Weekend Event Planner

These are the 12 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

It's a top-heavy weekend in and around Dallas, with big events happening everywhere you look. They include a showcase for art, two music festivals, a visit from a big country singer, stand-up from a well-known comedian, a film festival, new opera, a world premiere play, a huge block party, and a celebrity performing in an unexpected way.

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, April 12

Dallas Art Fair
The Dallas Art Fair at Fashion Industry Gallery offers collectors, arts professionals, and the public the opportunity to engage with a rich selection of modern and contemporary artworks presented by leading national and international galleries. The Preview Benefit on Thursday offers the opportunity to preview and purchase exhibited works prior to the public opening of the fair. The main fair will run Friday through Sunday.

Friday, April 13

Toyota Music Factory Grand Opening Celebration
Toyota Music Factory, located in the Las Colinas Urban Center in Irving, is hosting a three-day grand opening celebration featuring lots of entertainment and activities. Guests can experience a range of live performances from local bands and well-known musicians, as well as strolling entertainment attractions. There will also be appearances and autograph sessions with the Dallas Cowboys Rhythm & Blue and the Mavs ManiAACs.

CFW Festival
The inaugural CFW (Craft Beer, Food, and Wine) Festival will bring North Texas’ premier craft beer brands, wine brands, and world-class restaurants together for two days at Globe Life Park in Arlington, with live entertainment, chef-inspired cooking demonstrations, and music. The festival will feature performances by Young the Giant and R.LUM.R on Friday, and Josh Abbott Band and Lonestar on Saturday.

Brad Paisley in concert with Dustin Lynch, Chase Bryant, and Lindsay Ell
There have been few country artists as reliable as Brad Paisley over the past 20 years. He delivers a new album every couple of years, and his quality has remained so high that each of his past nine albums has gone to No. 1 on the Billboard Country charts, including 2017's Love and War. He'll play at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, where he will be joined by Dustin Lynch, Chase Bryant, and Lindsay Ell.

Mike Birbiglia in concert
Comedian Mike Birbiglia is one of those celebrities you recognize even if you don't know you recognize him. He's had supporting roles in movies like Trainwreck and TV shows like Orange is the New Black and Girls. He's also written and directed two movies — Sleepwalk with Me and Don't Think Twice. He will bring his "The New One" stand-up comedy tour to the Majestic Theatre.

EARTHxFilm
In conjunction with the EARTHx festival taking place at Fair Park next weekend, EARTHxFilm will highlight over 100 features, shorts, VR, AR and MR content, in addition to workshops, panels, music, and art, over the course of the next 10 days. It will take place at venues throughout the city, starting with an opening night screening of Louie Psihoyos’s The Game Changers at Angelika Film Center. Other screenings and events will take place at Texas Theatre, Wyly Theatre, Dallas Contemporary, and Fair Park.

The Dallas Opera presents Don Giovanni
After more than two centuries, the argument rages on as to whether Don Giovanni is the greatest of Mozart’s many masterpieces. Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecień stars as the insatiable womanizer who became a living legend. Dallas Opera Music Director Emmanuel Villaume conducts an all-star cast in this boldly provocative, R-rated production from Lyric Opera of Chicago, playing six times at Winspear Opera House through April 29.

WaterTower Theatre presents Bread
This world premiere by award-winning Dallas-born actress and playwright Regina Taylor weaves a compelling family drama of hopes, fears, thwarted dreams, and dark secrets against a turbulent backdrop of racial tension and social upheaval. When a relative returns home, buried family tensions resurface and the past casts a troubling shadow across an uncertain future. The play will run at WaterTower Theatre in Addison through May 6.

Saturday, April 14

Old 97's County Fair
It's always a good time when Dallas' own Old 97's put on a show, and that goes double when they host an event like Old 97's County Fair at Main Street Garden. The one-day festival will feature performances by Old 97's, Lord Huron, The Mavericks, Valerie June, Paul Cauthen, The Bottle Rockets, Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards, Jaime Wyatt, and Bastards of Soul.

