"Volunteer groups, charities and mutual aid organizations across the Worcester area say they need all the help they can get in order to combat hunger."

"Mosley recently spoke about his journey within the fire department, changes in firefighting and emergency response, and balancing the pride of a job well done with compassion when an emergency scene might present the darkest hour of someone's life."

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra coming to the DCU Center the Saturday after Thanksgiving has also become a Worcester holiday tradition over the years. "It's been an annual stop," Plate said.

“It’s a very heavy and somber event because the gathering is to remember and honor the lives of trans folks lost to violence,” Croke said. “It also felt good to be in community. I think collective grief is powerful and important.”

“It's crazy to see how many people came together to either vote for us or vote for our friends in other bands. It was cool to see everyone come together, and it was a great way to give these local artists exposure,” Rickert said.

“I’ve got people behind me who help me out,” says Nelson, in a phone discussion before the final round of Worcester Magazine’s Digital Battle of the Bands, where he eventually triumphed over the other finalists, Central Mass. punk favorites Evil Felipe.

After three rounds of brutal bracketed band-on-band combat, two titanic Worcester musical acts are left standing at the end of Worcester Magazine's Digital Battle of the Bands: Rapper/musician Big Nate Allstar, and rockers Evil Felipe!

The orchestra's music director, Cristian Măcelaru, will conduct a scintillating-sounding all-French program including two works by composer Maurice Ravel to celebrate his 150th birthday this year. The guest piano soloist is Grammy Award-winner Daniil Trifonov.

A few things to do in the Worcester area in the week ahead ...

“We were the first horror Halloween theme park in America. There was no book to follow, no instruction manual,” Spooky World founder David Bertolino said. “We got an opportunity to form a story, and (the film) has a heart to it. It really has a pulse.”

"It's been going really great. The audiences have been great," Broadard said. And with the show close to her hometown of Worcester, "I've been able to live at home and commute back and forth, which is really lovely."

"It's as New England as foliage-finding: our cemeteries are cool, from the spare, simple slates of early colonial days, to the florid sentiment of Victorian-era monuments and mausoleums."

"Sometimes, driving along a busy road, a place of sanctuary can emerge. So it is with Berlin Meadows, located off Pleasant Street in Berlin, and connecting with Sawyer Hill conservation area. During afternoon or morning traffic, it might be easy to miss, but if you visit, impossible to forget."

"A lifelong dancer, Dolores Sweet decided to explore the world of burlesque about two years ago, at Harley's Funhouse. She recently talked about the upcoming event, and the joy and support within the burlesque community.

This week in Listen Up, recent music by A Day Without Love and Justin Arena ...

“It is a great community of people, you know, artists and musicians and people that are willing to just make stuff happen and be creative and put their time into doing something that's fun and interesting,” he said.

“Independent filmmakers and artists in general depend on people supporting them, wanting to see their work,” Levinson said. “We make these movies because we want to share this vision with the public, and what better way to see a film than on a big screen?”

Harding is Frida in "Mania: The ABBA Tribute," a show that originated in London in 1999 and has played on the West End there and toured around the world. The show has toured the United States and been to The Hanover Theatre several times. A 100-date 2023-24 U.S. tour sold out.

“I'll be playing songs from the new album, which is filled with timeless classics,” Dyer said. “It’s a record that has been in the back of my mind for a long time, but I didn’t have the opportunity to bring it to fruition until now.”

There's quite a few Worcester County artists in the mix for this year's Boston Music Awards nominations.

A few things to do in the Worcester area in the week ahead ....

During this season’s first Railers game, on Oct. 18 at the DCU Center, the unexpected element will be beatboxer NaPoM, otherwise known as Neil Meadows, who grew up in Pittsburgh, lives in Tokyo and has won beatboxing competitions across the country and across the world.

"Morgan Gendreau-Spangenberg, proprietor of Made by Morgue, likes to create embroidered designs featuring images of hearts — the anatomical kind, as opposed to the ones on most Valentine cards — along with lobotomy diagrams, cartoon characters, and images inspired by tattoo art."

"The nonprofit arts organization is turning the building into a community art center, with more than two dozen leasable spaces for local artists and a multipurpose event space, among other features."

"The Douglas State Forest borders both Connecticut and Rhode Island, and at its southwestern corner, you can take one step and be in either of those states, as we did when we visited just as the fall foliage was beginning to turn."

Disney On Ice, produced by Feld Entertainment of Florida under an agreement with the Walt Disney Co., is a regular visitor to the DCU Center with its popular, family-friendly shows.

