Sweet, sweet Friday.

🌧️ Today's weather: Chance of rain showers, with a high in the low-70s.

• More rain chances through your Halloweekened, with a high in the upper-70s tomorrow.

😴 Situational awareness: Enjoy some tricks on Saturday, then treat yourself to an extra hour of sleep as daylight saving time ends at 2am Sunday.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Rhonda Gum!

Today’s newsletter is 947 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Austin's youngest music fans are getting their own rave next week.

Why it matters: Family-friendly raves are taking off, and Australian DJ Lenny Pearce's Toddler Rave is coming to Austin next week.

The big picture: The event category grew 93% from 2024 to 2025 nationally, per Eventbrite data shared with Axios.

Catch up quick: Pearce has built a following by turning songs like "The Wheels on the Bus" into EDM tracks featured in an interactive show that caters both to little ones and their raver parents.

• Pearce's first viral hit was a "Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" techno remix in 2023. Last year, he toured internationally and sold out U.S. dates.
• The kids' music genre is familiar to the producer: He's the twin brother of a Wiggle and the father of two young kids.

Yes, but: Entertaining the world's most brutally honest audience isn't easy.

• "Kids can stare at you and I'm like, 'Oh my God, is he bored of me?'" Pearce tells Axios. He's learned that toddlers do better with action and cues than music alone.

Vibe check: Pearce says he tries to avoid making his sets all about putting hands up and jumping. He brings out props and characters such as Kuma the monkey, Bubbles the DJ duck and Mr. Glow the glowstick maker.

• Costumes are welcome, even for adults.

📍 If you go: Tickets to the Nov. 6 rave at Stubb's start at $53. VIP packages start around $135 per person.

• Children younger than 12 months on the day of the show can get in for free. Everyone else needs a ticket.

The bottom line: Today's toddler rave participants will be tomorrow's festival goers.

You still have time to grab Halloween-themed drinks before the month ends.

What's happening: We've rounded up four spots for themed cocktails, scary decorations and more.

1. Sign Bar

Details: Sign Bar has an all-new haunted maze, new sets and more live actors every night through Sunday. Plus, you can grab a themed cocktail or snap a photo in their photobooth.

• Family friendly daytime walkthroughs — without the scary stuff and actors — are $6.50.
• The live actor maze will cost you $14.50.

📍 Where: 9909 FM 969, Building 3.

2. Nickel City

Details: Nickel City has brought back Moe's Tavern from "The Simpsons" for the month of October.

• Find featured cocktails and grab food from Delray Cafe, which has turned its truck into the show's iconic Krusty Burger.

📍 Where: 1133 E. 11th St.

3. Gibson Street Bar

Details: Gibson has brought back its "Twisted Carnival," with over-the-top Halloween decorations through Sunday.

• Free entry, but reservations are required to sit with a group at one of their "cage tables."

📍 Where: 1109 S. Lamar Blvd.

4. King Bee

Details: New Orleans pop-up Black Lagoon is back and taking over Austin bar King Bee 5pm-2am through Halloween night.

📍 If you go: 1906 E. 12th St.

🚧 Advanced Manufacturing Partners has picked Austin for a flagship prototyping factory. (Austin American-Statesman 🔒)

🏙️ Meta appears to have landed a fourth subtenant — InKind — at its downtown tower, according to public filings. (Austin Business Journal 🔒)

🚗 The Texas Department of Transportation has finished its $677 million Oak Hill Parkway expansion project. (Community Impact)

Spirit Halloween is haunting the shells of former big-box stores again this fall as it opens 1,500 locations nationwide.

The big picture: The stores appear and vanish each fall, so finding this year's Spirit often means relaying directions with neighbors in retail shorthand: "Where the old Party City used to be."

By the numbers: Of the locations analyzed by Axios, 153 — just over 1 in 10 — were labeled "Former Joann" stores in Spirit's locator.

• Joann closed all of its fabric and craft stores in 2025.
• Former Big Lots stores ranked second with 103 locations, followed by Party City with 100. Both chains shed hundreds of locations after bankruptcy.

Zoom in: Painted Tree, which abruptly closed all stores in April, and Sears each account for two Austin-area Spirit locations.

• Austin's Spirit locations close on Monday.

How it works: Spirit, which bills itself as North America's largest Halloween retailer, relies on temporary leases to transform vacant storefronts into seasonal shops.

• The arrangements bring property owners exposure and a few months of rent while they search for long-term tenants.

👋 Nicole here. Every once in a while, I put a bandana on my very perfect cat, Tex. (This one was made by my friend Kelsey.)

Tex doesn't seem to mind if I put a bandana on her for a bit, especially because I give her treats.

• But I suspect she'd draw the line at a full Halloween costume.

The big picture: Dressing up our pets might be cute, but some costumes can actually cause them stress, according to veterinarian Gary Weitzman.

• "Only dress your pet in clothing if they're comfortable, and keep the experience positive," he told Axios San Diego.
• A simple Halloween bandana might be a better option, he added.

😜 Yes, but: If your pet likes that kind of thing, we want to see it. Reply to this email with a photo.

Dig deeper: How to tell if your pet is stressed

Thanks to Bob Gee for editing this newsletter.

👻 Asher is out.

🌭 Nicole and her husband are grilling "Halloweenies" tonight.