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Keep the warm layers handy for the mornings, because high pressure parks right over us all weekend with sunshine and no rain in the forecast through Thursday. Friday is sunny and cool with a high near 51 and a light north wind, falling to about 40 by 8 PM. Saturday gets a frosty start, around 31 in Burlington with most of the region waking up in the 20s, then warms to a sunny 55 with barely a breeze. Sunday is the best day of the bunch, sunny and 61 with a light south breeze, and right around 58 for the 2 PM parades. Monday stays near 60 with more clouds before a dry cold front brings a cooler Tuesday near 48, and the long dry stretch means worsening drought and a higher brush fire risk. Track it all week, with patio, swim, and sunset scores, at Burlington Right Now.

Friday

Also Friday, Gail Rosenberg, Melinda Moulton and Elizabeth Guyette of the Burlington History and Culture Center share untold stories of the Queen City at Faith United Methodist Church in South Burlington at 2 ($8 walk in fee), and the Winooski library throws a Silly Goose Party at 3:30 for Geoffrey the Goose, a year round resident of the Winooski riverbanks, with a scavenger hunt and Geoffrey inspired art for all ages. At 6, Snowmotion teaches a beginner bachata class at Four Quarters Brewing in Winooski, no partner or experience needed, followed by a dance party from 7 to 8:30, and Murmurations Aerial fills a historic post and beam building at 208 Flynn Ave. with circus arts, music and aerial dance in The Tarot House at 6 and 8 ($20 to $30 sliding scale, plus Saturday at 2, 4, 6 and 8).

At 7, local comedians perform Pet Store: A Live Sitcom, about the staff of a small family owned pet store battling the giant national chain that moves in across the street, at the Off Center for the Dramatic Arts ($10), Vermont Rep's Williston One Acts continue weekend 2 with Fin & Euba, For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls and I, Chorus at The Rep in Williston (also Saturday), and Bow Thayer throws an album release party for Ninevah with his new band BOWMEN at SEABA. Emoji Nightmare hosts Pole 2 Poll, a get out the vote pole show with Vermont drag and pole talent supporting progressive advocacy groups, at Higher Ground with doors at 7:30 (18+, $25), and Told Slant plays the Monkey House in Winooski with h. pruz and Francie Medosch of Florry at 8:30 (21+, $12 advance). The Witch's Apothecary Adventure Dinner is sold out, so stay plugged in to catch the next one.

Saturday

Also Saturday, the Vermont Sports Card and Collectible Show sets out vendor tables of sports cards at 155 Dorset St. in South Burlington from 10 to 6. At 10:30, all ages can Think Like a Squirrel at Rock Point Center, collecting fallen nuts on the trail and cracking them open at the visitor center (free, preregister), and Heidi Swevens leads a multi sensory photography workshop in the second floor gallery at 1 Main St., pairing photographs with tactile and audio elements (no fee, donations welcome). In the afternoon, South Burlington Rec's costumed Haunted Hustle 5K fun run and walk with the Vermont Air National Guard runs at City Center Park, with check in from 3:15 and the race at 4 ($15 advance, $20 day of).

The evening opens with Forever 38's Halloween dance party at Whitcomb Barn in Essex Junction, doors at 5:30 with Barbie and bones playing at 6 ($10 cash at the door), and an Abenaki campfire at Shelburne Farms at 5:45, where Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki Nation shares stories, drumming and songs ($5, preregister). At 7, a string quartet plays Halloween classics by candlelight at First Unitarian Universalist Society, with a tentative program from Thriller and Danse Macabre to the Ghostbusters theme (ages 8 and up), and Little Treasures closes out its first year with a free Halloween comedy show at Standing Stone Wines in Winooski. Higher Ground has the Burlington Blackout blacklight rave with doors at 7 and Spooky Perreo, a Halloween reggaeton party, at 9 (both 18+). At 8, fingerstyle guitarist Calum Graham, one of Acoustic Guitar Magazine's top 30 guitarists under 30, makes his Vermont debut at BCA Studios, and DJ Kanga, Mavstar, Big Homie Wess and DJ Gata spin hip hop and reggaeton for free at Sabor 593 in Winooski. VTIFF closes the night with The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Film House at 9:30, a movie screening with $5 prop bags and a Queen City Ghostwalk costume contest ($12, $6 students). Haunted Homestead ghost tours are sold out and registration for the Field House half marathon closes tonight at 6, so stay plugged in to catch the next one.

