Weekend Event Planner

These are the 10 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

It's a music-heavy weekend in and around Dallas, with each of the five options on our list featuring classic acts of some kind. Among your other choices are a documentary film festival, a new local theater production, a vintage airplane show, a visit from a best-selling author, and an arts and music festival.

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

Thursday, October 5

Dallas VideoFest presents DocuFest
The annual DocuFest, presented by Dallas VideoFest, will feature 23 feature length and short documentaries over four days. All screenings will take place on one screen, giving attendees the opportunity to view every film in the festival. Notable screenings include Alan Govenar’s new Extraordinary Ordinary People, the world premiere of Badass Beauty Queen, and Ex Libris by Frederick Weisman. The festival will take place at Studio Movie Grill Northwest Highway through Sunday.

Theatre Three presents Adding Machine
Adding Machine, a musical adaptation of Elmer Rice's incendiary 1923 play, tells the story of Mr. Zero, who, after 25 years of service to his company, is replaced by a mechanical adding machine. In a vengeful rage, he murders his boss. An eclectic score gives passionate voice to this stylish and stylized show, which follows Zero's journey to the afterlife in the Elysian Fields, where he is met with one last chance for romance and redemption. Theatre Three will present the musical through October 22.

Rick Springfield and Richard Marx in concert
Heartthrobs Rick Springfield and Richard Marx were two of the biggest stars of the 1980s, with their big hair and big songs setting the tone for pop music of the day. The singers will join forces at Majestic Theatre for a stripped-down storyteller's acoustic concert featuring hits like Springfield's "Jessie’s Girl," Marx's "Right Here Waiting," and many more.

Friday, October 6

Commemorative Air Force presents Wings Over Dallas WWII Airshow
The big highlight of this year's Wings Over Dallas WWII Airshow will be a 75th anniversary commemoration of the Doolittle Raid, featuring a flying re-enactment with eight B-25 bombers, pyrotechnics, sound effects, and narration. Texas native Dick Cole, who, at age 101, is the last surviving Doolittle Raider, will be on hand. The air show, taking place through Sunday at Dallas Executive Airport, will feature more than 80 World War II-era aircraft.

Arts & Letters Live: Dan Brown
Dan Brown, the international bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code and Inferno, will appear for the first time at DMA Arts & Letters Live. He'll discuss his new novel, Origin, writing chart-topping works, and making blockbuster movies, as well as his trademark interests in codes, science, religion, and art. Origin thrusts Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon into the dangerous intersection of humankind’s two most enduring questions and the earthshaking discovery that will answer them. The event will take place at McFarlin Auditorium on the SMU campus.

Cake in concert
Alternative rock band Cake has defined its own sound over the past 20 or so years, hitting it big with songs like "The Distance," "Never There," and "Sick of You." Unlike most bands that start hot and fade away, Cake has only gotten more popular over the years, with a 2011 album, Showroom of Compassion, being their first No. 1 album of their career. Cake will play at South Side Ballroom.

Saturday, October 7

Cottonwood Art Festival
The semi-annual Cottonwood Art Festival is a two-day event that brings music, art, food, and creativity to Cottonwood Park. The show will feature museum-quality exhibits from more than 240 artists around the country, live musical performances, an interactive children’s area, and delectable dining choices. The festival will take place through Sunday.

Laid Back Festival featuring Lynyrd Skynyrd
The Laid Back Festival, a traveling celebration of music and food, will make its way to the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Jimmie Vaughan & The Tilt-a-Whirl Band featuring Lou Ann Barton will headline the main, “Laid Back” stage, while The Texas Gentlemen, Bishop Gunn, and Jaimoe's Jasssz Band will keep the party going on the more intimate “Low Country” Plaza stage, named for the late co-founder Gregg Allman’s solo album, Low Country Blues.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in concert
Husband and wife Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are such luminaries in country music that it's easy to forget they're not as active as they used to be. McGraw's last album was 2015's Damn Country Music, while Hill's last major release was all the way back in 2005 with Fireflies. This is the first time Hill has toured since 2007, when she and McGraw teamed up for the Soul2Soul II Tour. They'll play at American Airlines Center.

Sunday, October 8

State Fair of Texas Concert Series: Wilson Phillips
As you make your way around Fair Park on Sunday, enjoying oodles of fried food, rides, animal races, butter sculptures, and more, you can also stop by to see a blast from the past, Wilson Phillips. The all-female trio was huge in the early '90s thanks to hits like "Hold On" and "Release Me," and have enjoyed a bit of a resurgence thanks to their appearance in the 2011 movie Bridesmaids.

Author Dan Brown will talk about his new book, Origin, at McFarlin Auditorium on October 6.

Photo by Dan Corter

Author Dan Brown will talk about his new book, Origin, at McFarlin Auditorium on October 6.

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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.

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