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Weather & Weekend Rundown:

If you have been waiting all summer for a weekend that behaves itself, this is the one. Friday is sunny and 78, with dew points down in the 40s giving the air a crisp September feel. Saturday is the best of the weekend, wall to wall sunshine, another 78, and the lake sitting at 76 degrees for what might be the best beach window left this month. Sunday starts sunny and warms to 81, then clouds build through the afternoon with showers likely by evening. Steadier rain and a few rumbles follow Sunday night, so get the outdoor plans in early that day. Track it all week, with patio, swim, and sunset scores, at Burlington Right Now.

Friday night has plenty of range. Comedian Kurt Braunohler, with credits in "The Big Sick" and "Bob's Burgers," headlines Vermont Comedy Club at 7. Country and folk fans can catch Waylon Wyatt with Tristan Trincado at the Higher Ground Ballroom at 8:30, Barbie N Bones plays a free rock show at the Old Post at 7, and Dan Parks plays a live set at the Saint John's Club at 6. The Skinny Pancake's free Dancing in the Streets series has Local Strangers on the waterfront patio from 8 to 11, covering a spectrum from the Grateful Dead to Aretha Franklin. Dancers get choices of their own tonight. The Mad Robin Contra Dance returns to downtown after a 7 year hiatus at the First Congregational Church, beginner lesson at 7:40 and dancing 8 to 11, the Queer Country Line Dance takes over Four Quarters in Winooski with doors at 7 and beginner friendly instruction, and Untapped ($15), Vermont's longest running drag and burlesque show, hosts a rotating cast at the Monkey House at 8, 21 plus. Theater people can catch Falsettos at Main Street Landing's Blackbox Theater at 7, playing through August 23. If you would rather chase the sunset, a waterfront walk and creemee stroll [MEETUP] meets behind ECHO at 7 for an easy loop to the Sweet Spot creemee stand. Out in Essex, G. Love and Special Sauce play the Old Stage at the Double E at 7, and the Adult Rummikub crowd meets at the Essex Free Library from 1 to 3.

Saturday earns that forecast. Our own BTown Coffee Club [MEETUP] holds down Zero Gravity Brewery at 10, grab a coffee and come say hi. The Burlington Farmers Market runs 9 to 2 at 345 Pine Street with more than 70 vendors, and the Board Game Brunch [MEETUP] deals out at Old Town Cafe & Comics in Williston from 9 to noon. The Old North End Repair Cafe runs 11 to 3 at Laboratory B, where volunteers fix anything you can carry in for free, knife sharpening included. Collectors can hit the Vermont Sports Card & Collectible Show at 155 Dorset Street in South Burlington starting at 10 to buy, sell and trade. Bookstore Romance Day takes over Phoenix Books from 12 to 4 with blind dates with a book and a trope scavenger hunt, and a Pitkin Street neighbor is throwing Roundup at the Roundabout, a circle themed block party at Strong and Blodgett streets from around 2 to 8 with foot races, crafts and hula hoops. Film buffs get Spike Lee's Malcolm X at the VTIFF screening room at 3. Raving for Recovery fills City Hall Park from 4:30 to 8 with free food, live music, DJs and dance parties celebrating Vermont's recovery community. Green Mountain Wrestling sets up outdoors at Switchback Brewing with doors at 5 and the first bell at 6, bring your own chair. As the sun goes down, the South Burlington Water Lantern Festival floats personalized lanterns onto the water at Overlook Park starting at 6:30. The night closes with Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman playing a folk bill at the Higher Ground Ballroom at 8, and three local acts, Funkrust, Marxist Jargon and Faul Durand, playing Junktiques Collective with doors at 6:30 and music at 7.

Sunday eases in before the rain. The Equinox Wind Quintet plays a free Sunday Classical program in the BCA Center gallery at 10, and the Winooski Farmers Market runs 10 to 2 at Winooski Falls Way. Riders can join a bike ride from Leddy Park to South Hero [MEETUP] at 10, about 20 miles round trip on the Island Line Trail with a snack stop at Allenholm Farm. The Lost Mural Project hosts Yiddish singer songwriter Daniel Kahn with violinist Jake Shulman-Ment at Ohavi Zedek Synagogue at 4:30, supertitles included. Burlington guitarist Bob Wagner releases his debut solo album at Flynn Space at 5 with Kat Wright and Nicole Nelson among the special guests. And if you want your line dancing on the water, the Country Line Dancing cruise ($59.99) sails aboard the Spirit of Ethan Allen at 6:30, an hour of instruction followed by 90 minutes of open dance. That one is an evening affair, so keep half an eye on the sky.

