❤️ What's happening this weekend in the 757

Good morning, 757!

Somewhere in this region on Saturday night, a grown adult is going to put on a tracksuit and bamboo earrings and absolutely mean it. Timbaland is sitting down at Virginia MOCA to talk through the records he made, then DJ SNS turns the room back into 1997. '90s attire is required. Not encouraged. Required.

Here is the thing to understand about this weekend: Halloween itself lands next Saturday, which is exactly why this one is so stacked. The trunk-or-treats and fall festivals stacked themselves onto the 24th so they would not go head to head with the actual night, and there were dozens to choose from. You get the costumes twice this year, and this is the weekend you get them without the pressure.

Also, from the department of news you have been waiting on: VDOT finished repaving the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel three weekends early and cancelled the last closure outright. Nothing is shut this weekend, and the Oct 30 to Nov 2 closure is off the board.

If you have kids and a free Saturday morning, Hampton's homecoming parade is free and steps off at 9. If you work Saturdays, Sunday is the stronger day this week, with the Chrysler's harvest festival and the Great Bridge market both free and both landing then. And if you are on the Peninsula and Sunday is your only free day, the Hampton carousel is $1 a ride until 8 p.m. and you do not have to cross any water to get to it. If you moved here this year and keep finding out about things the week after, scroll to Every Week.

One thing these roundups usually skip: the Downtown and Midtown tunnels are tolled, so a Norfolk to Portsmouth run costs more than the free admission suggests. Both Portsmouth picks below are free once you are there, and the two Peninsula crossings are not tolled at all.

Forward the Timbaland line to whoever still argues about Aaliyah versus Missy, or the Saturday section to whoever you text on Friday night asking what there is to do with the kids.

Let's get to it.

— Josh

🎠 Haunted Horse Rides at the Hampton Carousel has the 1920 carousel on the Hampton waterfront running Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., with staff handing out candy. Rides are $1, cash only, and it runs through November 1.

🎭 The Heart Sellers closes this weekend at the Wells Theatre. Thanksgiving 1973, and two new immigrants, Luna and Jane, decide not to spend it alone. Friday 7:30 p.m., Saturday 2 and 7:30, Sunday 2. Seats from $16.95, ages 15 and up. · easy to do solo

🥁 Newport News Greek Festival runs Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., at Saints Constantine and Helen on Traverse Road. No entry fee, bring a canned good for the Peninsula Food Bank, and plan your afternoon around the pastry table. · easy to do solo

🎢 Howl-O-Scream runs all three nights at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, 6 p.m. to park close, no re-entry after 8. Included with admission, tickets from $69.99. Saturday and Sunday daytime, the Sesame Street Halloween Spooktacular runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. instead.

The Norfolk Flea takes over Cova Brewing after sundown with costumes encouraged and no cover to get in, which is a rare combination in late October.

Forty years of the scores you can hum without being asked, played live in Diamonstein Concert Hall. Lobby doors open an hour early if you like a slow start.

Trick or treating in a swimsuit, which is either the best idea anyone has had this month or the worst, and there is only one way to find out.

A spooky laser show and a costume contest at 6, then a full dome show with a graveyard tour at 7:15, then telescopes outside at 8:20 if the sky cooperates.

The one day a year Naval Station Norfolk opens its gates to everybody. The Nimitz, the Mesa Verde and the cutter Frank Drew are all open for tours.

Pirates Island homecoming has been running all week and Saturday is the loud part. The parade is free, it steps off from Darling Stadium at 9, and you do not need a ticket to stand on the curb.

The Virginia Beach-raised producer who rewired what radio sounded like, in conversation at MOCA, followed by DJ SNS and the '90s. The dress code is not a suggestion.

The Lightship Portsmouth is a 1915 floating lighthouse, and for a few Saturdays in October it is decorated and mildly haunted. Billed as spooky but not too scary, which is the right call for a boat with steep ladders.

Four hours of decorated car trunks at the Pavilion, which is the efficient version of trick or treating: one parking lot, no hills, no driveway negotiations.

Mount Trashmore gets a Filipino festival for the day, and "ligaya" means joy, which is a fair amount of pressure to put on your own event name. Free and open to everybody.

Built in 1918 for shipbuilders as the country's first federal war housing project, Hilton Village throws its fall festival down Main Street. A genuinely pretty place to spend an October afternoon.

Ninety minutes and a mile and a half of downtown Suffolk after dark, told by a guide who knows which stories hold up. Wear real shoes.

Thirty-two craft beers and ten ciders under a tent on the York River, and the unlimited tasting is the whole ticket rather than an add-on. Note the change this year: it is Sunday only, not the full weekend.

Three free hours of costumes and art making at the Chrysler, with the Perry Glass Studio doing its noon glassmaking demo alongside. No registration, no ticket, just show up.

Peninsula Pups brings its fifth annual dog party to the Oozlefinch at Fort Monroe, which means a brewery patio inside a moated 19th century fort, full of dogs in costume.

The Norfolk Society for Cemetery Conservation walks you through Cedar Grove, established in 1825 as Norfolk's first public burial ground, for Day of the Dead. An hour and a half, at the good end of the afternoon light.

Chesapeake's Sunday market on the water at Battlefield Park South, which has about a month of Sundays left in it before the season closes.

Things that happen every week, for anyone still learning the rhythm here. Reply if you run a weekly thing that is not in a taproom.

💃 Williamsburg Contra Dance meets the first Saturday of the month, 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church on Richmond Road. No partner required, and most of the teaching happens in the first fifteen minutes, so arriving alone and early is the correct strategy. Runs September through June. Next one is Saturday, November 7.

🔨 Habitat ReStore South Hampton Roads takes volunteers Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., sorting donations and working the floor at the Norfolk store. It is the rare volunteer job where you learn where to find a $12 door. Open today, Thursday, October 22, and every Tuesday through Saturday after that.

🎶 Virginia Coast Chorus sings barbershop on Tuesday evenings at Indian River High School in Chesapeake, and two of its quartets went to international competition this month. No audition just to come try it. Next one is Tuesday, October 27.

🧶 Social Knit Night at the Yarn Club runs every Thursday, 5 to 8 p.m., in Virginia Beach. Their own description is the selling point: this is not a class, no instruction, just fun. Next one is tonight, Thursday, October 22, and then every Thursday after that.

🏥 Hampton University's Proton Cancer Institute opened a new wellness space for patients and caregivers, funded by a $60,000 donation from Alex's Sunnyside Playroom.

🏘️ Talbot Park cut the ribbon on 295 refurbished apartments in Norfolk after a $29 million reconstruction of the WWII-era complex.

⚓ Nauticus is giving away 500 free tickets to military families for Winterfest on the Wisconsin on Sunday, November 15.

🪧 The Coast Guard in Yorktown unveiled a street sign reading "Cuyahoga Way" at its 48th commemoration of the cutter lost in 1978.

🌊 Rudee Park could break ground in 2027, Virginia Beach City Council heard, with the $50 million Oceanfront project expected to take two years to build.

Thank you for reading The 757 Current!

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— Josh