July 2027 Calendar: Five Fridays, Five Saturdays
Dispatch, Friday, July 23: Comic-Con is at full stride in San Diego. Formula 1 cars are practicing at Spa, and A Minecraft Movie: Squared opens in theaters tonight. Our correspondent reports the calendar is coping. July 2027 opened on a Thursday, runs 31 days and closes on Saturday the 31st. It hands you five Thursdays, five Fridays and five Saturdays, nine weekend days in all. Print the grid now, before the month fills it for you.
The shape of the month
The arithmetic first: July 2027 spans weeks 26 to 30, with 22 business days and nine weekend days. Fridays fall on July 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30; Saturdays on the 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st. Sundays stop at four: the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th.
The Moon kept a tidy month. New moon around Sunday, July 4; first quarter around Saturday, July 10. Full on Sunday, July 18; last quarter due Monday, July 26. The full moon carried a penumbral lunar eclipse that night. It was the faint kind: the Moon dimmed slightly, and most people called it a normal summer moon.
A month of finish lines
Wimbledon's 150th Championships closed on Sunday, July 11, and The 155th Open began at St Andrews on Thursday, July 15. The Old Course last hosted in 2022; this is its 31st Open. It held the final round on Sunday, July 18. The same day ended the pool program at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, under that full moon.
Sunday, July 25 is still ahead, and it is crowded. The Tour de France finishes on the Champs-Elysees. The Women's World Cup final kicks off at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro. The Belgian Grand Prix runs at Spa-Francorchamps.
The Tour began in Edinburgh back on Friday, July 2. The Tour de France Femmes sets out from Leeds on Friday, July 30. The Ashes played their mid-series Tests, July 8 to 12 and July 16 to 20.
Plan around scarcity: hotel rooms in Edinburgh and St Andrews went months ago, so ticket holders day-trip by rail. Brazil's eight host cities sit far apart, so traveling fans pick one city and plan around the July 25 final. The final is breakfast-time viewing in Australia and evening viewing in Europe. Rio's hotel rates followed the final, not the group stages.
How to spend it
Mark the three Sundays first: July 11, 18 and 25. Each carried, or will carry, a finale worth a whole morning of viewing. Each lands on one of the month's four Sundays. Keep the five Thursdays light. The work gets done in the margins this month, and the margins are crowded. Count the working Fridays carefully: a weekly task due on Fridays lands five times, not four. Anyone still meaning to plan around the August 2 solar eclipse should stop deciding and start printing.
July closes on a Saturday, having delivered three championship Sundays and one very quiet eclipse. The grid held.