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We are easing into the weekend on a warm and mostly dry note today, with this morning's sunshine slowly giving way to thickening clouds as the afternoon wears on, broken up by a few stray peeks of sun. Highs settle comfortably in the low to mid 80s. Things get livelier Saturday when a cold front rolls through and kicks up scattered showers and thunderstorms, with plenty of dry stretches in between. A stray storm could turn briefly strong, packing gusty winds and a bit of small hail, though anything rowdy stays fairly isolated. Highs back off into the 70s. Sunday opens gray and damp, but the showers slide south through the morning, and Burlington should win back some afternoon sun as the clouds thin from the north. It stays on the cool side with highs only in the 60s. Looking ahead, the new week dries out fast, with steady sunshine Monday through Wednesday and temperatures climbing right back toward the 80s.

The marquee act this weekend is the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, and Friday night peaks down at the free Waterfront Park stage. Things get rolling at 5:30 with the funk and soul of Soul Porpoise, followed by the genre blending Lara Cwass Band at 6:50. Then the headliners arrive, with Grammy nominee Ruthie Foster and her gospel rooted blues at 8, and Grammy winning New Orleans favorites Tank and the Bangas closing it out at 9:20. Prefer to wander rather than camp by the lake? Downtown Jazz keeps Church Street, College Street, and City Hall Park humming with local players all weekend, and a whole roster of young musicians takes over downtown corners from 11 to 5 in the Student Bands showcase.

If jazz is not your speed, Friday still has range. Emmy winner and Daily Show host Michael Kosta brings standup to the Vermont Comedy Club tonight and Saturday at 7 and 9, and while both nights are nearly sold out and the waitlist opening an hour before each show could be your ticket. Elsewhere, Vermont Green FC hosts the men’s Steinbrecher Cup Final against West Chester United at 7, with tickets still up for sale. Down on Pine St, we have the weekly Friday Block Party filled with dozens of food trucks, music and more. Theater fans can catch 30 Under 60 at Off Center at 7, where six writers cram thirty tiny original plays into under an hour and the audience picks the order, with more shows Saturday and Sunday. For something looser, Barbie N Bones rocks the outdoor stage at The Old Post in South Burlington from 7 to 10, the all ages Oddfellows Lodge show on North Avenue kicks off at 6:30 for a ten dollar suggested donation, and Green Door Studio throws its First Friday art party with reggae and a red, yellow, and green color theme from 5 until midnight. Night owls can stick around for the late night Domo Branch Quartet residency at Flynn Space at 10 (running tonight and Saturday), or keep it mellow at a chill car meet on Lakeside Avenue from 6:30.

Saturday morning is packed before the rain even thinks about arriving. Early risers can tackle the scenic Causeway Race at Airport Park at 8, choosing a 5K, 10K, or 15K out along the Colchester Causeway. The Burlington Farmers Market returns to 345 Pine Street from 9 to 2 with seventy plus vendors. Bargain hunters have their pick of a street full of garage sales on Fairmont Place from 9 to 2 (with a neighboring sale on Saratoga Avenue) and the Severance Corners yard sale in Colchester from 8 to noon. If you are heading downtown for the jazz anyway, the Friends of the Fletcher Free Library hold their Jazz Fest Book Sale at the main branch on College Street, Saturday 10 to 5:30 and Sunday noon to 5, with most books going for two dollars. Families are spoiled for choice, from Touch-a-Truck behind South Burlington City Hall from 10 to noon, complete with a sirens off quiet half hour to start, to the Local Motion family bike ride rolling out at 10, to a fairy tale Princess Cruise on the lake at noon. The more adventurous can join the BTown Brief crew for a hike and brewery crawl [MEETUP] starting at Red Rocks at 11. You can also grab coffee with neighbors at the weekly BTown Coffee Club [MEETUP] at Zero Gravity from 10 to noon. Otherwise, you can learn scythe work and sheep care at Tending Rock Point from 9 to 1. The jazz festival even spills onto the pavement with a free Skate Jam at A-Dog Skate Park at 1, and curiosity seekers can browse New England's Odd and Unusual Show at the Champlain Valley Expo from noon to 7.

There is also room to simply show up for the community. Over in Winooski, the Main Street Community Parade steps off from the school district at noon to cheer on local businesses through the final year of the Main Street project, with a catered lunch to follow. Down on the waterfront, a neighbor is riding laps up Depot Street all day to raise money for the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, which provides legal aid for immigrants, so feel free to swing by and say hello. And the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance hosts its monthly community discussion on the health, safety, and wellness of Black residents at the Richard Kemp Center from 4 to 6.

