Weekend Preview — The Daily Boston Brief, September 3, 2026

Thu 9/3

ICA Free Thursday Nights · Free · 5 to 9pm · Seaport

Today is the one evening this week with a roof over it, so take the roof. Admission to the Institute of Contemporary Art is free for everyone from 5 to 9pm every Thursday, and the harborfront galleries stay open late for it. One condition worth respecting: advance tickets are required, so book before you leave rather than turning up at the door. The walk out along the water is the good part of a humid evening once the morning’s storms have moved through. If you want a table: Row 34 is a short walk from the museum in the Seaport and takes bookings on OpenTable.

Fri 9/4

Peter Hook & The Light · 7:30pm · House of Blues, Lansdowne St

Friday is the best weather day of the four — 81 and mostly sunny, northwest wind, no rain in the forecast at all — which makes an early evening on Lansdowne Street and a late one indoors a reasonable way to spend it. Peter Hook co-founded Joy Division and then New Order, and the touring sets he plays with The Light draw deep from both of those catalogs rather than skimming the hits. If you have ever wanted to hear those bass lines played by the person who wrote them, this is the night. If you want a table: Hojoko is around the corner behind Lansdowne and takes bookings on OpenTable.

Sat 9/5

Gordo · 10pm · Big Night Live, West End

Saturday’s headline booking is a late one: the producer and DJ Gordo takes Big Night Live for a set built on house and Latin percussion, which is a specific enough sound that you will know within a track whether it is your night. The daytime is yours to fill — 72 and mostly sunny, with only a slight chance of showers creeping in after 2pm — and there is a free outdoor workout on the Greenway further down this email if you want to start early. If you want a table: Alcove is around the corner at Lovejoy Wharf and takes bookings on OpenTable.

Sun 9/6

Boston Family Days at the Gardner Museum · 10am to 5pm · Fenway

Worth being precise about who this is free for, because the listing is: Boston school-aged students and up to two guests get free admission, which covers a family without covering everyone. The courtyard and the galleries are both open for it, and 69 and mostly sunny is close to ideal weather for a building whose best room is a garden with a roof of glass. It is also the kind of thing a long weekend is for — the third clear day in a row, and nobody has anywhere to be on Monday.

Free this weekend: Boston Public Market Tour Fri 11am, a guided walk past the farmers and fishers who stock the hall · Free FaceArt at the Greenway Carousel Fri 11am, drop-in while the artists last · All-Levels Yoga on the Greenway Sat 10:45am, modifications offered throughout

Movie Night on City Hall Plaza: Hamilton · Free · Tonight 7:30pm · Downtown

Boston Parks and America 250 screen the filmed Broadway production in the open air, free and rated PG-13. Check before you go: this one is outdoors on the wettest evening of the week, with a 27 percent chance of showers and storms lingering into the evening. If it washes out: the Gardner’s free Thursday night, Meeting Esther, pairs the museum’s newest exhibition with live music from 5 to 8pm, indoors and also free.

Night Shift Beer Garden on the Greenway · Friday from 3pm · Dewey Square

Open-air seating and food trucks on Dewey Square Plaza, in the middle of the Financial District. Friday afternoon is 81 and mostly sunny, which is exactly the brief.

Total Body on the Greenway with Sam Amado · Free · Saturday 9:30am

Bodyweight strength and conditioning outdoors, part of the Greenway Conservancy’s free fitness series. A 72-degree Saturday morning is the whole argument.

Play Date: Free Family Art Day at the ICA · Free · Sunday 10am to 3pm · Seaport

Drop-in art making, gallery activities and performances built for kids — a different proposition from Thursday’s evening, at the same museum, and free for everyone.

Politics

Tuesday’s primary settled the governor’s race. Mike Minogue took 76 percent against Brian Shortsleeve in what WHDH called a blowout on the Republican side, and now faces Governor Maura Healey, who had no primary challenger and is seeking a second term. WHDH’s pollster, Andy Smith of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, framed the arithmetic plainly: the president’s party historically stays home in midterms, so Minogue has to both energize Republicans and win over unenrolled voters to offset a registration disadvantage. Massachusetts does elect Republican governors — before Healey, only one Democrat had held the office in 32 years.

Local

Incumbent Kevin Hayden won another four-year term as Suffolk County District Attorney, taking close to 50 percent of the vote against Linda Champion and former U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins — whose old seat this is, and who was trying to win it back. With no Republican on the ballot in November, Tuesday’s result is the race. The office covers Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop.

Transit

Frankey Wright, 19, of Lowell, died on Saturday after falling from the platform at Forest Hills onto the electrified third rail; a 19-year-old woman who also fell remains in critical condition, according to the Suffolk District Attorney’s office. Boston.com reports the MBTA is now drawing up a request for proposals for a pilot that would add barriers at one Orange or Red Line station, following an earlier request for information on platform screen door systems for the Red, Blue and Orange lines — sliding transparent panels that stay shut until a train arrives, standard in much of Asia and Europe. Wright’s family said he was trying to help his girlfriend.

Business

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center handed out $27.2 million in job-creation tax credits to 18 companies statewide, and $6 million of it stayed in Cambridge and Somerville, Cambridge Day reports. Somerville’s Form Energy took $5.6 million of that on its own — the iron-air battery maker that landed a Google storage contract and $750 million in venture funding earlier this year. Pascal Technologies and Mantel Capture in Cambridge and Eden Geopower in Somerville received $100,000 each; Vertical Semiconductor in Somerville received $120,000. MassCEC’s Mike Condon told the paper the program is modelled on the state’s life sciences incentives and is meant to keep these companies from leaving.