Sunday

Also Sunday, the Friends of the Winooski Library hold a book sale at Four Quarters Brewing from 12 to 5, cash or Venmo only, with proceeds to the library. Fletcher Free Library's Queer Reads book club discusses Carmilla at 1:30 (free, registration required), and Joy Riders VT throws a Get Out the Vote Halloween roller disco for the Janoo campaign at Hunt Middle School from 1:30 to 3:30, all ages welcome and costumes encouraged, so bring your own skates and helmet or request free rentals. Organist Shaun Booher plays a pipe organ recital at First Unitarian Universalist Society at 3, opening with Bach and celebrating Mozart's 270th birthday, and neighbors trade clothes at the Hunter's Moon clothing swap at 342 Pearl St. at 5, likely the last one before January. Country singer Evan Honer, whose cover of Jersey Giant earned more than 200 million streams, closes the weekend at Higher Ground with Zach Seabaugh, doors at 7:30 and show at 8. Fright by Flashlight is sold out, so stay plugged in to catch the next one.

Scroll down to Events Section for full list of events. Or check my events page.

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:

This Coming Week:

If you skipped it last week, here’s my answer to the pesky algorithm. All Day is nine curated feeds for Burlington, built by me. Instead of scrolling four apps, the Wire gives you every local headline as it breaks, the big national ones, local photos, and a Square for what people around town are actually talking about, sifted from Reddit, X, Facebook and Instagram so you only see what’s worth reading. Watch has tonight’s showtimes and what’s worth streaming. Food has the deals, the late night spots and what r/burlington recommends. People has the run clubs, game nights and new friends. What Now picks something for you, and the Top 100+ gives you a list to work through. Vintage maps every thrift shop in greater Burlington. On Air has local TV, videos sorted by how much time you have, and this newsletter read out loud. Habits grows a tree for every habit you keep, and you can show it off to others keeping it. Games is an arcade of Burlington games plus the weekly news quiz and others goodies. I use it every day, so the updates keep coming. Find it at guide.btownbrief.com/all-day and tell me what’s missing.

Also, check out the redesign of the website that holds all 80+ projects I made for the city, be sure to take an afternoon and check them all out.

Why support? Every week, I sort through TONS of local sources: Seven Days events, Front Porch Forum calendar, Facebook events, Hello Burlington, Meetup.com, Eventbrite, Church St Marketplace calendar, Flynn, Higher Ground, Vermont Comedy Club, and then news stations like VTDigger, Seven Days, WCAX, WPTZ, Vermont Public, Community News Service, VT Cynic, The Other Paper, Vermont Business Magazine, Williston Observer, MyChamplainValley, The Charlotte News, to keep you connected. It takes a long time to curate and write about all this local content, so if this lengthy newsletter saves you time, or has introduced you to new experiences in Burlington, then definitely consider chipping in!

About Me

'Dispel the darkness': New art festival to shine this weekend in Burlington

Night Watch, a new outdoor festival from producer Pamela Polston and creative director Alex Reeves, brings light projections, installations and videos by more than a dozen artists from Vermont and Montreal to Lake Street between Main Street Landing and Foam Brewers on Saturday from 7 to 11, and it's free. It works like an art walk, and since many of the pieces have music or sound, you can even dance your way through.

Burlington elementary students learn to swim through first-of-its-kind program

For the first time this year, Burlington fourth graders are taking swim lessons at the YMCA during school hours, twice a week for 90 minutes, in what school officials say is the first program of its kind in Vermont. All six elementary schools come for three weeks as part of the YMCA's nationwide Safety Around Water Program, learning water safety, survival skills and even how to save someone in need. The district wants to make the deep end swim test a graduation requirement eventually.

As Beta Technologies Grows, ‘Betaville’ Sprouts in South Burlington

Beta has spent about $22.6 million on at least 13 properties around its base at Burlington International Airport over the past year, and a master plan before South Burlington's Development Review Board would more than double its footprint there to 100 acres over the next decade. Fueled by the $1 billion it raised going public last November, the company plans to add about 1,000 local employees by the middle of next year, and it paid $8 million in 2025 for Pete's RV Center, a parcel appraised at $2.2 million in 2021. Shunpike Road resident Dani Fisette says a quarter of the homes on her street became transitional rental housing for Beta workers earlier this year, and Beta says it can't commit to long term leases there. The plan could be approved within the next few months.

5 takeaways from Phil Scott and Amanda Janoo’s first debate of the campaign

Gov. Phil Scott and his Democratic and Progressive challenger Amanda Janoo met Wednesday in a friendly first debate hosted by Vermont Public, where Scott leaned on his record through the pandemic and the 2023 and 2024 floods and promised to propose tax cuts or credits, while Janoo, an economist running her first campaign, pitched raising taxes on the wealthiest Vermonters to pay for free primary care. She cited modeling showing surcharges on income over $250,000 could raise $114 million to $344 million a year but didn't directly answer what she'd do if that wasn't enough, and Scott didn't directly say what his tax package would include. They also split on nuclear power, with Scott backing a small scale plant, and on remote work for state employees. WCAX hosts another debate on Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 7.