Scroll down to Events Section for full list of events Friday-Sunday.

Views by the Waterfront

The Btown Brief IRL - Burlington Social & Activities

We’re now seeing 20–30 people at our weekly events! Thanks to everyone helping host events with me. And thanks to those that show up to make it worth it. Be sure to stop by for our weekly Saturday Coffee meetup at Zero Gravity at 10am. It’s a great place to talk about weekend events too, along with news and life updates. So come find things to do this weekend together:

NEW UPCOMING EVENT:

Trivia Night at J Skis –Thursday, August 27th @ 6 PM: We're teaming up with Social Pulse (South Burlington Rec's social group for the 21–39 crowd) for a free trivia night at the J Skis headquarters at 247 Main Street. They're running the trivia and bringing free pizza and snacks while supplies last, and the J Skis bar will be pouring. No cost, just show up and grab a team.

  • Join the Meetup (It’s FREE): Join Meetup group | RSVP here

  • Join the Telegram Group Chat: [Telegram Link] Plan casual hangouts with other Briefers, or just another way to find us for our Saturday coffee event. Download Telegram before clicking link.

This Coming Week:

  • BTown Coffee Club – Saturday, August 15th @ 10 AM: The weekly no pressure hang at Zero Gravity Brewery, grab a coffee and find us at the big table.

  • Pick-up Basketball – Wednesday, August 19th @ 5:30 PM: The Wednesday evening run at Pomeroy Park, outdoors and free, all skill levels welcome.

  • Trivia Night at J Skis – Thursday, August 27th @ 6 PM: A joint night with South Burlington Rec's Social Pulse crew (21-39)— free trivia, free pizza, and the bar open at 247 Main Street.

Version 2 of The Pulse is out! The new thing: a LIVE view. Prop your phone up next to your coffee and the headlines cycle through on their own. Every card rotates on its own clock. Tap a story to hold it, tap again to read it. There's a freeze button when something catches your eye, a pace dial if it's moving too fast, and a Surf mode that wanders between topics for you. So now there are two ways in: the original scroll-and-swipe feed, or this lean-back watch-and-tap board.

If you missed Monday’s week's launch: The Pulse is my answer to doomscrolling with more satisfaction: every headline worth knowing, local and national, on one screen, refreshing every 10 minutes all day long. Seven Days, VTDigger, WCAX and r/burlington hold down the local side, the big national outlets run underneath, and I'm talking 1,700 headlines in the catalog so far. There are tabs for Reddit, local podcasts, other worthy newsletters, and 78 hand-picked YouTube channels. Swipe a headline right to save it, swipe left on a story you wish had more coverage, hold one down to mute a source. No account, no app, no signup. Bookmark both:

For the LIVE view:

or if you just want to hit the digital arcade: https://play.btownbrief.com/

Support the Brief to Keep ‘Em Coming!

There are 3,203 of you reading this every week, and 70% of you actually open it. That floors me. Right now 35 readers chip in monthly to keep this going. Thank you, all 35 of you. That's 1% of readers, and I'd love to get closer to 3% so the Btown Brief can stick around for the long haul. We just hit one year.

Here's what goes into it. Every week I sort through TONS of local sources: Seven Days events, Front Porch Forum calendar, Facebook events, Hello Burlington, Love Burlington, Meetup, Eventbrite, the Church St Marketplace calendar, Flynn, Higher Ground, Vermont Comedy Club; plus VTDigger, WCAX, WPTZ, Vermont Public, Community News Service, VT Cynic, The Other Paper, Vermont Business Magazine, Williston Observer, MyChamplainValley, and The Charlotte News. All of it around a night-shift job. If this newsletter saves you time, or has introduced you to new experiences in Burlington, chip in here:

2026 goal: 5,000 subscribers. We're at 3,203 right now. If you know someone who'd get something out of this, send them to BtownBrief.com.

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"Amanda Janoo narrowly won Vermont's Democratic primary for governor Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, after a campaign that called for sweeping progressive policy changes and limiting how much the state relies on federal funding," per VTDigger.

