Philly Buzz

A weekly look around Philly.

Issue 1 - A robot nest and the aquarium below the Art Museum

Hey, neighbor. Welcome to the first Philly Buzz. Every Tuesday I'll send you one email about life around here, from Fairmount down to the Navy Yard and across the Schuylkill into West Philly. This first one runs from Halloween weekend through Sunday, Nov 8, so grab a coffee and save it.

What's in this one

1

Hot picks · South Street and East Passyunk both go big for Halloween on Saturday. Then Día de los Muertos takes over South 9th Street on Sunday.

2

Field guide · How to walk the south end of the Schuylkill Banks, over the new bridge to the Grays Ferry Crescent.

3

The scrap · Someone found where Center City's delivery robots sleep, and the zoo hippos are speaking fluent Philly.

4

What's building · The two city charter questions on your Nov 3 ballot, laid out plainly.

5

Makers · The PMA Craft Show turns 50 at the Convention Center, and the Bizarre is back in Clark Park.

6

Deep cut · The Fairmount Water Works, the river machine below the Art Museum that spent half a century as an aquarium.

7

Season · A cider stroll under the Headhouse Shambles, and Ginkgo Watch starts at The Woodlands.

Hot picks

This weekend's best bets around here.

Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, so South Street and East Passyunk both get a full day of it. Then on Sunday, 9th Street turns into a Día de los Muertos celebration that runs into the night.

The South Street Headhouse District's 2026 Halloween poster

Queen Village / Society Hill (South Street) · Sat Oct 31 · noon-8pm, bars until close

Halloween on South Street

The South Street Headhouse District runs Halloween all day. From noon to 5 it's a candy crawl, where kids trick-or-treat at shops around the district with candy from Frankford Candy. At 1 the costume promenade and vintage car parade step off from 5th and South. Trunk-or-treat runs at Headhouse Plaza from 1:30 to 4, and then the Society Hill Civic Association's Halloween at Headhouse turns the Shambles into a spooky trick-or-treat walk from 4 to 8. Grown-ups get Boos & Brews specials at bars from 5 until close, and the TLA shows Rocky Horror at midnight with separate tickets. Get there by 1 if your kid wants a good look at the old cars. South Street Halloween

East Passyunk Avenue Fall Fest 2026 event art

Art: @sidewalkpress

South Philly (East Passyunk) · Sat Oct 31 · 11am-4pm

Fall Fest on East Passyunk Avenue

The East Passyunk Avenue BID and Nice Things Handmade take over the Avenue between Morris and Dickinson for Halloween day. There's an 80-plus vendor market, food and drink, pumpkin carving, a costume contest and live music. Kids can do the Creepy Crawl, a trick-or-treat route where you check business windows for spiders or critters, since that's where the candy is. Going in the morning means the kids burn off the first round of sugar before real trick-or-treating, and I call that a strategy. Fall Fest

A past Dia de los Muertos celebration at Fleisher Art Memorial

A past year. Photo: Fleisher

South Philly (Bella Vista / Italian Market) · Sun Nov 1 · 11am-9pm · free

Día de los Muertos on South 9th Street and at Fleisher

The day part runs 11 to 5 on 9th Street between Federal and Christian, organized by the Asociación de Empresarios Mexicanos de Filadelfia (AEM), with stages, mariachi, traditional dance, food and craft vendors, and memorial altars. ColorWheels runs free kids' art projects on Christian between 8th and 9th from 2 to 4. From 4 to 9, La Calaca Flaca hosts the evening part outdoors in Fleisher Art Memorial's parking lot at 719 Catharine St, with a procession, an artisan market and live music. The program says it's free and happens rain or shine. It's a day to honor people we've lost, so give the altars a quiet minute before you hit the food vendors. Fleisher

Field guide

One useful guide to living around here.

The Schuylkill River with a cable-stayed trail bridge, an artist's impression, hatch

Schuylkill Banks, Center City to the Grays Ferry Crescent (east bank, Walnut St area down to Wharton St)

The Schuylkill Banks south end - a fall walk from Center City to the Grays Ferry Crescent

Most of us know the Schuylkill River Trail as the stretch up by the Art Museum and Boathouse Row. The south end changed in a big way last year. Since May 2025 you can stay on the riverbank from Center City all the way down to the Grays Ferry Crescent without stepping onto a city street.

Walk downriver from Walnut Street and you'll cross the new 650-foot cable-stayed bridge, then finish in the Crescent's meadows on what used to be a DuPont industrial site. Bartram's Garden is right across the water.

The full guide has where to get on, what to look for in November, and where the trail stops for now while the swing bridge to Bartram's gets finished.

Read the field guide

The scrap

The best stuff you missed in the area's social media world.

Someone finally found where the delivery robots go at night, and the zoo hippos are speaking fluent Philly. Plus the hay Phanatic and an uncle who keeps very close track of his Tupperware.

A row of small white sidewalk delivery robots parked and charging in a garage

Center City · Reddit

"I found the nest"

Somebody finally found where Center City's little delivery robots all go to recharge. r/philadelphia

via u/conorb619

A green hay Phanatic figure in a pinstripe shirt outside the South Broad Sprouts

South Philly · Sprouts, 1000 S. Broad St · X

The hay Phanatic outside the South Broad Sprouts

Somebody asked a pile of green hay to be the Phanatic, and it really tried. X

via @JamesPhl96

Two hippos on the rocks by their pool at the zoo

West Philly · Philadelphia Zoo · Reddit

"Hippos finally got out the wooder"

The zoo hippos finally got out the wooder, and honestly they look very proud of it. r/philadelphia

via u/W0BLong

Uncle Frank in an ITALIA shirt talking about his Tupperware

South Philly · TikTok

Tupperware wars with Uncle Frank

Uncle Frank says you can leave with his Tupperware, and we all know the fine print. TikTok

via @vinnyfromsouthphilly

What's building

What's going up, getting paused, or getting fought over.