A Colchester Tech Firm Has Been Leaning Into AI. It’s Laying Off 66 People.

Vermont Information Processing, a Colchester software company that had employed about 600 people in the state, is laying off 66, a number that came out through the state Department of Labor's database rather than from the company. VIP held an "AI Week" in April and last month bought Encompass Technologies, an AI focused beverage industry software firm in Fort Collins, Colo., to "accelerate AI innovation." One laid off worker says her virtual meeting lasted about 10 minutes and her access credentials were revoked minutes later, though those cut stay fully paid with health benefits through December.

Burlington City Council to weigh reworked public safety resolution

City Council President Ben Traverse redrafted the Burlington Forward resolution on homelessness and drug issues after three months of committee review, adding detail like more enforcement with the same number of police officers. Progressives say their early committee feedback wasn't fully documented, and Councilor Melo Grant asks how the city will pay for it all. The council takes it up Monday, when it can adopt the new draft or take more time, and Traverse hopes for adoption in November if it needs longer.

Vermont Tortilla Is Back Open in a New Essex Production Facility

New owners Leyland Papa and Lindsey West left Shelburne when the lease ended and lost a Hinesburg plan to the town's water limits before landing at 30 Boston Court in Essex, where their staff of three returned to production at the end of August. Sales are at about 50% of where they were when they bought the business, so they're pushing online orders, including frozen tortillas shipped nationwide, and you can pick up preorders by appointment.

ICE looks to boost staffing at intelligence hubs in Vermont

A plan that isn't final calls for 24 contractor positions split evenly between ICE's Law Enforcement Support Center on Harvest Lane and its National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center on Industrial Avenue, both in Williston, as part of a more than $100 million nationwide intelligence push for the branch that carries out arrests and deportations. Some of the workers would need top secret clearance, a final contract could be awarded around February.

Electricity Costs Are Soaring in Vermont

Vermont's 17 utilities have asked regulators to raise rates 90 times since 2010, more than half of those in the past four years, and the average monthly residential bill has climbed 39% since 2019, from $97.25 to $135. Someone using the same amount of power as in 2019 now pays about $342 more a year, and the Department of Public Service predicts statewide rates will rise another 25% by 2030. Regulators approved a 5.5% Green Mountain Power increase in late August, below the 7.5% it asked for, and approved only $113 million of its $341 million in grid upgrades. Some places are seeing steeper jumps, with Hyde Park paying 35% more this year, Swanton seeking 30% after its Highgate Falls dam bladder tore and Jacksonville up 55% over three years.

Scott and legislative leaders draft emergency aid plan for home heating

With heating oil at $6 a gallon and No. 2 heating oil up nearly 60% in a year, Gov. Phil Scott and Democratic lawmakers are negotiating state money for the 15,000 Vermonters who rely on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, whose federal block grant is flat at $23 million. Keeping out of pocket costs at last year's level could top $8 million, drawn from a $50 million reserve set up to backfill federal cuts. The Emergency Board is scheduled to vote on a package today, and income eligible Vermonters can still apply through the Department for Children and Families' online benefits portal.

‘Jambo’ to be installed in South Burlington

The 11 foot stainless steel sculpture by Enosburg artist David Stromeyer, donated by South Burlington resident Todd Lockwood and valued at $80,000 including installation, goes in near the Dorset Street entrance of Veterans Memorial Park later this month. The community is invited to its dedication on Friday, Oct. 30 at 5.

Essex failed to warn voters about a tax vote. Now the November result might not count.

Essex's November ballot has three questions on 1% local option taxes for meals and alcohol, rooms and sales, with half the money going to help lower property taxes, but voters never got the official warning that state law requires 30 to 40 days before the election. On legal advice the vote goes ahead as non binding, so any question that passes needs a second vote at Town Meeting on March 2, while a no vote in November is final. A town FAQ using 2025 numbers puts the net revenue at $1,058,030 after the state's share, and former selectboard member Bruce Post says the mistake eroded his trust in town leadership.

Advocates for homeless Vermonters say new rules put 'process over people'

Lawmakers and advocates want the Scott administration to reverse the Department for Children and Families' new motel rules under Act 143, this year's homelessness law, saying they delay or block people from getting shelter, and some are asking a legislative oversight committee to reject them. Since Sept. 1, the 211 helpline no longer handles motel intake on nights and weekends, and a lengthy questionnaire scores each household's risk, with lower scoring households only referred when 50 to 100 rooms are available. Even so, the state's motel rooms in use rose from 390 in late August to 668 on Oct. 19, still under the 700 allowed by law.