Come Saturday evening, the Waterfront stage saves its biggest names for last. The free lineup runs from globe spanning ensemble All the Rivers at 5, through a salsa tribute from The Eddie Palmieri Experience at 6:30, then soul and gospel icon Mavis Staples at 7:50 and the timeless Preservation Hall Jazz Band at 9:20, and a local crew [MEETUP] is gathering at the park if you want company for it. Elsewhere, Vermont Green FC hosts the women's side against New England Mutiny at 7, the Jesse Taylor Band celebrates a new album release at Higher Ground at 8, jamtronic favorites The Edd groove late at Einstein's Tap House from 8, the Shorts and Sundress Party brings summer vibes to On Tap in Essex Junction at 9, another car meet gathers at Shelburne Bay from 6, and the truly hardy can sign on for the overnight Nocturnal Shift scavenger run that starts at the Olde Northender at 8:40 and goes till dawn.

Sunday winds the festival down in style, weather permitting. The grand finale, A Nation Listens with saxophonist Chris Potter and guitarist Julian Lage, takes the Flynn main stage at 7 with a world premiere inspired by abolitionist John Brown, opened by Mark Turner. Earlier, the festival offers the wonderfully unusual Coldblooded, On Ice at Leddy Park Arena at 1, pairing live jazz with ice dancers plus a free skate afterward, so dress for 35 degrees and bring your skates. DJ Cheetatah wraps the downtown party outside Tradewinds Imports from 2:30 to 4:30. Away from the jazz, ECHO hosts a free Learn to Fish Day from 11 to 2, the Paint and Sip afternoon with Anna Lena runs 2 to 4 in Winooski with free Sunday parking, and board game folks can drop in for Mix and Mingle [MEETUP] at The Boardroom from noon to 5.

See Events Section for full list of events Friday-Sunday.

There are 3,002 of you reading this every week, and 70% of you actually open it, which kind of floors me and isn't something I take for granted. Right now 26 readers chip in to keep this going, which works out to a little under 1%, and I'd love to get that closer to 5% so the Btown Brief feels like it can stick around for the long haul. We just hit one year and I'm hoping for many more.

Here's what goes into it. Every week I dig through 24+ local sources like Seven Days, Front Porch Forum, and Facebook groups, plus news outlets like VTDigger, WCAX, and Vermont Public, and then I pull out the events and news worth your time so you don't have to go hunting for them yourself. I do all of it around a night-shift job, so your support honestly makes a real difference.

If the Brief has saved you time or pointed you toward something good in Burlington, I'd be grateful if you'd become a supporter.

2026 goal: 5,000 subscribers. We're at 3,002 right now. If you know someone who'd get something out of this, send them to BtownBrief.com.

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The Btown Brief IRL - We’re now seeing 20–30 people at our weekly events! Here is what we have coming up:

If any of those sound fun, be sure to RSVP on Meetup.com. So, be sure to stop by, everyone is welcome! Especially coffee, since 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:

On the latest installment of the BTown Arts podcast, meet DJ Cheetatah

On the latest installment of the BTown Arts podcast, Kwame "The Vibe" Dankwa sits down with DJ Cheetatah, the Burlington electro-pop producer also known as Taraleigh Weathers, whose story is the kind Vermont specializes in. A yogi and former health coach, she spotted an Instagram ad for a DJ academy in Tulum, took the leap at 48, and knew she had found her calling the second she hit play on a track. Barely a year later she has gone from a nervous beginner to a festival performer, with sets at Sunday Night Mass and Friendly Gathering behind her and Harry's Happening, Moon Bloom, and Do Good Fest ahead. The conversation gets into the imposter syndrome of sharing a stage with DJs of thirty years, the nerve it takes to learn something brand new later in life, and the deeply supportive partnership with her husband Dan, who took up stage lighting just to make her shows shine. If you want to catch her live first, DJ Cheetatah wraps the downtown Jazz Fest party outside Tradewinds Imports on Church Street this Sunday from 2:30 to 4:30. Big thanks to Kwame for another great sit-down. It’s definitely worth the listen, something about local just hits right. Listen to the full interview in this episode of the BTown Brief Arts Podcast.

A Guide to the 2026 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival

Seven Days put together a roadmap for the 43rd Discover Jazz Festival, which runs June 3 through 7 across the Flynn, Waterfront Park, downtown clubs, and Church Street. Most of it is free, from soul legend Mavis Staples and an all star Eddie Palmieri tribute to local fusion trio Breathwork and the skatepark jam. Curator Jason Moran got his start playing with saxophonist Greg Osby before forming his trio, the Bandwagon. If the weekend feels overwhelming, here’s a useful guide to help you out.

