Events this week — what's on, where, and how to get in.

LaFayette Apple Festival — 2444 Tully Farms Rd., LaFayette, Saturday, Oct. 10, 9 AM to 6 PM, and Sunday, 9 AM to 5 PM. $8 cash at the gate, kids 12 and under free.

The 53rd year has more than 400 crafters and thousands of apple pies baked by St. Joseph's Church. The festival's tip from Syracuse: Route 80 south to Route 20 east, not I-81. Tickets

Wednesday, October 7

Tessa Bailey, Broken Rival release party — Crazy Daisies Flowers & Garden Cafe, 4693 Kasson Rd., 6:30 to 9:30 PM. $35.98, with a pre-signed book. A conversation with debut author Katie Jung. Tickets

Thursday, October 8

Savory Pie Flight Night — Talking Cursive Brewing, 301 Erie Blvd. W., seatings 4 to 9 PM. $30, reservations on OpenTable. Three savory pies, each with a beer pairing. Details

Chip In: Family STEM Night — The MOST, 500 S. Franklin St., 5:30 to 7:30 PM. Free. A family night on Micron and semiconductor careers. Details

Babelfest — Redhouse Arts Center, 400 S. Salina St., Thursday through Sunday. New and developing plays. Tickets

Friday, October 9

Spooktacular Stroll — Long Branch Park, Liverpool, 5 to 9 PM, Fridays through Sundays until Oct. 30. A not-so-scary, half-mile Halloween walk with lit-up scenes. Tickets

Practical Magic Social — The Mizpah, 350 Montgomery St., 6 to 8 PM. $15, or $30 for two. A witchy mixer with candle carving, and margaritas for purchase. Tickets

Fright Nights — 1 Lepage Pl., 7 PM to midnight, Fridays through Sundays until Oct. 31 (Sundays close at 11). $45 at the door, less online. Five haunted houses on one ticket. Tickets

Saturday, October 10

Indigenous Peoples' Day Festival — Tsha' Thoñ'nhes, the Onondaga Nation Fieldhouse, Rt. 11A, 10 AM to 5 PM. Free. Haudenosaunee social dancing open to visitors, and Onondaga Faithkeeper Oren Lyons at 2:30 PM. Details

North Syracuse Family Festival — Centerville Place, 700 S. Bay Rd., North Syracuse, 10 AM to 4 PM. Music, food trucks and bounce houses, plus the fire department's Safety Day. Details

Make Joe Proud Foundation Fundraiser — Asil's Pub, 220 Chapel Dr., Fairmount, 3 to 7 PM. $25, including food, draft beer and soda. Raffles, a 50/50 and gift baskets, supporting mental health awareness and a scholarship for a West Genesee student. Details

Westside Harvest Fest — Elliot Park and the Westside EcoFarm, 209 Elliott St., 1 to 4 PM. Free. Local vendors, art and food. Details

Beauty and the Beast — CNY Ballet Black Box Theater, 932 Spencer St., Saturday at 1:30 and 5:30 PM, Sunday at noon. $35, kids $25. A narrated ballet, signed in ASL. Tickets

Dracula — Syracuse City Ballet, Carrier Theater at the Oncenter, 2 and 7 PM. Prices vary. A ballet based on Bram Stoker's gothic novel. Tickets

Syracuse Crunch home opener — Upstate Medical University Arena, 7 PM. Prices vary. Against the Belleville Senators, with a pregame ceremony and a cowbell giveaway. Tickets

Salt City Showdown finals — Central Rock Gym, about 7:30 PM. Free to watch. Climbing competition finals with a $2,500 purse. Details

Sunday, October 11

Wild Mushroom Festival — Beaver Lake Nature Center, Baldwinsville, noon to 4 PM. $5 park entry per car. The Central New York Mycological Society on edible and poisonous mushrooms. Details

Bert Kreischer — Landmark Theatre, 362 S. Salina St., 7 PM. Prices vary. Stand-up comedy on his Permission to Party tour. Tickets

Tuesday, October 13

Syracuse Story Project Open Mic Night — Pink Rock Culture Co-op, 6:30 PM. $10. “Moth” style storytelling based on a chosen theme. This month's theme is dear diary. Details

Sound Bath — Park Central Presbyterian Church, 504 E. Fayette St., 7 to 8 PM. Free. An hour of sound meditation; bring a yoga mat. Details

Wednesday, October 7

Harmonic Dirt & Friends — The Whiskey Coop, 120 Walton St., Wednesday evening. Their weekly residency, with Beautiful Losers. Details

Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials — The 443 Social Club, 443 Burnet Ave., 7 PM. From $39.11. Chicago blues, led by slide guitarist Lil' Ed Williams. Tickets

Friday, October 9

Jimkata with The New Service — Middle Ages Music Hall, 120 Wilkinson St., 8 PM. $20 plus fees, all ages. Rock-meets-electronic, with Syracuse's The New Service opening. Tickets

Saturday, October 10

School of Rock Fayetteville — 1911 Tasting Room at Beak & Skiff, 2708 Lords Hill Rd., LaFayette, noon to 3 PM. Free. Live music in the orchard's tasting room. Details