BETA Technologies takes major step toward commercial electric aviation — Beta is the first to receive authorization from the FAA for its electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, so potential customers can now ride along instead of watching from the ground, and on Tuesday it flew from Plattsburgh to Burlington in 20 minutes under the new authorization. The company is still working toward full FAA certification for commercial operations.

Vermont early voting turnout reaches 88,000 — 88,000 Vermont voters had cast ballots as of Thursday, led by St. Albans Town at nearly a third of active voters, and the secretary of state notes 42% of active voters named Arlene have already voted. Officials advise skipping the mail now and dropping your ballot at your town clerk's office, a secure drop box or the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

National Drug Take Back Day happening this Saturday — You can get rid of unwanted or expired prescription drugs for free, and anonymously, on Saturday from 10 to about 2 at collection sites including the Burlington Police Department and Colchester Village Police Department. Find your nearest site on the DEA's Take Back Day page.

Emergency crews locate and rescue person lost in the Winooski gorge — Colchester Fire was called to the end of Gorge Road around 6:30 Tuesday night for a person who became disoriented near the Winooski River, and crews reached them by cellphone, spotted them from a high point and got them out on a nearby trail with the Colchester Technical Rescue Team. Nobody was injured.

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

Men's hockey renews its old ECAC rivalry with Clarkson this weekend, hosting the Golden Knights at Gutterson on Friday at 7, then visiting Cheel Arena on Sunday at 4, with both games on ESPN+ and WVMT. Jacob Oster was named Hockey East Player of the Week after stopping 56 of the 59 shots he faced in his first collegiate weekend against No. 11 Boston University. Vermont is one of six teams in the NCAA with a perfect penalty kill, 7 for 7 so far, while Clarkson (2-2-0) brings a power play converting at 33.3%. These are the 89th and 90th meetings between the programs, and Vermont trails the all time series 29-57-2. Clarkson was also the opponent for UVM's first ever home game as a Division I program on December 10, 1974, a 3-2 Catamount win.

Women's soccer tied UAlbany 2-2 on Thursday night at Virtue Field in its Rally Against Cancer game. Eleni Stowell put Vermont ahead in the first minute when a corner kick deflected in, and Abigail Mills scored her first collegiate goal off an Ella Hall corner in the 38th for a 2-1 halftime lead. UAlbany's Oluchi Njoku tied it with a curling shot from outside the box in the 51st, and Sophia Kling made 6 saves to tie her career high. At 4-4-7 (2-0-4 America East), the Cats are still undefeated in conference play and have allowed only 4 goals in 6 league matches. They play at New Hampshire on Sunday at 2 on ESPN+.

Field hockey hosts Bryant on Friday at 3 for Senior Day on Moulton Winder Field, honoring its 8 seniors after the match, and the Alumni Association is handing out free pom poms along the concourse. Vermont (10-4, 1-2 America East) has already set two program records this fall, with 46 assists as a team and 7 shutouts from Ila Gunner. The Cats lead the all time series with Bryant 7-1. Men's soccer (9-1-3, 3-0-1 America East) plays at UAlbany on Saturday at 6 on ESPN+, then comes home for Senior Night and Salute to Service against Binghamton on October 30 at 4, when military and first responder personnel get a free ticket with ID.

Men's basketball hosts Stonehill in an exhibition on Saturday at 2, and both basketball teams host Saint Michael's next Wednesday, the women at 5 and the men at 7:30. The women then host Keene State on November 2 at 6, the same night the men play at Iona. Women's hockey is off this weekend before a pair at Boston College on October 30 and 31, then comes home to Gutterson for the Pack the Gut Challenge against Northeastern on November 6 at 6.

Both cross country teams run the America East Championship in Albany on October 30 at 10 a.m., and swimming and diving hosts Maine at Forbush Natatorium on October 31 at 11 for its Rally Against Cancer meet. The annual Catamount Challenge runs through Monday at 11:59 p.m. after raising more than $450,000 for UVM athletes last year. Any gift of $5 or more counts, and the teams with the most donors, the most dollars raised and the most alumni donors win $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000 for their programs.

Upcoming Home Games

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

General Events

Performances

Live Music/DJ

General Events

Performances

Live Music/DJ

General Events

Performances

Live Music/DJ

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

Take the walking tour, a 1.7 mile downtown loop with the history woven in. About 90 minutes, phone in hand.

That's the weekend. Scrape the frost off Saturday morning, then get outside and soak up a gorgeous, sunny Sunday. If the Btown Brief makes your weekend a little easier, you can support it at ko-fi or on Venmo (@btownbrief), and it genuinely helps keep 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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