Weekend Event Planner

These are the 13 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

It will be a diverse slate of events in and around Dallas this weekend. There will be four distinct concerts, a new theater production, an Irish festival, classical music, two well-known comedians, a great magician, top-notch rodeo, dancing with reality stars, and a screening of a 1980s classic with the star in attendance.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, March 5

Lauren Daigle in concert with Johnnyswim
Being a Christian singer can sometimes be limiting given the very specific audience, but Lauren Daigle has been one of the few to have broken through to the mainstream. Her 2018 album, Look Up Child, not only set the record for most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Christian and Gospel charts, but it went to No. 3 on the Billboard 200 charts as well. More evidence of her success is that she'll be performing at American Airlines Center, with Johnnyswim as her opening act.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents Playwrights in the Newsroom
Playwrights in the Newsroom is an immersive, theatrical experience orchestrated by two playwrights who’ve spent hundreds of hours shadowing The Dallas Morning News. Playwrights Brigham Mosley and Janielle Kastner are fairly literate people who, until recently, got their news from Buzzfeed and/or Twitter. When given the opportunity to write a play about journalism, these fiction-writing story-embellishers are faced with a new mandate: seek the truth and report it. The play will be at Wyly Theatre through March 15.

Jill Scott in concert
Jill Scott comes back to Dallas to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her critically-acclaimed, Grammy-nominated debut album, Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1. Scott will perform the album in order in its entirety, along with other songs from her career. She'll play at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Friday, March 6

Southwest Celtic Music Association presents North Texas Irish Festival
One of the largest Irish festivals in the U.S., the North Texas Irish Festival celebrates the music, dance, and cultural talent in the tradition of Irish and other Celtic influences. The festival will feature musicians, dancers, and cultural presentations on 13 stages. There will also be whiskey tastings, Celtic storytelling, kids' activities, the North Texas Irish Festival Fun Run, and more. The festival takes place through Sunday at Fair Park.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances
There’s much to savor in Rachmaninoff’s stirring Symphonic Dances, an alto saxophone and pulsating percussion in the first; a dark, eerie waltz in the second; and Russian Orthodox chants, tubular bells, and the composer’s go-to Dies irae in the last. Also, Pianist Garrick Ohlsson will be highlighted during Barber’s breathtaking Piano Concerto. The concert will take place three times through Sunday at Bass Performance Hall.

Improv Arlington presents Nicole Byer
Nicole Byer is an actress, comedian, and writer who hosts the baking show Nailed It, currently streaming on Netflix. She also has a sitcom loosely based on her life, streaming on Facebook Watch, called Loosely Exactly Nicole; and hosts a podcast called Why Won't You Date Me?. She''ll perform five times through Sunday at Improv Arlington.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents One Night of Queen
One Night of Queen, performed by Gary Mullen & The Works, is a touring two-hour stage show paying tribute to the stage theatrics and music of Queen. One Night of Queen is a live concert, recreating the look, sound, pomp, and showmanship of arguably the greatest rock band of all time. The one-night-only performance will be at Winspear Opera House.

Saturday, March 7

Ivan Amodei: Secrets & Illusions
Illusionist Ivan Amodei, who has been a winner on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, will take the audience on an epic journey to discover the secrets of life in his brand new stage show, Secrets & Illusions. Filled with brain-games, secrets, magic, music, illusion, and tons of audience participation, anything can happen to anyone at any time. There will be two performances at Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson.

RFD-TV’s The American Rodeo
RFD-TV’s The American is a two-day event, making it the richest weekend in western sports at AT&T Stadium. The American will have final qualification rounds on Saturday and the finals round on Sunday. The Top 10 rodeo athletes in the world will compete against everyday cowboys and cowgirls for the biggest two-day payout in rodeo.

Hyena's presents TJ Miller
TJ Miller has been diligently working to make people laugh for over 15 years, and is driven by the altruistic mission statement that life is fundamentally tragic and the best thing he can do is provide an ephemeral escapism from that tragedy which permeates everyday life by doing comedy. He has starred in Silicon Valley, Big Hero 6, the Deadpool series, and the How to Train Your Dragon series. He'll perform on Saturday and Sunday at Hyena's Comedy Nightclub in Dallas.

Sunday, March 8

Harry Connick, Jr in concert
Crooner Harry Connick, Jr. has led quite the varied career, from the When Harry Met Sally... soundtrack to starring in movies like Hope Floats to starring in a Broadway musical. But it's his music that has kept him relevant for over 30 years, which fans will see in this concert at Winspear Opera House. He'll perform songs from his new album, True Love: A Celebration of Cole Porter, as well as classics from his career.

Dancing with the Stars: Live
Dancing with the Stars: Live will celebrate the year 2020 in style with favorite dancers from the hit ABC show. The all-new production will feature fan-favorite routines from the TV series and new numbers choreographed just for the live audiences. The show, taking place at The Theatre at Grand Prairie, will showcase the professional dancers and special guest Sailor Brinkley-Cook in a brand-new production featuring a wide variety of dance styles.

