Things to Do in Holly Springs, NC

Calm lake with a wooded shoreline and fishing pier, like Bass Lake Park in Holly Springs, NC
Photo by Tamás Szabó on Unsplash

Holly Springs is where I go when I want a lake, a rooftop, or a downtown that still feels like a town. It passed 50,000 people in 2025, up from about 900 in 1990, which tells you how fast it has changed. What has not changed is that the parks are the best in south Wake. Here is how I would spend a day, a weekend, or a year here.

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The best things to do in Holly Springs

Bass Lake Park

A 54-acre stocked lake at 900 Bass Lake Rd with free bank fishing (they will even lend you tackle), canoe and jon boat rentals from Memorial Day to Labor Day, a small nature center and lakeside trail loops. Open 8am to sunset year-round. This is my pick for a slow Sunday morning.

Sugg Farm at Bass Lake

Next door at 2401 Grigsby Ave, a 117-acre historic farm turned event park with a dog park, archery field and a new nature play area. It hosts HollyFest, the July fireworks and Spring Fling, so half the town’s big days happen here.

Downtown Main Street

About 60 businesses around Town Hall, the Cultural Center and the library, with The Block on Main as the walkable anchor. Nightingale, the town’s only rooftop, is up top; Vieni, Osha Thai and Smashed are down at Town Hall Commons; My Way Tavern is the late-night kitchen a block over. The Holly Springs Farmers Market (128 S Main St) runs Saturdays 8:30am to 12:30pm, May through mid-October, and it is producers only, mostly from within 15 miles.

Holly Springs Cultural Center

A town-run venue at 300 W Ballentine St with a 184-seat theater, outdoor stage and lawn. This is where Light the Springs happens in December.

Ting Park

Home of the Holly Springs Salamanders, the summer collegiate baseball team, plus turf soccer fields and 12 tennis courts at 101 Sportsmanship Way. A Salamanders game on a June night is one of the cheapest good evenings in Wake County.

Womble Park

Forty-six acres at 1201 Grigsby Ave next to the Hunt Recreation Center: playground, turf field, four lighted ball fields, sand volleyball, an outdoor stage and greenway trails. The workhorse park for families.

The breweries

Bombshell Beer Company (120 Quantum Dr) bills itself as North Carolina’s first 100 percent women-owned brewery, with food trucks Tuesday through Sunday, a Thursday run club and live music on weekends. Carolina Brewing Company (140 Thomas Mill Rd) has been brewing since 1995, which makes it the oldest active brewery in Wake County, and the free Saturday tours are a nice hour.

Events to plan around

  • HollyFest, late October at Sugg Farm. Local artists, businesses, food and kids’ activities, free.
  • Light the Springs, early December at the Cultural Center: tree and menorah lighting, Santa, crafts, live music.
  • Happy Holly Days Parade, second Saturday in December, 10am, down Main Street.
  • Independence Day Celebration, held July 5 at Sugg Farm, fireworks around 9:15pm.
  • Spring Fling at Sugg Farm in the spring.
  • Farmers Market season, Saturdays May through mid-October downtown.

Neighborhoods to know

Downtown / Village District is the civic and dining core on Main Street. 12 Oaks is the golf course community. The Sunset Lake neighborhoods (Sunset Lake Village, Sunset Ridge, Sunset Oaks) wrap an 87-acre lake on the Fuquay-Varina border. Holly Glen and Arbor Creek are the big resort-style subdivisions families pick for pools and school proximity. Incorporated in 1877 and named for springs shaded by holly trees, the town basically stood still until it built a sewage plant in 1987 and caught the spillover from Cary and Apex. Now it has Novartis and FUJIFILM Diosynth plants and one of the lowest crime rates in the state.

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