Emerald Gun reunion — Sharkey's, 7240 Oswego Rd., Liverpool, doors 6 PM. $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Original members of Under The Gun and Emerald City, 25 years on. Tickets

Sunday, October 11

Clint Bush — 1911 Tasting Room at Beak & Skiff, 2 to 4 PM. Free. An afternoon set in the orchard's tasting room. Details

Harmonious Winds — The Syracuse Orchestra, St. Paul's Syracuse, 310 Montgomery St., 3 PM. From $44, kids free. The orchestra's wind section plays Gounod and Dvořák. Tickets

The Disco Biscuits — Middle Ages Music Hall, 120 Wilkinson St., 8 PM. $40 plus fees, 18+. The Philadelphia jam band, together 30 years. Tickets

Zoo Boo, weekends Oct. 17 to 25, trick-or-treating at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, free with admission. Syracuse vs. Louisville, the Orange's next home game, Saturday, Oct. 17, 7:30 PM.

One food or drink spot a week — what's new, what's worth the trip, and what to order.

Swallow's 1914 South Ave. — neighborhood bar in Elmwood, known for its wings

Swallow's is a hole-in-the-wall neighborhood bar on South Avenue, and the wings are the reason to go.

We've been, and they're fantastic. Plenty of people call them the best in Syracuse, including Eat Local New York, which taste-tested the city's three most-recommended wing spots in 2022 (Change of Pace, Shifty's and Swallow's) and picked Swallow's.

What to order: wings. Eat Local's standout was the Hot Ranch, tossed in hot sauce and ranch together.

Hours: Monday 3 to 11 PM, Tuesday through Thursday 8 AM to 11 PM, Friday 8 AM to 1 AM, Saturday 10 AM to 1 AM, and Sunday 10 AM to 11 PM.

A deeper look at one person, place, or project in Syracuse.

We want to hear about someone making Syracuse better: the person behind the counter, the volunteer who keeps something running, the neighbor everyone calls. Hit reply with a name and a sentence on why.

Construction and development around the city, in plain English.

The state is building a mile-long stormwater pipe under downtown, at least 8 feet in diameter. It will catch runoff from the rebuilt I-81 roads and bridges and keep it out of the sewers, so heavy rain causes fewer sewage overflows into Onondaga Creek. The $143.5 million contract, announced Sept. 22, pays for the pipe and the street rebuild along its route.

The route runs along Almond Street from Erie Boulevard East to East Water Street, then along East Water to South State Street, South State back up to Erie Boulevard East, Erie Boulevard East to North Salina Street, North Salina to Herald Place, and Herald Place to Wallace Street.

Digging should begin this fall, NYSDOT regional director Elizabeth Parmley told WAER. The crews will work a block or two at a time "where there's a reasonable detour to get around," and the state chose a route where businesses keep a front door or a back door open. Neither a start date nor an end date has been announced, and the state says it will schedule a public open house.

When the dig is done, five streets along the route get rebuilt or rehabilitated, with new sidewalks and shared-use paths, eight replacement traffic signals, lighting and trees.

If you drive downtown on Erie Boulevard or North Salina, plan on detours that move block by block once the work starts.

Coverage from WAER, Spectrum News and FingerLakes1.

One neighborhood at a time — what's there, what's changing.

It has been an apple town since its first settler, John Wilcox, arrived in 1791 and set up near what the town's own history, written with town historian Rick Stout, calls "an old Indian apple orchard" of about 20 acres. Settlers came from long distances for his apples before their own trees bore fruit.

It's also where America's most famous hoax came out of the ground. George Hull, a tobacconist and atheist, got into an argument with a Methodist minister who insisted the Bible verse "there were giants in the earth in those days" was literal fact. Hull decided to make one. He had a 10-foot man carved from gypsum, spent more than $2,600 on the scheme, and buried it on his cousin William "Stub" Newell's farm in Cardiff, a hamlet in LaFayette.

On Oct. 16, 1869, Newell hired two men to dig a well on that exact spot, and they "found" the Cardiff Giant. Newell put up a tent and charged 50 cents a look, and thousands came. Local boys sold apples to the people waiting in line.

A group of businessmen bought the giant and moved it to Syracuse to exhibit it. There, Yale paleontologist Othniel Marsh spotted fresh chisel marks and called it a fake, and Hull confessed. People kept coming anyway and nicknamed it "Old Hoaxey." When the owners turned down P.T. Barnum's offer to lease it, he built a plaster copy for his New York museum, and the copy outdrew the original. The real one is now on display in Cooperstown.

Where to go:

Cardiff Giant history from the Onondaga Historical Association.

Local sports — what just happened and what's next.

Syracuse 42, UConn 41, in overtime. Amari Odom, in his first start, tied the school record with 5 touchdown passes. The last was a 17-yarder to Umari Hatcher on fourth down in overtime, and Odom added the two-point conversion to win it. Hatcher finished with 12 catches, 152 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Orange (2-2) play at Virginia (3-2), which lost 38-7 at Florida State last week, on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 7:30 PM on ACC Network. Recap

The Crunch split in Laval. They won 2-0 Friday and lost 6-1 Saturday. They're at Rochester Friday before the home opener. Schedule

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— Salt City Club Team