Weekend Event Planner

Pearl Jam and Pink top the best weekend events in Dallas

You won't have to travel very far if you want to catch most of this weekend's best events, as six of the nine we've chosen take place in just two different venues. But the quality of those six is so high that you won't mind seeing the same places over and over again.

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, November 14

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents Letters to Jackie screening
Just eight days remain until the official 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the latest tie-in event is the screening of a documentary about letters of sympathy and grief sent to Jackie Kennedy in the days and weeks following JFK's death. The screening at Winspear Opera House includes a Q&A with director Bill Couturié.

Dallas Opera presents Composing Conversation with Mark Adamo
Mark Adamo is a heavyweight in the opera world, having composed one classic, Little Women, and two other acclaimed operas, including 2013's The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Dallas Opera general director and CEO Keith Cerny leads the conversation, which also includes opera critic Gregory Sullivan Isaacs, at Nasher Sculpture Center.

Friday, November 15

Pearl Jam in concert
It's 20 years later and Pearl Jam still hasn't lost any of its power to captivate, as the band's 10th album, Lightning Bolt, debuted at No. 1 when it was released in October. They kick off the second leg of their North American tour with this concert at American Airlines Center, their only stop in Texas and the band's first appearance in Dallas in 10 years.

Harry Connick Jr. in concert
Just a couple of miles down the road from the AAC, the Winspear Opera House hosts its second big event in as many days, bringing jazz/big band enthusiast Harry Connick Jr. to entertain the masses. It's been a busy year for Connick, as he's released not one but two new albums, in addition to becoming the newest judge on American Idol.

Saturday, November 16

Dallas City Lights 2013
Thanksgiving may still be two weeks away, but downtown Dallas gets the holiday season started early with Dallas City Lights all along Main Street. There will be loads of holiday-themed activities, performances by the Invisible Czars at Belo Garden, the opening of the crawl tubes at Neiman Marcus and the tree lighting at Main Street Garden.

Nick Offerman in concert
One day before he tastes the best meat Dallas has to offer, actor/comedian Nick Offerman from NBC's Parks & Recreation comes to the House of Blues Dallas to do another thing he does best: Make people laugh. Pick up Offerman's book, Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living, before you go or he will look down on you in disdain as only he can.

Pink in concert
If you're thinking that Pink was just here, that's pretty close to the truth. The pop star makes her second appearance at American Airlines Center in 2013, having played there on the first leg of her The Truth About Love tour back in February. The singer has got to be dragging by this point, with 117 shows around the world under her belt this year, but something tells us she'll have enough energy to bring the goods once again.

Sunday, November 17

The Complete Works of Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
The 11th installment in Shakespeare Dallas' ambitious project to put on every single one of William Shakespeare's works also comes during a busy weekend at Winspear Opera House. But this staged reading of the classic The Merchant of Venice takes place in Hamon Hall at the Winspear, giving event planners the tiniest of breaks.

An Evening with Bill Maher
That is until Sunday night, when comedian Bill Maher invades the Winspear Opera House. Maher just finished the 11th season of his acclaimed HBO series, Real Time with Bill Maher, so you can bet that some of the world or political issues that have been at the forefront this week will work their way into his show.

Pearl Jam plays Dallas for the first time in 10 years when they take the stage at American Airlines Center on November 15.

Photo by Danny Clinch

Pearl Jam plays Dallas for the first time in 10 years when they take the stage at American Airlines Center on November 15.

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Good as gold

Dallas gymnast Skye Blakely wins gold at 2026 world championships

Day 7 - Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Rotterdam 2026

Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images

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ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — American Skye Blakely soared to the women's all-around gold at the world gymnastics championships on Friday, putting together four stellar routines as other top competitors faltered.

The 21-year-old's total of 55.733 included a dazzling set on uneven bars and a stoic and steady performance on balance beam and no major form breaks or falls, giving the Dallas native a moment of redemption after bids to make the 2020 and 2024 U.S. Olympic teams ended due to injury.

Blakely was born in Dallas and lives and trains in Frisco, at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA); she's also a student-athlete at the University of Florida.

Blakely broke into tears when she walked off the podium at the end of her floor exercise in the final rotation, her long and painful journey with an unforgiving sport hitting a high note that seemed far away during lengthy rehabs that taxed both her mind and her body.

Liudmila Roschina earned silver at 55.199. Ke Qinqin of China took bronze at 55.032.

Algerian Kaylia Nemour's bid to become the first gymnast from Africa to win an all-around title at worlds ended with a fourth-place finish. The 19-year-old's finals got off to a rough start in her first rotation when her feet didn't land squarely on the springboard while vaulting, forcing her to do a simpler vault that cost her valuable points.

While Nemour recovered spectacularly thanks in large part to an uneven bars routine that is one of the hardest routines done on any apparatus by any gymnast — male or female — in the world, it wasn't quite enough to reach the podium.

American Claire Pease's hopes of joining Blakely on the medal stand ended when she hopped off beam on her way to a seventh-place finish. Pease, a Sunnyvale native, also trains at WOGA in Frisco.

Blakely and Pease were competing two days after the U.S. saw its long run of gold medals in the team finals at worlds end with a second-place finish to resurgent China. That up-and-down night included Blakely failing to get credit for a connection during her beam routine that cost the Americans nearly a point in a meet where they missed out on gold by a fraction of that.

There were no such issues this time around. Blakely headed to beam atop the leaderboard after an excellent start on vault followed by a bars routine that's pretty good in its own right.

Still, beam is something different. And this time there were no missed connections and barely a wobble. Her score of 14.200 kept her in front and turned her floor exercise largely into a victory lap.

The tears after she saluted the judges were real. So were the ones when her spot atop the sport became official about 15 minutes later.

Blakely then draped the American flag over her back while posing for the cameras becoming the ninth U.S. woman — and sixth this century — to win a world all-around crown.

While the picture figures to get considerably more crowded in the next two years ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Blakely's perseverance and talent have thrust her back into the conversation.

gymnastics olympics sports