ACM News

ACM Awards reveals slate of VIP events leading up to big fest in Frisco

The awards show will be hosted by Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton.

Photo by Art Streiber

The Academy of Country Music (ACM) is plotting its takeover of The Star in Frisco with three days of live music, country music events, and celebrations leading up to the 58th ACM Awards, which will take place on Thursday, May 11.

Co-hosted by global superstars Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks, the ACM Awards show takes place at 7 pm at Ford Center at The Star and will also livestream on Prime Video.

Dubbed "Country Music’s Party of the Year," the 2023 edition will mark Parton’s second consecutive appearance as host, with Brooks taking the stage to host a major awards show for the first time.

The Awards will be preceded by "ACM Awards Week," an entire slate of prelude parties, as follows:

ACM Country Kickoff at The Star, a two-day music and entertainment festival which is open to the public, free to all fans, and does not require tickets
ACM Songs & Stories Powered by The Bluebird Cafe + NSAI, a private industry celebration of the top songwriters of the past year
Topgolf Tee-Off & Rock On presented by VGT by Aristocrat Gaming, followed by ACM Lifting Lives LIVE: Morgan Wallen & Friends, a live concert on the green at Topgolf The Colony, which is sold out

Limited tickets to the ACM Awards show are still available through SeatGeek.

Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside says in a statement that they're thrilled to partner with the Dallas Cowboys and the Jones family to bring the Awards back to Texas.

"This world-class venue, shopping and dining district, and luxury area hotels and resorts made the perfect canvas to build our ACM Awards week bigger and better than ever, on behalf of our artists and industry," Whiteside says. "Texas has some of the most passionate Country Music fans in the world, and we can’t wait to bring the party to Frisco!”

Tuesday, May 9-10: ACM Country Kickoff at The Star
The excitement begins on May 9, with the ACM Country Kickoff at Tostitos Championship Plaza at The Star. The complex will host a free two-day festival for fans to get up close and personal with country music stars. Up-and-coming country music artists will perform on the main stage, including several ACM Award nominees.

There'll be a beer garden presented by Coors Light as well as a VIP space presented by Lucas Oil with a prime view of the stage.

The ACM Country Kickoff will also feature food trucks, photo opportunities, ACM Awards show merchandise, and activations by a host of partners, including ACM Lifting Lives, Amazon Music, Ashley HomeStore, Kendra Scott, Lucchese, North Texas Ford, and Visit Frisco.

The ACM Kickoff at The Star will be held from 3-10 pm on both Tuesday, May 9 and Wednesday, May 10. A detailed performance schedule for the performance stage, as well as a map of the full festival footprint, is coming soon.

Wednesday May 10: ACM Songs & Stories Powered by The Bluebird Cafe + NSAI
The Academy will host a private industry celebration of this year's ACM Songwriter and Artist-Songwriter of the Year nominees and the larger country music songwriter community on Wednesday, May 10 at the new Omni PGA Frisco Resort, one week after its grand opening. The event is already sold out. It will be powered by the Bluebird Cafe listening room, and the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) nonprofit songwriters trade association.

Following brunch, country music acts will take the stage for intimate, acoustic performances of their biggest hits and share the stories behind their songs.

Wednesday May 10: Topgolf Tee-Off & Rock On presented by VGT by Aristocrat Gaming
On the eve of the 2023 ACM Awards, Topgolf in The Colony will host an evening with some of the biggest music stars. It'll begin at 4:15 pm with a tee-off skills tournament, followed by a concert at 7:30 pm presented VGT by Aristocrat Gaming, with proceeds benefiting ACM Lifting Lives, the Academy of Country Music’s philanthropic arm. Acts will include ACM Entertainer of the Year nominee Morgan Wallen; Hardy, the 2023 ACM Awards' most-nominated artist; Lainey Wilson, the 2023 ACM Awards' most-nominated female artist; New Male Artist of the Year nominees Ernest and Bailey Zimmerman, and DJ 13lackbeard. Both the golf tournament and concert on the golf green are sold out.

Thursday May 11: 58th Academy of Country Music Awards
Hosted by Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks, the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards at the Ford Center at the Star in Frisco is set to begin at 7 pm, and is back in Texas for the first time since the record-breaking 50th anniversary celebration in 2015. Dallasites are surely lucky to have the event nearby but it will also livestream in more than 240 countries and territories exclusively on Prime Video. Limited tickets remain available on SeatGeek, while the full rebroadcast will stream for free on Friday, May 12 on Freevee.

Founded in Southern California in 1964 as a regional trade organization, the Academy of Country Music (ACM) has grown in its almost 60 years into a leading association for the country music industry, and is now headquartered in Nashville.

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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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