The city of East Lansing is bringing back the popular outdoor dining and entertainment area known as Albert EL Fresco starting next week.
It began as a way to bring people to downtown East Lansing safely, outdoors, during the pandemic two years ago. It has remained a summer mainstay, and now, Albert EL Fresco is coming back.
Albert Street will be closed to motorized traffic starting Monday to accommodate seating and foot traffic. The official kickoff for the space is on Thursday, May 11th.
Downtown parking garages will remain open.
Community and Economic Development Specialist Matt Apostle says there will be some additional offerings this year.
“We’re going to have more and expanded games during our Thursday game nights,” Apostle said. “We’re going to have consistent live music in Albert EL Fresco on Thursday nights as well.”
Apostle adds there are other improvements on the way.
“When people drop by in that first couple of weeks, it might look a little bit different than when they pop in in June. I think that that’s sort of partially because we’re ordering the infrastructure now, but it’s also partially because we want people to come down and see new things each time that they’re in EL Fresco.”
The East Lansing Public Library’s mobile pop-up library will be parked at Albert EL Fresco from 5-7 p.m. next Thursday.