Party Planner

The 11 best ways to party on New Year's Eve in Dallas-Fort Worth

There are plenty of opportunities to celebrate the start of 2019 in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Photo courtesy of Reunion Tower

New Year's Eve always includes some fantastic events around Dallas-Fort Worth at which revelers can dance, count down until midnight, and take in some spectacular fireworks. Presented below, in alphabetical order, are some of your best options to bring in 2019 in style.

Still looking for dinner reservations? Check out our list of restaurants that will open their doors for New Year's Eve dining, too.

Reunion Tower Over the Top NYE presented by Southwest Airlines
Reunion Tower will put on another fantastic fireworks show, and even though you're not allowed to watch them close to the tower itself, locations around Dallas will host watch parties for revelers. You can either take in one of the official watch parties, including Vetted Well's '90s New Year's Eve Party, or scout out vantage points on the west side of the Trinity River, along the levees, and Trinity Overlook Park. A radio simulcast of celebratory music will play on ALT 103.7 FM. If you're stuck at home, you can also watch on NBC 5 or online.

Dallas Nightlife presents Gatsby’s Penthouse New Year’s 2019
This event will give guests the rare opportunity to ring in the New Year in the historic penthouse of the Stoneleigh Hotel. Paying tribute to the hotel’s origin in 1923 and rich 95-year history, the 11th and 12th floors of the Penthouse Suite will be the backdrop for an evening featuring tunes from three DJs, premium drinks, a countdown and champagne toast, and more surprises.

Dallas NYE Ball
The annual Dallas NYE Ball, taking place at Crowne Plaza in downtown Dallas, will once again feature three party floors, with different experiences on each floor. The top floor will have '90s, '80s, and "Throwback" music, as well as multiple bars and party games. The middle floor hosts the Las Vegas-inspired Illume Nightclub, featuring two separate rooms connected by a round bar room. The bottom floor is the grand ballroom turned to a nightclub, featuring a massive dance floor, VIP booths and tables, multiple bars, and beer pong.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents New Year’s Eve
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will present an evening of Viennese elegance as they perform cherished Strauss waltzes and toast the New Year with champagne at intermission. The concert at Meyerson Symphony Center will be conducted by Case Scaglione. For the first time ever, guests will have the chance to celebrate at an after party included with their NYE ticket. Extended revelries will include a live band and dance floor, cash bar and desserts, photo ops, and more.

Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark presents Slide into the New Year
Sure, you could do the typical dancing, drinking, and fireworks watching, but why not bring a splash to your New Year's Eve celebrating? Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark in Grand Prairie will present Slide into the New Year, featuring DJ music, a New Year’s Eve ball drop, duck races, and other in-park programming. Ball drops will occur at 3 pm, 9 pm, and midnight.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents New Year's Eve: My Sinatra
Ring in the New Year with a stirring tribute to Frank Sinatra. Vocalist Cary Hoffman brings the live concert version of his hit NYC off-Broadway show to Bass Performance Hall for a swinging celebration. Enjoy more than 20 classic Sinatra songs, authentically performed by Hoffman and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. The concert will be conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya.

Four Day Weekend New Year's Eve Party
It used to be that only those in Fort Worth could enjoy the comic stylings of Four Day Weekend, but since the group opened a venue in Dallas earlier this year, people on both sides of Dallas-Fort Worth can enjoy their end-of-the-year show. Both the Dallas and Fort Worth events will feature the hilarious interactive comedy show, a cocktail-style dinner, a ticket to a future Four Day Weekend performance, a copy of Four Day Weekend’s best-selling book, Happy Accidents, a champagne toast, party favors, and a DJ with dancing after the show.

Hotel ZaZa Dallas NYE Celebration: PartyZaza
Hotel ZaZa's New Year's Eve party will feature a DJ and dancing, premium drinks, multiple courses of passed hors d’oeuvres, activations, experiences, and entertainment, interactive photo booth, midnight countdown and champagne toast, and complimentary party favors for all guests. If you don't feel like driving, you can purchase the NYE Room Package, which includes overnight accommodations, two NYE Party tickets, festive bubbly turndown, and a $40 breakfast credit.

