NYE Party Planner

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

Fireworks will light up the sky over Dallas on New Year's Eve.

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 to midnight, and take in some spectacular fireworks. Presented below are some of your best options to finish out the decade and bring in 2020 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. Then recover with brunch on New Year's Day.

Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark presents Roaring '20 New Year's Celebration
Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark will be in a celebratory mood all day long, but things will kick up once the sun goes down. Guests can slide into the new year with all-night, family-friendly fun, including DJ music, a New Year’s Eve “duck drop” at 6 pm, 9 pm, and midnight, duck races, and other festive activities. Guests can upgrade to a buffet dinner to avoid the standard pizza and hot dogs fare.

10th Annual Dallas NYE Ball
The Dallas NYE Ball is considered one of the best parties in the area, and it's not hard to see why. It features three party floors with two banquet rooms and one club. There will be different styles of music on each floor, including throwback, mainstream, salsa, and hip hop, as well as different attractions, including the newly added casino. Bars on every floor, party games, and much more will help celebrate 2020.

New Year's at the Symphony
Both the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will celebrate New Year's Eve with special concerts. The DSO's concert at Meyerson Symphony Center will feature lively waltzes from the Strauss dynasty and an exclusive Meyerson ‘Til Midnight after party. The FWSO's concert at Bass Performance Hall will feature a program of George Gershwin’s greatest hits, including "Rhapsody in Blue," "An American in Paris," and more.

Lynyrd Skynyrd in concert with The Allman Betts Band and Asleep at the Wheel
This is not your typical New Year's Eve event, but since Lynyrd Skynyrd claims this is their final tour, it makes for an interesting way to close out the decade. The concert, which also features The Allman Betts Band and Texas heroes Asleep at the Wheel, also happens to be the kickoff event for the NHL Winter Classic, which will take place in Dallas for the first time on New Year's Day when the Dallas Stars face the Nashville Predators at Cotton Bowl Stadium.

Texas Live presents Lone Star NYE Live
At this event, located next door to the nearly-completed Globe Life Field in Arlington, guests will enjoy live music and a DJ, specialty food and drink packages, NYE party favors, cash cannon blasts, champagne toast with a midnight countdown with the specially designed 12-foot ball, and other surprises. Guests are encouraged to dress "Solid Gold" and experience "The Ocho," a Las Vegas-style party inside Troy’s.

Four Day Weekend presents New Year's Eve Party
People on both sides of Dallas-Fort Worth can enjoy Four Day Weekend's 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.

The Statler presents Black and White New Year's Eve Party
The historic Statler Ballroom will transform into a modern-day re-creation of Truman Capote’s legendary 1966 "Party Of The Century." All tickets include access to ballroom, two drink tickets, late night food stations from 10 pm-2 am, live entertainment, party flare, and a champagne toast at midnight. VIP and hotel package options are available.

Cole Swindell in concert
Billy Bob's Texas almost always puts on its headliners at the late hour of 10:30 pm, a time that will be conducive to ringing in the new year with this concert by rising country star Cole Swindell. Swindell is a relatively late bloomer, finding success in his thirties with three big albums, including 2018's No. 1 All of It. Billy Bob's isn't advertising anything else special about the night, but it would a surprise if there weren't a few bonuses.

Reunion Tower Over The Top NYE
Finally, you can take in 360-degree, panoramic fireworks spectacular launching from Reunion Tower at midnight. One of the largest shows of its kind in the Central time zone will be a 10-minute show featuring imaginative pyrotechnic and LED lighting effects visible for miles. Reunion Tower and Lawn are not open for fireworks viewing, but anywhere in downtown Dallas or along the Trinity River will be prime spots to watch the show. There will be an official City of Dallas watch party at Dallas City Hall Plaza, complete with food trucks, drinks, and a performance by Castro.

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All Eyes on Them

Dallas alt hip-hop group wins prestigious Tiny Desk Contest by NPR

Cure for Paranoia/Facebook

As winners of the Tiny Desk Contest, Cure for Paranoia will record their own Tiny Desk concert and go on tour.

Few live recording studios or musical web series have the cultural sway of NPR's Tiny Desk, and a Dallas band is poised to make an impactful debut: Cure For Paranoia, an alternative hip-hop project by rapper Cameron McCloud and producers Tomahawk Jonez and Jay Analo, has won the high-stakes annual Tiny Desk Contest for 2026.

They'll record their official Tiny Desk show "soon," the announcement by NPR says.

Winning the concert also means Cure for Paranoia is going on tour. The only Texas stop will be at Emo's Austin on June 24.

Tiny Desk is known for platforming both niche and majorly successful artists — NPR posted a new Foo Fighters set on YouTube on May 13 — for stripped-down sets that are literally played behind former All Things Considered director Bob Boilen's old desk. (Fun fact for Texans: Tiny Desk was created because folk artist Laura Gibson was disappointed with the sound at her South by Southwest show in Austin in 2008, and she wanted a redo.)

Most artists who appear on Tiny Desk more than 15 years later are already well-known, at least in their specific circles. But the Tiny Desk Contest, which launched in 2015, helps a growing group of newer, unsigned artists get their foot in the door. Contestants record one video of them performing a single song behind a desk, and a jury of radio staff and musicians chooses their favorite.

In their audition video, Cure for Paranoia gathered 11 musicians around a truly tiny desk and in front of downtown Dallas' iconic gigantic eyeball sculpture. They played the song "No Brainer," a frenetic track that starts with clever boasts and becomes a criticism of racism in the United States.

McCloud, a pre-school teacher, is known independently of Cure for Paranoia for rapping to his social media following about politics and current events. Some of those lyrics made it into "No Brainer." He says he started the group because he found that music was more helpful than medication for coping with bipolar depression and paranoid schizophrenia.

Alex Marrero, host of the Austin-based KUTX show Horizontes, was one of the judges this year. He was impressed with the visuals in Cure for Paranoia's audition.

“When this popped up, I immediately felt something different," he wrote in a blurb for the announcement. "It just jumped out. The visuals were super cool and creative, BUT I could still totally envision them bringing the heat behind the Desk.”

Madison McFerrin, jazz vocalist and daughter of the famous singer Bobby McFerrin, was one of the musical judges.

"Cure For Paranoia’s energy is infectious, fresh and distinctly theirs — exactly what you want in a Contest winner!" she wrote.

McCloud's post on Instagram announcing the group's win has only been up for three hours at the time of this article's publication, and it already has more than 8,000 likes. The YouTube audition has garnered 74,000 views.

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