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Good Morning Blacksburg,
Fun fact to start your Tuesday: the same 5G networks carrying your texts could soon double as a drone-tracking radar system — that's the idea behind Virginia Tech's new $5.6M Miageru project, and it's one of three highlights today alongside a week stacked with live music and a Wednesday panel on common ground. Outside, it's sunny and 70, falling to a clear 43 tonight.
In today’s Blacksburg Connect
🎵 Live music this week: Afro-Cuban legends, chart-topping jazz, and a metal Halloween
🛰️ Virginia Tech leads a $5.6M project to watch the low skies
🌍 "Find Common Ground" panel Wednesday at the Lyric
Let’s get to it.
Tuesday, October 27
🏛️ Blacksburg Town Council, 6:30pm. The regular meeting carries a charter-boundary public hearing, and residents who organized around community dialogue sessions plan to present the case for removing the town's 10 surveillance cameras, asking supporters to show up. organizing post
🏛️ Christiansburg Town Council, 7pm. The agenda carries the public hearing on the sale of 5.335 acres at Huckleberry Park plus a Conditional Use Permit request from Tow 360 LLC for a towing service at 492 Kiwanis Lane SE. As of Friday afternoon the agenda packet still had not posted, even though it usually appears the Friday before. town archive
🧠 Trivia Night @ 540 Social
7:30pm, 125 N Main St, Blacksburg. Test your knowledge every Tuesday: free to play, prizes, food and drinks, and the winning team of each round scores free game cards.
📚 Halloween Storytime
6-7pm, Radford Public Library. The annual costume storytime: spooky picture books and candy afterwards.
🎃 Blacksburg Ward Trunk or Treat / Festival
6-7:30pm, 510 Porter Street, Blacksburg.
Wednesday, October 28
🛒 Blacksburg Farmer's Market | Wednesday Market
2-6pm, Market Square Park, Blacksburg. The year-round, producer-only market with vendors from within 50 miles: seasonal produce, meats, baked goods, cheese, and handmade crafts.
📖 Author event: Erika Meitner at Blacksburg Books
7pm, Blacksburg Books. The award-winning poet reads from her seventh collection, Assembled Audience.
🌍 "Find Common Ground" panel at the Lyric (Facebook post)
Doors and tabling 5:30pm, panel 6-8:30pm, The Lyric Theatre, 135 College Ave, Blacksburg. A panel on surveillance cameras, AI data centers, fossil fuel infrastructure, pipelines, and community organizing, with panelists including a criminology professor and a POWHR Coalition representative.
🌍 Talk: "The Heart of Havana" and Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars
Moss Arts Center / Center for the Arts, Virginia Tech. Free pre-show talk 6:30pm; concert 7:30-9pm ($25-60, $10 students and youth). (world)
🎵 Live music this week: Afro-Cuban legends, chart-topping jazz, and a metal Halloween
Halloween week is a good week to go hear something, with stages across Blacksburg covering just about every taste.
World: Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars play the Moss Arts Center on Wednesday at 7:30pm ($25-60, $10 for students and youth), with a free pre-show talk, "The Heart of Havana," at 6:30pm.
Rock: My Upside Down plays The Milk Parlor on Wednesday at 9pm.
Jazz: the Robert Jospé Quartet plays Friday at 7:30pm at the Creativity and Innovation District, 185 Kent St, presented by Virginia Tech's School of Performing Arts — Daniel Clark on piano, Paul Langosch on bass, Chris Whitman on guitar, and Jospé on drums, whose latest release, The Night Sky, reached No. 1 on the NACC Top Jazz Chart. Metal: Shatterfest takes over The Milk Parlor on Friday, doors 5pm and music 6pm, an all-day metal Halloween festival hosted by Glass Lung with heavy bands from across the East Coast ($15 over 21, $20 under 21, 18+).
Rock, Halloween night: Joey's Van plays The Milk Parlor on Saturday at 9pm with a Halloween costume contest.
Classical: the Virginia Tech Soloist Competition Final Round Recital closes the week Sunday at 4pm.