Beta gives WCAX test flight in new electric aircraft

Beta took journalists up in its new Alia CTOL, the conventional takeoff and landing version of its electric aircraft, for a quiet, emissions free spin over Chittenden County. Seven of the planes have come off the South Burlington line so far, with production aimed at four and a half per month by year's end. Full FAA approval remains a couple of years out because certifying an entirely new propulsion system is slow going. Starting in September, Beta plans to fly medical and cargo missions across the region under a federal program.

'Lakebone' takes root on Burlington's Main Street

Milliken's 48 foot black locust sculpture now hangs above Main Street near North Star Sports, the showpiece of the nearly finished Great Streets makeover that has disrupted downtown for months. The tree came from the historic Clemmons Family Farm in Charlotte and arrived by rail, a deliberate nod to Burlington's 19th century run as a lumber hub. A pollinator planter sits beneath the trunk, and a parade of drummers and floating goose puppets marked the installation. After a long slog of construction, the city seems to be treating this as a turning of the page.

A Bald Eagle Family in Quechee Gains an Online Following

VINS in Quechee live streams a bald eagle nest perched 100 feet up a white pine, home to parents Windsor and Dewey and their eaglet V-2, who hatched April 24. The Eagle Cam has drawn a devoted following, with a 4,000 member Facebook group and a nod from the New York Times as its top joy boost in April. Seven Days sent Eva Sollberger up the Forest Canopy Walk tower to film the family for Stuck in Vermont. With the country approaching its 250th birthday, a thriving national symbol nesting in Vermont is a welcome bit of good news.

Vermont lawmakers have adjourned for the year. Here's what they did, and didn't do, in 2026

Lawmakers passed close to 250 bills this biennium, and a few will touch Burlington wallets directly. Vermont became the first state to ban paraquat, the herbicide linked to Parkinson's, while also adding a per mile fee for EV owners starting in 2027 and reworking emergency housing in an $83 million bill that pares back motel vouchers. Just as telling is what stalled, including the proposed ban on ICE agents wearing facemasks, a tenant protection overhaul, and a road salt program the governor vetoed. The property tax buy down softens this year's bill but sets up a familiar cliff down the road.

Burlington clears officers who used force on anti-ICE activists

The March 11 ICE raid in South Burlington drew more than 100 complaints, and the city's internal reviews cleared every officer involved, including Cpl. Julian Gonzalez, whose body camera caught him forcing a woman to the ground. The citizen police commission broke with city leadership, concluding one officer acted without justification, and the woman involved later reported a concussion. Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak says she is reexamining how the city interacts with federal immigration agents, while State's Attorney Sarah George declined to prosecute and steered the cases toward a restorative justice process. The split between the oversight panel and the administration is the tension worth watching here.

US Education Secretary Linda McMahon tours Essex tech center, prompting protest

McMahon, the WWE cofounder now leading the effort to shrink the federal Education Department, stopped at the Center for Technology in Essex as part of her Returning Education to the States tour. Dozens of students walked out of nearby Essex High to protest, joined by gubernatorial candidate Amanda Janoo and Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky. The visit lands in a charged local context, since McMahon's department briefly withheld $26 million from Vermont schools last year and has investigated the neighboring Champlain Valley district over its transgender student policies. She used the stop to champion school choice and the new federal tax credit widely seen as a path toward private school vouchers.

State Proposes Secure Juvenile Facility in South Burlington

The proposed Green Mountain Youth Campus on Meadowland Drive would hold 14 beds for youths ages 12 to 18, filling the gap left when Woodside closed in 2020 amid abuse allegations. South Burlington is the third town floated for the project after Newbury and Vergennes both fell through under community pushback, so the local permitting process will be the real test. State officials say it could be running by summer 2028. For now the only in state placement is a temporary center in Middlesex that leaders agree cannot serve long term.

City Market faces 'culturally and financially challenging' years

The co-op board's letter to 12,000 members is a notable shift in tone for a store long treated as a downtown fixture. The struggles echo what other Burlington merchants have flagged, with police tracking rising theft and trespassing calls around the store much as they do at City Hall Park, plus parking lost to construction. Industry watchers point to thin grocery margins, online competition, and flat population growth as the broader squeeze. City Market has anchored South Winooski Avenue since 2002 and recently cut 12 positions, so the warning carries real weight.

