documentation, special events, and business participation.
The business participation piece is the one most likely to show up in your ordinary week. Local restaurants and shops have been invited to become official Centennial Partners, marking their storefronts with a decal and posting under the hashtag Placentia100. TacosWay is one of the businesses the city has already featured this way on its own site, photographed with Centennial branding inside the restaurant. A related program lets select restaurants host fundraiser nights: bring a printed or digital flyer to your server, and a portion of your check gets donated toward the year's Centennial programming.
The city has also said plainly that this isn't limited to a handful of flagship events. Its own Centennial materials note that all of the city's regularly scheduled events will include centennial booths throughout the year, which means the Placentia Certified Farmers Market, held every Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. at Placentia Town Center near Yorba Linda and Kraemer Boulevards, is a candidate for that treatment even though its format hasn't otherwise changed.
City Administrator Jennifer Lampman described the intent behind the year when it launched in January:
"Our Centennial Year is an opportunity to bring the community together to celebrate our shared story. We are proud of how far Placentia has come in 100 years."
Mayor Chad Wanke framed it in similar terms, calling the year a chance to honor the residents and leaders who built the city while looking toward the next century.
None of that touched the August 6 Taste of Placentia directly. That event predates the Centennial by more than a decade and runs on its own Chamber-driven calendar. But it's exactly the kind of long-running local institution the Community and Business Participation Subcommittee has been tasked with folding Centennial branding into, rather than inventing something new alongside it.
What's still ahead on the actual Centennial calendar
The sponsorship subcommittee has focused its outreach first on businesses with annual revenues above a million dollars, according to committee meeting notes, before widening the ask to smaller shops. That's the money behind the merchandise, the banners, and the programming. The events themselves are spread across the full year, not clustered into one weekend:
- A Centennial 5K Run already took place on June 27
- The Placentia Library's Local History Lecture Series has one more session scheduled for October 21, working with the Placentia Historical Committee on a Centennial history book
- The formal Centennial Birthday Celebration is set for December 5, three days after the actual December 2 incorporation anniversary
- The year opened with a ticketed Gala Kickoff back on January 24 at Alta Vista Country Club, complete with a silent auction to help fund the rest of the year's programming
The historical subcommittee has also been tasked with digging up an existing time capsule and burying a new one for a future milestone, though no public date for that has been set yet.
One more thing on your radar, unrelated to any of this
Not everything happening in Placentia this month has anything to do with the Centennial, and it's worth keeping the two separate. The Golden Avenue Bridge Replacement Project is underway right now, and the city has confirmed a full closure of the bridge in both directions running through Friday, September 11. If Golden Avenue is part of your regular route, that closure will affect your week far more than any concert or tasting event, so it's worth checking your path before you assume the road is open.
The short version
Tri-City Park hosted a ticketed Chamber fundraiser and a free City concert on back to back nights this August, and mixing them up is an easy mistake. The bigger story is that Placentia has spent its hundredth year building real structure, a steering committee, five subcommittees, a business decal program, a restaurant fundraiser mechanic, around folding that milestone into things residents already do, from a Tuesday farmers market run to a longstanding taco counter. Watch for the decal next time you're at a spot you already visit, and keep the Golden Avenue closure in mind if it's part of your commute.
If you're curious what a home in Placentia is worth this year, or thinking through what a move within North Orange County could look like, the Jin Hong Team is happy to talk through it. Reach out anytime for a free home valuation and a straightforward conversation about your options.