Janoo, an economist who had never run for office, beat Aly Richards 49 percent to 46 percent as of 11 p.m. Tuesday. Molly Gray took the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor with 59 percent when the AP called it and will face incumbent John Rodgers in November. Gerald Malloy won the Republican U.S. House primary over Mark Coester and will challenge Rep. Becca Balint, who ran unopposed on the Democratic side. If you want to see how your town voted, WCAX built town by town maps of every contested race.

"No candidates filed in the Republican or Progressive party primaries, appearing to clear the way for George to earn a third, four-year term in the office," per VTDigger.

George edged Bram Kranichfeld 15,931 votes to 14,923 after a campaign that pitted her progressive criminal justice record against his call for greater accountability in criminal cases. Down the ballot, Sheriff Dan Gamelin turned back challenger Kevin Bloom, 15,876 votes to 12,135. With nobody filed on the Republican or Progressive side in either race, Tuesday effectively decided both offices.

"If we didn't have this ReStore and if we didn't have our ReStores in Swanton and Milton, we would be building fewer homes," per NBC5.

An April 23 fire closed Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity's Williston store for three months, and it reopens Saturday at 10 a.m. with a ribbon cutting and food, repaired, repainted and reorganized. ReStore revenue pays for Habitat's building work, including three homes going up right now at Harvest Crossing in Underhill, with 11 homes in the pipeline and a goal of up to 15 under construction by the end of the year.

"She was beautiful and righteous, and she loved to ride her bike and watch the world go by. This is a really fitting way to honor her," per Seven Days.

Some 500 cyclists rode a two mile circuit Wednesday evening from Pine and Locust streets, where a white ghost bike now marks the spot 16 year old Shiloh Skalka was struck on July 16. Driver Douglas Knapp, cited for negligent operation with death resulting, is due in court August 27, and speakers urged the community to attend the arraignment. A memorial fund set up by Skalka's family has topped $100,000.

"Workers and community members are expected to picket outside the University of Vermont Medical Center on Friday following the expiration of a contract for more than 3,000 support staff and technical professionals," per WCAX.

AFT Vermont says the unions have been bargaining with the hospital since April for livable wages and improved staffing enforcement, and the expired contract means work stoppages and pickets are now legal. Look for the picket line at the main entrance today.

"This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country," per Seven Days.

The federal lawsuit challenges Vermont's year old law giving undocumented residents in-state rates, a difference of about $17,000 versus nearly $47,000 a year at UVM. Vermont is now among 17 states the DOJ has sued over such laws, and the complaint claims, dubiously per Seven Days, that as many as 10,000 undocumented students attend Vermont colleges, which would be about one in four. Attorney General Charity Clark's office said it had not yet been served and could not comment.

"St. Michael's remains fully accredited and we look forward to sharing the progress we have made as part of our response to the commission this fall," per WCAX.

The New England Commission of Higher Education issued the Colchester college a formal notation this summer after full time undergraduate enrollment fell from 1,539 in fall 2019 to 1,021 in fall 2025. Commission president Lawrence Schall says the school still meets its standards and that losing accreditation would take many more steps. College president Richard Plumb points to a transformation strategy two and a half years in the making, three steady incoming classes and strong fundraising.

"We've always said the existence of Stonegarden agreements are antithetical to the purpose, concept and goals of the Fair and Impartial Policing Policy and would inevitably lead to violations, and that is exactly what has happened in this instance," per Seven Days.

The Chittenden County sheriff's sergeant who summoned Border Patrol during a July 19 traffic stop, leading to the deportation of a 22 year old dairy farmworker, was working a federally paid Operation Stonegarden overtime shift at the time. Records obtained by Seven Days show Vermont agencies received $760,000 through the border security grant program in fiscal 2024, with the Chittenden County Sheriff's Department collecting the most at $218,854. Sheriff Dan Gamelin says about six of his deputies work the shifts at time and a half and that they cannot do immigration enforcement, though he acknowledged the expectations can appear to conflict. Sgt. Scott Costella, 25 years with the department, has been reassigned while the policy investigation plays out.

"I really don't like plugs because plugs don't actually identify what you're going to do. They just feel kind of like you're kicking the can. So we were honest. We said we don't have the full savings right now," per the Valley News.