🛰️ Virginia Tech leads a $5.6M project to watch the low skies
An international team led by Virginia Tech's Commonwealth Cyber Initiative has won a $5.6 million award for Miageru — "look up" in Japanese — a project to create aircraft detection and monitoring systems for autonomous aircraft in low-altitude airspace. Traditional airspace surveillance technology can cost more than $30 million, putting it out of reach for most small airports, utilities, and other operators; Miageru would use 5G and future mobile networks as a distributed sensor array, delivering the same capability for a small increment on an existing communications bill. The work could lead to commercial opportunities in low-altitude airspace and further research in advanced air mobility, GPS resiliency, and national security. The project is supported by the National Science Foundation's VINES program and by Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, with CCI chief technology officer Eric Burger as principal investigator. VT News
🌍 "Find Common Ground" panel Wednesday at the Lyric
A panel on surveillance cameras, AI data centers, fossil fuel infrastructure, pipelines, and community organizing comes to The Lyric Theatre on Wednesday, with doors and tabling at 5:30pm and the panel from 6-8:30pm at 135 College Ave. Panelists include a criminology professor and a POWHR Coalition representative. Facebook post
📌 Community Board
🐶 Must Love Dogs Blacksburg launch meeting, Thursday on Zoom. A meeting for real estate agents, pet businesses and dog lovers about a "Welcome to the Pack" membership and a sitters/walkers guide for neighbors. post
🦃 Bull & Bones Thanksgiving catering. Orders are due Sat Nov 21, pickup Wed Nov 25 from 12-6pm at the Blacksburg location. Smoked turkey $75; combos $32-45 per person; pies and more. post
🎃 Also Special Sneak Peek: Mark your calendar for Halloween Activities: Thu Oct 29 – Sun Nov 1 🎃
Thursday, Oct 29
🐕 Center for the Barks Howl-o-ween Dog Parade 5:30-6:30pm, Patricia Buckley Moss Lawn (free outdoor dog parade, costume contest)
🎬 The Rocky Horror Picture Show at The Lyric Theatre 10pm (Late Night Horror Series with Tolls of Madness shadow cast, theme "Tim & Dolly")
Friday, Oct 30
🎃 Town Hall-oween & Treat Trail 3-7pm, Christiansburg
🎃 Trick-or-Treat at the Government Center 3:30-5pm, 755 Roanoke St (free)
🎃 WHV 6th Annual Trick-or-Treat Trail 3:30-6pm, Warm Hearth Village (petting zoo, hay ride, Little Goblin Costume Contest 5pm)
⚽ Virginia Tech Men's Soccer vs. Syracuse 5pm, Thompson Field (free)
🎃 Shatterfest: Metal Halloween Festival at the Milk Parlor
Saturday, Oct 31
🎃 Getting Scary on the Huckleberry 8:45-11:30am, Christiansburg Recreation Center (free kids fun run at 8:45am, $30 5K run/walk right after, truck-or-treat 9-11:30am, costume contest, pumpkin pancakes for race participants)
🎃 Downtown Trick or Treat 1-4pm, Draper & College Ave (pet costume contest 3pm, human costume contest 3:30pm across from the Lyric)
🎭 Halloween Murder Mystery at JH Bards Spirit Co. 2-5pm, 213 Draper Road SW (adults-only whodunnit)
📚 Sixth Annual Spooky Book Fair 4-8pm, Moon Hollow Brewing, 4237 Prices Fork Road (spooky books, tarot readings, raffles, costume contests)
🎃 New River Valley Renaissance Festival Sat-Sun, 10am-5pm, Beliveau Farm Winery ($30, kids 6-12 $9, under 5 free; falconry demos Sat, aerial acrobatics and stilt-walkers Sun)
🏃 Brush Mountain Breakdown Trail Race Pandapas (12-mile, 7-mile, 5K)
🚵 Rowdy Dawg Mountain Bike Race Pandapas Pond / Poverty Creek trails (beginner, cross-country, and extended courses)
🎤 Macado's in Radford's annual karaoke Halloween costume contest, with $0.50 unbreaded boneless wings that day
Sunday, Nov 1
🎼 Virginia Tech Soloist Competition Final Round Recital 4-6pm (classical)
🎃 New River Valley Renaissance Festival day 2, 10am-5pm, Beliveau Farm Winery
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