Dallas Arts District presents Changing Perspectives Block Party
In celebration of Dallas Arts Month, the Dallas Arts District is hosting Changing Perspectives, a block party featuring two performances by Australia's Strange Fruit, a performing arts company that fuses theater, dance, and circus atop 15-foot sway poles. Other performers will include Dallas' Skyline High School Band, the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts' Gospel Choir, Jessie Frye, Bandan Koro African Drum and Dance Ensemble, Alebrije, and The Bralettes. There will also be local Makers and Artisans Faire, food truck fare and libations, a gif photo booth, live speed painting, dancing in the street, and more.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents #hearhere: Bill Murray, Jan Vogler, and Friends
Bill Murray and Jan Vogler met during their travels and became friends in New York. Curious about each other’s artistic world and interests, the actor and the cellist soon had the idea to work together on a project. This program, which features music and poetry, showcases the core of the American values in literature and music and communicates the bridges artists have built between America and Europe. It will take place at Winspear Opera House.

Sunday, April 15

TAO: Drum Heart in concert
TAO: Drum Heart is the latest production from TAO, internationally-acclaimed percussion artists. Their modern, high-energy performances showcase the ancient art of Japanese drumming by combining highly physical, large-scale drumming with contemporary costumes, precise choreography, and innovative visuals. The performance will be at Annette Strauss Square.

Brad Paisley will play at the Pavilion at the Toyota Music Factory on April 13.

Photo courtesy of LiveNation

Brad Paisley will play at the Pavilion at the Toyota Music Factory on April 13.

event-planner

Movie Review

Shaun the Sheep gets PG-spooky in new movie for the Halloween season

Photo courtesy of Aardman / Sky UK LTD / StudioCanal 2026

Shaun the Sheep in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.

Since his introduction over 30 years ago, the Aardman Animations character Shaun the Sheep has been almost as popular as the studio’s flagship characters, Wallace and Gromit. There is never a shortage of trouble Shaun can get into as he leads his flock and proves to be a thorn in the side of his farmer and Bitzer, the farmer’s loyal sheepdog.

His antics lead everyone down some slightly spooky roads in the new film, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. At first, things are only slightly awry as Shaun and the flock are growing a secret pumpkin patch to have their own jack-o-lanterns. But when the farmer accidentally destroys the pumpkin patch, Shaun tries to regrow it quickly with a Frankenstein-esque experiment.

However, disaster looms when Shaun uses an old bottle of Hair-Gro as the container for the serum he creates. Naturally, the balding farmer uses it on his head, and everyone soon discovers how truly successful it is, with pumpkins growing out of control and the farmer sprouting hair all over his body. Through a series of mishaps, the farmer becomes the titular beast, creating mayhem while Shaun and others try to stop him.

Directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, and written by Mark Burton and Giles Pilbrow, the film goes down just as easy as every other Aardman project has. They get the Halloween vibes started from the opening credits, with things like the sheep doing the “Thriller” dance, and continue the fun throughout, referencing everything from Psycho to Friday the 13th in a nice, PG way.

With no script — every character is mute save for reaction noises — the movie relies on sight gags for its humor, and the Aardman team is endlessly inventive in that respect. Sometimes it’s small things like a sheep using toilet paper rolls as binoculars, and sometimes it’s something like forcing the Bigfoot-like farmer to be shaped into a rectangle as he escapes through a window. But there’s a never-ending stream of such moments, so even if one doesn’t tickle your funny bone, chances are the next one will.

The biggest benefit of the characters not talking is that there’s no need for deep character development. The filmmakers do a great job of giving the basic traits of each character, and then use those attributes to color everyone’s actions for the rest of the film. Shaun is the troublemaker, the farmer is a bumbling fool, Bitzer is preternaturally smart, and the town’s vet is empathetic, and the combination of those characters and others makes for a highly entertaining blend.

Like all Aardman creations, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a fun lark that doesn’t make its audience think too hard. With just enough references to keep viewers engaged but not so many as to be overbearing, the film puts its well-worn characters to good use once again, delivering a Halloween season story that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

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Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is now playing in theaters.

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