🎃 Happy Thursday! It's October! The best month of the year.

🌦️ Today's weather: Partly sunny, with a high near 88. Showers and thunderstorms possible overnight.

⛹🏻‍♀️ Situational awareness: The Indiana Fever will try to keep their playoff hopes alive in Las Vegas tonight.

• Game 3 tips off at 9pm on USA/CNBC. The winner advances to the WNBA Semifinals.

Today’s newsletter is 1,120 words — a 4-minute read.

Witness a murder Friday night when the first annual Crow Fest descends upon CAMI.

Flapping the news: Third Rodeo Art Collective is inviting First Friday visitors at the (relatively) new Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis to join the flock — dress like a crow, bring shiny trinkets to trade and do a crow-themed craft.

What they're chirping: "It's First Friday and I am just trying to get more people to come out, for myself, for the other artists and just for the museum," Quinn Tailor, a member of Third Rodeo and founder of Crow Fest, told Axios.

• "So it's like, how can we get people out? Let's throw a party."
• Tailor said the plan quickly snowballed after pitching it to the other two members of Third Rodeo, morphing from a party where people are encouraged to dress like crows into an annual festival.

The big picture: CAMI opened earlier this year in a 125-year-old former dairy barn and industrial space that Big Car Collaborative transformed on its Garfield Park campus.

• The project more than doubles local museum space dedicated to contemporary art and includes studio space, a bar and small storefronts for budding businesses.

What to expect: Costumes aren't required, but Tailor said visitors are encouraged to dress like a crow, wear black or come as a crow "disguised as a human."

• If you bring a trinket to trade, you can be inducted into the Crow Court. There will be crafts, including screen-printing your own Crow Fest shirt, and art for sale.
• Tailor has made a large-scale art quilt and will transform their studio into an immersive space for the event. The other artists with studios in the building and shops have gotten involved, too.

The bottom line: "We want to create experiences that just help people feel fun, feel creative … and help people find their whimsy again," Tailor said.

If you crow

Axios Social Club is bringing readers together for dinner in the Mass Ave area on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

Why it matters: Your city is full of interesting people you haven't met yet. We're making it easier to change that.

How it works: Take a quick quiz, reserve your seat and we'll match you with five fellow locals for dinner at a restaurant we picked.

• Come solo or bring a friend.
• Your restaurant and dinner crew stay a surprise until event day.
• After dinner, all the tables meet up at an after-party — with us!

By the numbers: More than 1,000 Axios readers across the country are already signed up to join us Oct. 6.

If you go: Dinner starts at 6:30pm. Tickets are $15.99 per person, with food and drinks purchased separately.

The bottom line: Bring a friend — or come make a few new ones.

Save your seat at Axios Social Club

🏀 Another day, another record for Caitlin Clark. The Fever star made WNBA history, becoming the first player to record a first-half double-double in a playoff game.

• Clark had 14 points and 11 assists in the first half of the Fever's Game 2 win over the Las Vegas Aces Tuesday. (WISH-TV)

🚧 Shelby Street has finally (!!!) reopened in Fountain Square, but businesses say the construction disruption left a lasting hit on sales and foot traffic. (WTHR)

✊ The staff of Mirror Indy and FPI News are unionizing and asking Free Press Indiana management to voluntarily recognize the Indiana Local News Guild. (Via Instagram)

🛍️ Bobbles & Lace, a Massachusetts-based women's clothing and accessories chain, will open in the Bottleworks District later this month. (IBJ)

⛽️ Indiana's gas tax suspension will continue into early November. Gov. Mike Braun first suspended the tax in April in response to rising fuel prices driven by the Iran war and has extended it each month since. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

Meet Alex Ann Allen, a traveling Hoosier muralist who will adorn the Indiana Fever's $78 million Sports Performance Center with a design celebrating Indianapolis as the home of women's hoops.

Driving the news: Allen, a South Bend native who has been creating large-scale interior and exterior murals for seven years, was selected from a field of 65 artists to be a finalist in a contest held by the Indy Arts Council, Pacers Sports & Entertainment and the Fever.

• A survey taken by more than 2,200 people picked Allen's 40-by-60-foot piece called "Unity, Legacy, Resilience" to take over the facility's north wall.

The inspo: The design featuring the vibrant color palette and layered geometric forms Allen has become known for pays tribute to the Fever, while recognizing the Circle City as the center of women's professional basketball.

• Allen, who works primarily in aerosol and latex, will be assisted by Ana Escalante, a Venezuelan-born, Indianapolis-based artist chosen as the artist apprentice for the project.

What's next: Allen and Escalante start work on the mural this fall, and the piece will be dedicated before the facility's opening in spring 2027.

Check her out: On her website, Instagram and Facebook.

What they're saying

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."

Zoom in: The Indy area's eight locations range from a former party supply store on the far east side to a former DSW in Castelton and Plainfield's old Value City.

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. RIP.
• Former Big Lots stores ranked second with 103 locations, followed by Party City with 100. Both chains shed hundreds of locations after bankruptcy.

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

The bottom line: A familiar storefront in a new orange costume is a telltale sign spooky season has arrived.

😢 Arika is a former Joann Fabrics employee and is still sad about their closing.

🎮 Justin is on a personal quest to play every mainline "Castlevania" game this October to celebrate his favorite spooky game series.