South Burlington police chief puts together plan for services

Chief Bill Breault wants to spend part of South Burlington's opioid settlement money, roughly $219,000 now and a projected $726,000 by 2038, to contract a 30 hour Howard Center coordinator who links people to services. His data makes the case, showing trespassing calls up 240 percent and mental health response calls up 258 percent since 2015, though the latter dropped 29 percent after the city began partnering with Howard Center outreach in 2020. He also signaled a return of ordinances covering camping, open containers, and panhandling, with tickets potentially waived for people who connect with the coordinator. He is pitching it as a two year pilot.

Burke Mountain's Bike Park to open Saturday, June 6

Burke opens its lift served bike park Saturday, running weekends only for two weeks before shifting to Thursday through Sunday on June 18. Riders get 24 trails across 25 miles plus a direct line into the Kingdom Trails network and its 100 plus miles of singletrack. New this year are a rebuilt Jester jump trail, a Transition demo fleet that now includes e-bikes, and a master plan from trail builder Gravity Logic. It is a Northeast Kingdom haul from Burlington, but a strong reason to travel east this summer.

At Burlington Jazz Festival, curator Jason Moran turns spotlight to youth musicians

This year's festival, curated by MacArthur Fellow and former Kennedy Center jazz director Jason Moran, made a point of centering young players. Flynn executive director Jay Wahl says the lineup featured 44 school bands and close to 993 students, the largest youth showing in the festival's history. Moran also pushed jazz into unexpected spaces like the A-Dog skatepark and the Leddy Park ice rink, arguing the music belongs all over the city. He even rehearsed a Duke Ellington tribute with the Vermont Youth Orchestra ahead of his own set.

Full Circle Theater's '30Under60' Puts the Audience in Control

Full Circle Theater Collaborative's new show at Off Center hands the steering wheel to the crowd, with six actors racing through 30 original two minute plays in under an hour while the audience shouts out which one comes next. Director Amy Halpin Riley borrowed the format from Chicago's long running Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, which she saw in the late 1990s. The order changes every night, so no two performances land the same way. Shows run Friday through Sunday with tickets between $15 and $20.

Magnificent 7: Must See, Must Do Events in and Around Vermont, June 3-10

Seven Days' weekly editor picks stretch well beyond Burlington this time, handy if you feel like a road trip. Highlights include Ben Folds going solo at Rutland's Paramount Theatre and the 76th annual Pet Parade down St. Johnsbury's main drag, both Saturday, plus Greensky Bluegrass opening Shelburne Museum's Ben and Jerry's Concerts on the Green on Wednesday. There is also a Pink Floyd laser tribute in Randolph and the Gayzing exhibit in Barre, which closes June 13. A nice spread for anyone willing to drive a bit.

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!

And yes, there are PRIZES. Each month, we'll reward the top performers based on the best combination of Total Score and Average Score. That means playing consistently AND playing well will pay off. The more quizzes you complete with high scores, the better your chances of winning. I mean, who doesn’t want cool Btown Merch gear sent to them?

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

View the potential prizes on the Btown Brief Merch Store

The Vermont Green FC women's side achieved a historic 7-0 victory over AC Connecticut on the road in Waterbury. The dominant display marked the most goals scored in the team's history and featured six different goal scorers: Neve Renwick, Tess Barrett, Olivia Grenda, Violet Rademacher, Georgina Clarke, and Annie Gnidula. The squad is now tied for the top of the table as they look ahead to their next matchup against the New England Mutiny, a team they previously drew 1-1 earlier in the season. The Green will host this Pride Night matchup on Saturday, June 6 at Virtue Field.

On the men's side, Vermont Green FC is preparing to host the Hank Steinbrecher Cup Final after defeating Hickory FC on penalty kicks in a hotly contested road semifinal. The squad will face West Chester United SC, the 2025 USASA National Amateur Cup champions, for the chance to be crowned the Champion of Champions. Midfielder Ryan Zellefrow, who played briefly for West Chester at the start of 2025, will be a key player to watch as he faces his former club. The Green will host this Steinbrecher Cup Final matchup on Friday, June 5 at 7 p.m. at Virtue Field.

General Events

Performances

Live Music/DJ

General Events

Performances

Live Music/DJ

General Events

Performances

Live Music/DJ

Full list of 202+ activities to do at anytime is always waiting here when you need a plan: 202+ Things to Do

Full list of restaurant reviews here.

View the full list of food & drink deals here.

That is a full plate for one weekend, so pace yourself and enjoy. Whether you are swaying by the lake to Mavis Staples, hunting for treasure at a garage sale, or just grabbing a coffee with neighbors, there is a little bit of everything out there this weekend. Take a peek at the linked events, throw some support behind the local artists and businesses making it all happen, and we will see you out and about.

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