Weekend Event Planner

These are the 11 best things to do in Dallas this Memorial Day weekend

Through music, song, folk dances, animated backdrops and story telling, Shen Yun journeys through 5,000 years of Chinese history.

Photo courtesy of Shen Yun

Dallas has been enjoying a series of huge weekends as of late, and this long holiday weekend features a lot to do, too. There will be two different music festivals, some top drag performers, a new interactive art exhibition, two new local theater productions, two dance events, a big hip hop/R&B concert, a classical music concert, and a movie marathon.

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

Thursday, May 26

RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs The World Tour
Since 2009, RuPaul's Drag Race has been one of the most popular reality competitions on television, spreading to 12 different countries, earning its famous host five Emmy Awards in the process. One of its offshoots, RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs the World, just finished its first season, and now contestants like AWhora, Baga Chipz, Blu Hydrangea, Cheryl Hole, Divina de Campo, Janey Jacké, Krystal Versace, Lawrence Chaney, Lemon, Pangina Heals, and Tayce To will strut their stuff in this show at House of Blues Dallas.

Psychedelic Robot: An Immersive Art & Storytelling Experience
The immersive art exhibition Psychedelic Robot has had several incarnations in Dallas in recent years, and now it heads north to set up shop at The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano. The 360-degree visual storytelling experience features interactive exhibits, augmented reality, narrative audio, and art & design by world-class artists, all narrated by TNX, a thousand-year-old dragon. The exhibition will be open through at least August 28.

Outcry Theatre presents Lipstick Traces
In Lipstick Traces, a narrator with a Ph.D. joins Sex Pistols’ manager and self-proclaimed mastermind Malcolm McLaren to recount an alternative history of the 20th century via the Sex Pistols, the Cabaret Voltaire, the May ’68 riots, and a handful of medieval heretics. The production, which will have five performances through Sunday at the Addison Conference and Theatre Centre, is a physically ecstatic and intellectually nervy theatrical vision of “movements in culture that raised no monuments… movements that barely left a trace.”

mixtamotus presents #Filtering
#Filtering by mixtamotus is a a 50-minute intimate installation exploring beauty ideals through the use of dance, interactive media, and music. The audience is invited to join the company in the creative process during the production, which will have four performances through Saturday at Bath House Cultural Center.

Jeezy & K. Michelle in concert
Two big names from 21st century hip hop/R&B will band together for this special concert at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie. Rapper Jeezy has been at or near the top of the charts since the beginning of his career in 2005, notching three No. 1 albums. K. Michelle used a starring role on VH1's Love & Hip Hop to get a recording contract, and each of her first three albums made it to the top 10 on both the Billboard 200 and R&B charts.

Ochre House Theater presents In The Garden: Under The Moon
Ochre House Theater will present the fourth and final show in their one-act play series In The Garden. Under The Moon is about an old wizard who, along with the help of his cuckoo bird apprentice and captive angel, attempts one last work of magic: to marry the moon. The production is an unlikely tale of enchanted misfits, filled with song, dance, music, and spectacle. It will play at Ochre House Theater through June 4.

Friday, May 27

So What?! Music Festival
For the first time since 2017, Third String Entertainment will present the So What?! Music Festival, which features a weekend of metal, rock, rap, hip-hop, alternative, and pop-punk performances. Bands performing at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington will include I Prevail, Parkway Drive, The Ghost Inside, Blackbear, Simple Plan, Sum 41, 2 Chainz, Rae Sremmurd, Trippie Redd, Tyga, Knocked Loose, The Maine, Princess Nokia, 3OH!3, and more. The festival takes place through Sunday.

Shen Yun
Shen Yun’s unique artistic vision expands theatrical experience into a multi-dimensional, deeply moving journey. Featuring one of the world’s most ancient and richest dance systems — classical Chinese dance — along with dynamic animated backdrops and all-original orchestral works, Shen Yun opens a portal to a civilization of enchanting beauty and enlightening wisdom. There will be four performances through Sunday at Winspear Opera House.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Mussorgsky’s Pictures"
Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Mussorgsky’s Pictures," featuring conductor Gemma New. Selections for the concert, which will have three performances at Meyerson Symphony Center through Sunday, will include the world premiere of Jessie Montgomery's new orchestral work, Ravel's Rapsodie Espagnole, Grainger's Pastoral from In a Nutshell, and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Saturday, May 28

Klyde Warren Park presents Memorial Day Movie Marathon
Movie lovers can get a full day of great films at Klyde Warren Park's Memorial Day Movie Marathon. The marathon will start with the kid-friendly Raya and the Last Dragon, continue with the vampire romance Twilight, and finish off the Oscar-winning musical La La Land. As always, there will be a variety of food trucks on hand for viewers to grab a snack or meal.

Sunday, May 29

KEGL's BFD featuring Papa Roach
KEGL's BFD is an annual festival-style concert that features a variety of great rock acts. Taking place at Dos Equis Pavilion, the concert will feature performances by headliner Papa Roach, along with Seether, Bush, The Hu, Fuel, Dead Sara, and Giovannie & The Hired Guns.

RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs The World Tour will be at House of Blues Dallas on May 26.

$RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race Battle of The Seasons Extravaganza$

Photo courtesy of RuPaulBOTS

RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs The World Tour will be at House of Blues Dallas on May 26.