"The musical time warp heightens the surrealness of the experience, as flappers and mobsters, zombies and phantoms move across the dance floor, followed by riveting performances by burlesque dancers and drag performers."

!!!IT'S ROUND TWO IN WORCESTER MAGAZINE'S DIGITAL BATTLE OF THE BANDS!!!! Out of 16 musical acts, only eight are left standing, and we have some BRUTAL bouts ahead of us! Click on, listen to their tracks if you haven't already, and vote your favorites!

"Men in their early 70s with bad knees should not try to navigate corn mazes in late October while visiting their family in God’s Country, New Hampshire.

In what could be redubbed as “Field of Screams,” “Zombies in the Outfield” ... “Fright Nights at the Field: Boo in the Woo” has plenty of unexpected jump scares, a gaggle of enthusiastic ghouls wearing WooSox uniforms.

“I’ve known Todd as a friend for 19 years,” said Westerlind, who previously had worked part-time at The Candy Shoppe. Both Willette and Westerlind also worked at Hebert Candies in Shrewsbury when it was family owned. Willette opened the Millbury candy shop after Hebert’s was sold.

A new restaurant opening later this month along Route 20 will make you think about the spirits you put in your glass, because the proprietor is a distillery that makes them not 10 minutes down the road.

"SIX" takes the six wives of English King Henry VIII and puts them on stage together as pop stars in an all-female cast. "All my musical friends were like, have you heard this? They were like, losing their heads. Pun intended," Jungbauer said.

Orchestra Gold will take the stage at Oct. 11 at Doherty Memorial High School for a free concert, in partnership with Worcester’s own Crocodile River Music, that will showcase their blend of Malian music and psychedelic rock and get the audience up out of their seats.

“We believe a library should have something for everyone,” WPL Executive Director Jason Homer said. “Just because you don't want that book doesn't mean other people don't, and we have over 860,000 titles.”

Last week to vote in the first round of WoMag's Digital Battle of the bands! Voting runs through Friday, Round Two begins on Monday!

"Excellence is not perfection, it's progress, how many others we bring along with us," Connell said. Connell praised the leadership of the city, and his team at the YMCA of Central Massachusetts, saying, "Worcester is always at its best when its leaders champion inclusion."

"One thing is for sure: At the city’s 121-year-old former movie palace, there will be plenty of spirits — of both the supernatural kind and the distilled kind — in the house when singer Niki Luparelli’s annual 1920s-themed Haunted Speakeasy party takes over."

Owner Jack Zheng officially opened Saloon 139 in March, leasing property that formerly housed Smokestack Urban Barbecue. Further back, diners may remember when Niche Hospitality opened its first restaurant, Block Five, in the same spot.

The inspired pairing of the B-52s and Devo was not only a match made in new wave heaven but it was, quite possibly, also the best double concert bill this season.

"It's just joyful, fun music. It's so good in such a (difficult) time," Large said of the show as something to put people in the right spirits."

“I think it's the prettiest maze we have done to date. It all looks very lovely. It shows well in the daytime,” McNamara said. “Many years, it looks good at night but, during the daytime, it was kind of a mess. To me, when I walk out there during the daytime I think it looks beautiful.”

A two-hour performance will bring Nickelodeon’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender” to life at the Hanover Theatre with visual highlights and favorite moments from all three seasons of the animated TV series along with a live, 18-piece orchestra performing the show's original Emmy-winning score.

A few things to do in the Worcester area in the week ahead ...

“There's such a deep history there that a lot of people connect with, so being able to come together and listen to the music and see the games and be with people who appreciate the culture is the win for us.”

“To my surprise, no one had called something ‘Woostock’ before,” musician Anthony Bisceglia said. “I Googled it because I honestly thought it had been used at some point for something, and I couldn't find anything out there.”

Billed as "New England’s biggest and best animal welfare festival," Pet Rock Fest will include live music, lots of pet themed events, vegetarian food, games, children's activities, vendors and animal-welfare organizations. The message is "kindness to all animals."

"I’ve been told that my columns resonated best with my readers when I wrote from the heart — something I always hope to do."

Thanks to the only New England appearance of “Punk In The Park,” eight veteran punk outfits and a pair of up-and-comers performed at the Palladium, and the result was all-out anarchy (in a good way). The show was in the Palladium's outdoor venue.

"If you've seen the 2008 film, "Doubt," you will already have insight into the troubling tale about to unfold in The Hanover Theatre Repertory stage production of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play, "Doubt: A Parable," at the Jean McDonough Arts Center's BrickBox Theater."