The Revolution in concert
They're going to party like it's 20 years after 1999. The Revolution were the group that backed Prince during his rise to fame on his greatest work, including 1984’s world-conquering film and chart-topping soundtrack, Purple Rain, as well as appearing on 1999, Around The World In A Day, Parade, and Sign O’The Times. They'll ring in the new year with this special concert at House of Blues Dallas.

The Statler presents New Year’s Eve Black & White Party
The historic, 15,000-square-foot Statler Ballroom will transform into a modern-day Black and White Party re-creation of Truman Capote’s legendary 1966 “Party Of The Century.” Guests will experience live entertainment from In10City Band and surprise celebrity guest DJ emcee along with open bar, late night cuisine, party flare, and more.

Texas Live presents NYE Live!
One of the newest venues in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas Live in Arlington, will hold its first New Year's Eve party. Guests will experience VIP seating, live music and all-star DJs, speciality drink packages, NYE-themed party favors, cash cannon blasts, a champagne toast with the midnight countdown, and many more surprises. Whatever you do, resist the urge to sneak inside Globe Life Field, which is under construction right next door.

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Movie Review

Spanish film La Bola Negra showcases unique slice of gay history

Photo by Carla Oset/Netflix

Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarricadelafuente in La Bola Negra.

For a long time — too long — gay characters in movies tended to appear as either side characters with no real stories or as tragic figures who were usually unable to express their true selves for fear of what the world at large would think. That has changed in recent years, but the remnants of the past can still haunt, as the new film La Bola Negra demonstrates.

The film takes shape in storylines involving three different men: Carlos (Milo Quifes), a young man in Granada, Spain in 1932 who wants to join an exclusive casino (aka social club); Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente), who unwillingly joins the military during the Spanish Civil War in 1937, only to have desires aroused in him when he’s asked to guard an enemy detainee; and Alberto (Carlos González), an out gay man in 2017 whose inheritance from his recently-deceased grandfather opens up a world he knew nothing about.

The film goes back and forth between each man, detailing how they handle their individual situations and the complications that arise in their individual lives. Along the way their stories are deepened through people they meet who either welcome them with open arms or shun them for various reasons. While tragedy bonds their stories, so too does hope, resistance, and love.

Co-director/co-writers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, along with co-writer Alberto Conejero, have expanded Conejero’s play, La Piedra Oscura, which was inspired by Federico Garcia Lorca’s unfinished play, La Bola Negra. Lorca, who was killed during the Spanish Civil War, had only finished four pages of the work, his first to feature an openly gay protagonist. It’s clear there’s a desire by the filmmakers to honor the legacy of Lorca as both a playwright and a gay man, and the seriousness of their pursuit is evident throughout the film’s 160 minutes.

Calvo and Ambrossi do little handholding to guide viewers through the three distinct stories, an approach that mostly works but occasionally leads to confusion, especially as more characters are added to the equation. None of the stories are overly complicated, but they take their time with each, making the long film feel even longer. Only Alberto’s story contains any kind of development that might be considered surprising, making it tough to fully engage with the other two.

Where the film does come alive is when it brings in two well-known actors for brief-but-fascinating stints. Penélope Cruz plays Nené Romero, a singer who entertains the troops and further expands Sebastián’s mind. Glenn Close pops up as Isabelle Durand, a scholar of Lorca who helps Alberto with a unique discovery he makes in his inheritance. Both actors bring up the level of the film significantly through their performances.

Quifes, Guitarricadelafuente (the stage name of Spanish singer Álvaro Lafuente Calvo, no relation to Javier), and González all put in good work in their roles, even if none are overly engaging. They are often overshadowed by supporting actors like Cruz and Close, as well as Miguel Bernardeau as Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, the captured soldier; Julio Torres as Alberto’s partner, and Alberto Cortés as Lorca, who brings a symmetry to the film as a whole.

La Bola Negra — which means “the black ball,” represented both literally and figuratively in the film — is an ambitious film that becomes a slight victim of its filmmakers’ aspirations. Although each of the three stories contain interesting elements, a strong emotional connection is lacking overall despite good-to-great performances.

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La Bola Negra is now playing in select theaters; it debuts on Netflix on December 2.

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Movie Review

Spanish film La Bola Negra showcases unique slice of gay history