Philly's Nov 3 ballot has two questions about the city charter, which is basically the city's constitution. Here's what each one actually asks, in plain English.

The City Hall tower, a rolled charter document and a wooden box on a table, hatch

Citywide · Tue Nov 3 · Election Day

Question 1: Contracting preferences for small and local businesses

The ballot asks: "Should the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to revise the City's contracting procedures to allow for bid preferences and set-asides for small businesses; modify the threshold and standards for contracts that can be set aside for small and local businesses; and grant the Procurement Department and the City Solicitor discretion on bond requirements for certain construction projects?" The city's plain-English statement says a yes means the Charter would be amended so the city can give contracting preferences to small businesses and expand them for local businesses on City-funded projects. The Committee of Seventy and PhillyVoice both say the change would let the city award contracts between $75,000 and $500,000 to small and local businesses even when their bid isn't the lowest. The question itself doesn't set aside any new money. A no leaves the Charter's contracting rules as they are. Read the official text before you go. Official ballot questions · Committee of Seventy

Citywide · Tue Nov 3 · Election Day

Question 2: Making Creative Philadelphia a permanent office

The ballot asks: "Shall the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to establish and define the functions of Creative Philadelphia, an office headed by the Chief Cultural Officer to promote the City's arts, culture, and creative economy sector?" The city's statement says Creative Philadelphia already exists and works to increase public access to arts and culture and support creative communities. A yes makes it a formal part of city government under the Charter. There's no dollar amount on the ballot. The Committee of Seventy says the office exists today through a mayor's executive order. A no leaves it that way. Read the official text before you go. Official ballot questions · Committee of Seventy

Makers

Local makers nights and market tables worth hitting.

The fancy craft show and the neighborhood market both land on the same Saturday this year. I say do both and call it holiday shopping research.

Shoppers on the floor of a past PMA Contemporary Craft Show

A past show.

Center City · Fri Nov 6 - Sun Nov 8 · Fri 11am-7pm, Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 10am-5pm · $20

The 50th Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft Show

The Craft Show fills Exhibit Hall F at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch St (enter at 12th and Arch, northeast corner), with 195 artists from around the country selling work in clay, glass, metal, fiber, wood, jewelry and wearables. Artists keep 100% of their sales, and the show's proceeds go to the art museum. A one-day ticket is $20, two days is $25, and kids 12 and under are $5. Saturday has a fashion show at noon and a ceramics talk with Syd Carpenter, Adebunmi Gbadebo and Roberto Lugo at 2, which needs a reservation once you buy your ticket. I'm going to "just look" and then explain a very nice bowl to my family. Craft Show

Seller tents at the West Philly Bizarre in Clark Park

West Philly (Spruce Hill) · Sat Nov 7 · 10am-3pm

The Bizarre at Clark Park

West Philly Bizarre sets up 50-plus local artists, makers and small sellers in Clark Park at 43rd and Chester. Expect handmade stuff, vintage, art and the kind of jewelry table you didn't know you needed. It happens rain or shine with no rain dates, and it runs most Saturdays through Nov 21. Grab a coffee on Baltimore Ave first and do a lap before you buy anything. West Philly Bizarre

Deep cut

One local history leftover worth knowing.

The Fairmount Water Works on the Schuylkill with the 1830s reservoir temple on the hill above, hatch

Fairmount Water Works · 640 Waterworks Dr, Fairmount (below the Art Museum, on the river trail)

The Fairmount Water Works - the river machine under the Art Museum hill

Those little white temples at the foot of the Art Museum hill used to pump Philadelphia's water. The Water Works opened in 1815, and by 1822 the river itself was turning the wheels that pushed water up to a reservoir on the hill. The museum stands where that reservoir was.

When the pumps stopped, the buildings became the Philadelphia Aquarium, from 1911 to 1962. Sea lions and seals swam in the old channel that used to feed the wheels.

The full story has how protecting the water gave us Fairmount Park, the neighbors who saved the buildings, and a myth check on the "first in America" line.

Read the deep cut

Season

What's in the air right now. Farm stands, orchards, peak harvest.

Philly Cider Week wraps up under the Headhouse Shambles on Sunday. And this is the week the ginkgos start getting watched like a snowstorm.

The Food Trust Headhouse Cider Stroll event image

Society Hill · Sun Nov 1 · 3-7pm · free to attend

The Headhouse Sunday Cider Stroll

After the Sunday farmers market wraps, Philly Cider Week throws its closing party under the Headhouse Shambles at 2nd and Lombard. It's free to get in and pay as you go. A cider passport gets you 2-ounce pours from each of the ten cideries, and proceeds go to The Food Trust. It's all ages, 21+ to drink, and Cider Week says there's hot non-alcoholic cider and face painting for the kids. Chuck Darwin & The Knuckledraggers play. Buy the passport ahead, since the Food Trust says quantities are limited. Cider Stroll

A statue under yellow ginkgo leaves at The Woodlands

University City · Sun Nov 1 - Wed Nov 18 · open dawn to dusk

Ginkgo Watch at The Woodlands

The Woodlands, at 4000 Woodland Ave across from the 40th Street trolley portal, keeps an eye on its ginkgo trees every fall. Ginkgos turn bright yellow, then drop all their leaves at once after one of the first frosts, and the staff posts a map of the trees so you can catch the golden carpet. The Woodlands says William Hamilton introduced the ginkgo to the U.S. right here. It's also an active cemetery, so keep dogs leashed and stay off the headstones. I'll be checking the frost forecast like it's a snow day. The Woodlands

See you around the way.

Philly Buzz · written from around here · Tuesday mornings

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