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FIFA World Cup preview

France and Spain set for epic semifinal in last Dallas World Cup match

Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images

Kylian Mbappe #10 of France celebrates scoring a penalty for the team's first goal during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 16 match between Paraguay and France at Philadelphia Stadium.

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Kylian Mbappé and France haven’t trailed at all at this year's World Cup. Neither has Spain with teenage sensation Lamine Yamal and clutch goal-scoring substitute Mikel Merino.

Only one of those teams can make it to the final.

France and Spain are both playing at their 17th World Cup, but have met only once previously on soccer’s biggest stage. They play Tuesday, July 14 at the home of the Dallas Cowboys in the first of two powerhouse semifinal matches.

After entering this tournament as FIFA’s top-ranked team, France has outscored its opponents 14-2. Mbappé, the 2022 Golden Boot winner, has eight goals to match Lionel Messi for the scoring lead this time, and is one behind the Argentina captain’s career record of 21 at the World Cup.

“We are focused,” France midfielder Adrien Rabiot said. “We are confident, of course, with the course we have done so far, and we have to be, but always with this humility that has characterized us since the beginning of the competition.”

The 27-year-old Mbappé has 20 goals in his 20 World Cup matches, including one in the 2018 win over Croatia when he joined Pele as the only teenagers to score in a World Cup final. And the star striker for Les Bleus had said he is fine despite exiting in the 77th minute of their 2-0 quarterfinal win over Morocco after scoring a goal.

Lamine Yamal, Spain, World Cup Lamine Yamal #19 of Spain controls the ball during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Quarter Final match between Spain and Belgium at Los Angeles Stadium.Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images

Yamal, who turned 19 on Monday, has already been part of two semifinal wins with Spain over France. He was just days shy of his 17th birthday when he scored in a 2-1 win during the 2024 European Championship semifinals, and Spain then won 5-4 in Nations League play last year.

“I believe if France has to fear anyone, it should be us, in my opinion,” Yamal said after Spain's quarterfinal victory over Belgium. “We were the ones that knocked them out before.”

The teen has only one goal while putting 10 shots on target after coming into this World Cup still nursing a left hamstring issue that forced him to miss the final weeks of the season for Spanish club Barcelona.

France defender Jules Koundé also plays for Barcelona, so he knows Yamal well and didn't feel disrespected by those comments.

“For me he is a sign of confidence. He always does it with (Barcelona). He trusts a lot in his virtues, in the virtues of the team where he plays,” Koundé said in translated remarks. “So I see nothing as an extra motivation for him and that’s it, that’s all.”

Spain has outscored opponents 10-1 since a stunning scoreless draw against surprising Cape Verde to open group play, but La Roja needed late decisive goals from Merino after he entered the last two games as a second-half substitute. All while goaltender Unai Simón set a World Cup record of 650 minutes without allowing a goal until Belgium found the net in the 41st minute of their quarterfinal game.

“I think that from the first game until today, the team needed to catch the rhythm, we had been without seeing each other for a long time,” Spain midfielder Alex Baena said, adding that with more games and practices “the better the team has been.”

Merino scored in the 88th minute for that 2-1 win over Belgium on Friday. That came after the Arsenal forward’s goal in the first minute of second-half stoppage time for the 1-0 win over Portugal in the round of 16 at the same stadium where Spain's semifinal match will be played.

Quartet of past champions
This is the first World Cup since 1990 that each of the final four teams are former champions.

Messi and defending champion Argentina, which beat France for the title in 2022, play England in the other semifinal match Wednesday in Atlanta.

The championship match is Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, across the river from New York City. A third-place game will be played Saturday in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Both have raised World Cup trophy since they last met in the tourney
In their only previous World Cup meeting, France beat Spain 3-1 in a round of 16 game at the 2006 tournament in Germany.

Both teams have won the World Cup since then. Spain claimed its only title in 2010, and France won its second World Cup in 2018.

France, which will be playing on its country's Bastille Day national holiday, is trying to join five-time champion Brazil and four-time winner Germany as the only teams to make three consecutive World Cup finals. Brazil did it in 1994, 1998 and 2002 — winning two titles and losing to host France in the middle of that run. Germany’s championship in 1990 came after being runner-up in the previous two World Cups — all playing as West Germany at the time.

Argentina beat France in a penalty shootout in 2022 after playing to a 3-3 draw.

This is France's seventh semifinal appearance, its fifth in the last eight World Cups. Spain's only other semifinals were in 1950 and then 2010 on the way to the title.

Wrapping up in Dallas
AT&T Stadium in North Texas - called "Dallas Stadium" for the tournament - will be hosting its tournament-high ninth game, and in that one-month run there have been some soccer superstar moments in the building that has hosted a Super Bowl and NCAA championship games for football and men's basketball.

Messi scored three goals in Argentina's two group games, the first on June 22 when after missing a penalty kick he broke the World Cup career scoring mark with the first of his two goals in a 2-0 win over Austria. He added another goal as a late substitute in the group finale June 27 against Jordan.

Cristiano Ronaldo, the 41-year-old superstar from Portugal, finished his sixth and final World Cup in the 1-0 round of 16 loss to Spain on July 6.

semifinal dallas stadium fifa world cup