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure 35th Anniversary Tour with Paul Reubens
Back in the 1980s, Pee-wee Herman — aka Paul Reubens — was as big as they get thanks to the 1-2 punch of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Pee-wee’s Playhouse. Reubens will celebrate the 35th anniversary of the film with this tour that will include a special screening of the film, followed by stories about the making of the movie told by Reubens himself. The event will be at Majestic Theatre.

Lauren Daigle will perform at American Airlines Center on March 5.

Lauren Daigle/Facebook

Lauren Daigle will perform at American Airlines Center on March 5.

theater concerts movies dance event-planner

Animal News

Latest animal to die at Dallas Zoo is young male gorilla named Zola

Dallas Zoo

Zola RIP

Another animal at the Dallas Zoo has died an untimely death: Zola, a young Western lowland gorilla, died on Wednesday, November 5, at age 23.

The zoo does not know why Zola died. A necropsy will be performed. According to their post, Zola was euthanized after showing symptoms of lethargy, reduced appetite, and signs of discomfort at the end of October.

"Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to begin breathing on his own afterward, despite the extraordinary efforts of our veterinary and animal care teams," their post says. "With his comfort as our priority, we made the difficult decision to let him go peacefully."

The zoo did not announce Zola's death immediately, instead waiting two days until Friday afternoon at 3 pm. Politicians and government agencies prefer to choose Friday afternoons to post news that is negative or controversial, since fewer people, and definitely fewer journalists, are online on Friday afternoons. It's called the "Friday news dump."

The death is very inconvenient for the Dallas Zoo since they were just about to ship off their male gorillas, which also include Juba, B'Wenzi, and Zola's half-brother Shana, to the San Antonio Zoo. Animals are very dear to the zoo — until it's time to ship them off to another zoo.

For now, the relocation of the other three male gorillas is "temporarily on hold" but the zoo says they will be moved "when the time is right," and that is all you need to know about that.

The zoo has already said that they'll be shipping in other gorillas to replace them — although we do not know which gorillas and from where. The Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the overseeing body for zoos, only divulges that kind of intel on a "need to know" basis. Right now, you and I do not need to know. If we did know which gorillas were coming and where they were coming from, we might ask questions that would force the zoo to explain what it's up to.

Zola was born at the Bronx Zoo in 2002 and became internet famous as the "breakdancing gorilla" for splashing in pools and puddles. Some animal experts attributed his actions to frustration at being locked inside a zoo. He was relocated to the Calgary Zoo in 2009 when he was only 7 years old — zoos always play up what great bonds and family ties their animals have, until it's time to ship them somewhere else, and then suddenly the bonds and family ties don't matter.

Unfortunately, Zola did not "integrate well" at the Calgary Zoo, so he got shipped off to the Dallas Zoo in 2013.

At least now he won't have to be relocated again.

Death count
Zola's death is one more in a long-running series of deaths at the Dallas Zoo in recent years, the most previous being Jata, a 7-year-old painted dog who died in June 2024. Jata also showed signs of lethargy and decreased appetite, reportedly due to kidney disease.

Whenever a death occurs, they always wax on about their "extraordinary" veterinary and animal care teams — and yet, so many of these deaths were either unexplained or completely caught their teams by surprise.

Zola the Western lowland gorilla is the latest to join this death march of animals at the Dallas Zoo:

Jata, one of the zoo's three African painted dogs, died in June 2024, at seven years old.
Ferrell, a 15-year-old giraffe, died in December, 2023, following "an unexpected fall in the barn" that injured the giraffe's jaw so badly, they were forced to euthanize him.
Ajabu, a 6-year-old African elephant who died on May 8, 2023, from the herpes virus.
Pin, a 35-year-old lappet-faced vulture, died on January 22, 2023, cause unknown.
Jesse, a 14-year-old giraffe, died on October 29, 2021, cause unknown.
Auggie, a 19-year-old giraffe, died in late October 2021 of liver failure.
Marekani, a 3-month-old baby giraffe, sustained a mysterious injury and was euthanized on October 3, 2021.
Kirk, a 31-year-old chimpanzee, died in August 2021 due to "surprise" heart disease.
Keeya, a 6-year-old Hartmann's mountain zebra, died in March 2021 due to a mysterious unexplained head injury.
Subira, a 24-year-old silverback gorilla, died suddenly in March 2020, due to a cough, or maybe cardiovascular disease. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hope, a 23-year-old Western lowland gorilla, died suddenly in November 2019 after being at the zoo for only two years.
Ola, an 8-year-old female African painted dog, was killed in July 2019 by two other painted dogs, less than a month after she was transferred to the zoo.
Witten, a 1-year-old giraffe, died in June 2019 during a physical exam under anesthesia when he suddenly stopped breathing.
Adhama, a baby hippopotamus, mysteriously died in 2018.
Kipenzi, a baby giraffe, died in 2015 after running in her enclosure.
Kamau, a young cheetah, died of pneumonia in 2014.
Johari, a female lion, was killed in front of zoo spectators in 2013 by male lions with whom she shared an enclosure.

And in February 2021, they lost a crow called Onyx who was part of their "animal ambassador team," "participating in a training session" for a bird show. He was never found.

animals