The network told state regulators it expects to lose more than $14 million next fiscal year on roughly $3.16 billion in revenue, the first budget in recent memory submitted with a negative operating margin, and UVM Medical Center alone projects a $43 million loss. The plan already includes $140 million in expense cuts, fewer traveling nurses and a new 36 hour weekly minimum of patient facing time for its Medical Group of more than 1,500 clinicians. An independent liaison team says another $50 million still needs to come out to keep the network from eating into reserves. The Green Mountain Care Board issues binding budget orders by September 15, the date to watch.

"strengthen how we collect, connect and activate audience data to drive more effective and faster monetization across our platform," per a Patch community post quoting USA Today Co.

A community contributed Patch post reports that the NewsGuild, which represents Burlington Free Press staffers, is protesting a new data partnership between parent company USA Today Co. and Palantir, announced on the company's second quarter earnings call as a way to collect and monetize audience data. The guild's objection, per the post, is that details of the partnership and protections for readers' personal information have not been disclosed. CEO Mike Reed told investors the company retains ownership of its audience data.

"Burlington is utterly unique … to the people who live here. But I've always rebelled against the smugness of Vermont and this feeling that we're special. It's not unique, not really. It's just a city, man," per Seven Days.

Burlington native David Schein, who turns 77 this month and once wrote and toured with Whoopi Goldberg, premiered his new performance piece Thursday at Off Center for the Dramatic Arts on North Avenue, with shows through Saturday and more August 20 through 22. The show blends original songs and unscripted stories into a musical walking tour of the city, from childhood haunts on North Prospect Street to a possibly haunted orphanage in the Old North End, with a projected map to keep the audience oriented. Multi instrumentalist Ronald Rost joins him onstage, and the pair improvise enough that every show will be a little different. One teaser from the gossip sections, Schein's childhood babysitter went on to become governor of Vermont, and he will not say which one.

QUICK HITS

About 111,000 Vermonters voted Tuesday, roughly 22 percent of registered voters. That beats the 15 percent turnout of 2024, though it still trails 2018, 2020 and 2022.

A woman was seriously injured Tuesday just after 4 p.m. when her e-scooter was hit by a bus at North Street and Elmwood Avenue, and she was taken to UVM Medical Center. The driver stayed at the scene and faces no charges, and police ask anyone with information to call 802-540-2165.

The Break Room, South Burlington's smash room, announced Thursday that it is closing for good, with a last day of Sunday, August 23. Gift cards should be used before then, and bookings are open for the final week.

MK Clothing, the fine men's fashion store on Church Street, has been sold to McNeil & Reedy, Rutland's 70 year old haberdashery, and new owner Casey McNeil says the shop keeps its identity, staff and location. The store opened in 1977 as Michael Kehoe's Men's Clothing.

How good of a reader are you? Think you’re keeping up with Burlington news? It's time to prove it. Every Monday and Friday, we're dropping a quick 5-question quiz covering the local news you just finished reading. You've got just 60 seconds to answer them all. No looking back allowed. Use the same unique name each time you play so everyone can track your stats in our Hall of Fame, where you'll compete for titles like Sharpshooter (highest accuracy), Speed Demon (fastest average time), and Streak Leader (most consistent player). Make your name (or cool nickname) known to Btown!

Ready to play? Click the link below, enter your name, and show us what you've got. Btown Brief Quiz

Events:

This is the curated cut. The full calendar, 25 sources refreshed twice a day, lives at Burlington events.

Friday, August 14, 2026

General Events

Performances

Live Music/DJ

Saturday, August 15, 2026

General Events

Performances

Live Music/DJ

Sunday, August 16, 2026

General Events

Performances

Live Music/DJ

Here are some of my favorite BtownBrief links:

The full list of things to do around town, always waiting for you when you need a plan: Things To Do in Burlington

Every restaurant and bar in town, with their real hours, so you can see what's actually open right now: Open Right Now

Every happy hour, daily special and cheap-night I've gathered so far: Food & Drink Deals

And if you'd rather just have one link for all of it: the guide, the arcade, the whole lot hub.btownbrief.com

Brush up on your city at Burlington, Briefly, the short version of how this place came to be.

That’s All, Burlington!

That is your weekend. Soak up Friday and Saturday while the sun holds, then get the Sunday plans in before the evening showers arrive. If the Brief helps you figure out your weekend, you can toss a few dollars in the tip jar on ko-fi or Venmo @btownbrief, it genuinely keeps this thing running. Got a tip, a favorite haunt, or an event we should have on our radar? Send it our way, we are always listening. See you later, Burlington.

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