Weekend Event Planner

These are the 13 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

You'll have to wait until the end of the weekend for the biggest event happening in Dallas-Fort Worth, the re-emergence of an iconic pop star. While you bide your time, you can take in some top-shelf soccer, a great magician, two unique dance productions, a folk singer playing with an orchestra, a music festival, a well-known comedian, and more.

Below are more best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, March 21

Concacaf Nations League Semifinals and Finals
The Concacaf Nations League is a soccer competition featuring countries from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The final four teams standing - U.S. vs. Jamaica and Panama vs. Mexico - will face off at AT&T Stadium in Arlington in the semifinals on Thursday, with the winners meeting in the finals on Sunday. This is the third Nations League competition, with the U.S. winning the first two.

Grand Kyiv Ballet presents Giselle
Recognized as one of the greatest dramatic love stories ever told, the ballet Giselle recounts the tale of Giselle and young unmarried girls betrayed by their lovers who meet their untimely demise. Overwhelmed by sorrow and anger, they transform into the malevolent Willis, seeking retribution and settling scores. Grand Kyiv Ballet will present a one-night-only performance at Winspear Opera House.

Friday, March 22

Justin Willman: Magic For Humans
Magician and comedian Justin Willman is known for his Netflix magic series, Magic For Humans with Justin Willman, in which he brings his skills as a magician to the strange and misunderstood subcultures of America, while incorporating his disarming demeanor into street magic and social experiments that will boggle the mind. He'll premiere a new show, The Magic Prank Show with Justin Willman, on Netflix on April 1. He'll perform live at Majestic Theatre.

Tejas Dance presents mahAmAyA
Using a dramatic collection of narratives and athletic movements, Tejas Dance presents mahAmAyA, a visually stunning tribute to Indian culture, community, and humanity. Through an evening-length production in Bharatanatyam, one of the classical Indian dance forms, audiences will see a combination of untethered stomps, intricate expressions, and enchanting stories. The production, part of AT&T Performing Arts Center's Elevator Project, will have performances on Friday and Saturday at Strauss Square.

Amos Lee in Concert with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
One of the shining stars of modern folk, Amos Lee creates the rare kind of music that’s emotionally raw yet touched with a certain magical quality. In this first collaboration with the Dallas Symphony, the singer/songwriter - whose latest album was Honeysuckle Switches: The Songs of Lucinda Williams in 2023 - will perform in a concert conducted by Andrew Lipke. The one-night-only event takes place at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Richardson Theatre Centre presents Things My Mother Taught Me
Olivia and Gabe are moving into their first apartment together. They’ve just packed up all their belongings and driven halfway across the country to start a new life together in Chicago. Their moving day doesn’t go exactly as planned, though, and things become slightly more complicated when all of their parents show up to help. The production runs through April 7 at Richardson Theatre Centre.

Pink Martini featuring China Forbes in concert
Featuring more than a dozen musicians, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire throughout the world. Thomas Lauderdale's "Little Orchestra" returns for a night of music from all over the world - crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop. The concert, taking place at Winspear Opera House, will celebrate the band's 30th year of performing.

Saturday, March 23

Texas Forever Fest
Texas Forever Fest will highlight the food, music, and people of Texas. It will be headlined by performances by Wade Bowen, Kaitlin Butts, George Dunham & His All Star Band, The Selfless Lovers, and Midnight Thirty. The festival will also feature entertainment, activities, food, drinks, and vendors, all influenced by Texas’ diverse culture and spirit. The event takes place at Haggard Park in Plano.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents Dinosaur World Live
Dinosaur World Live follows an intrepid explorer across uncharted territories to discover a pre-historic world of dinosaurs. It features a host of creatures, including the Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Triceratops, Giraffatitan, Microraptor, and Segnosaurus. There will also be a special meet and greet after the show which offers all brave explorers the chance to make a new dinosaur friend. The event takes place at Majestic Theatre.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents Paula Poundstone
Iconic comedian Paula Poundstone is known for her smart, observational humor and legendary spontaneous wit. She is the star of several HBO specials, including Cats, Cops and Stuff, and Paula Poundstone Goes to Harvard. She is also a regular panelist on NPR’s comedy news quiz, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, and can be heard weekly on her comedy podcast, Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone. She'll perform at Winspear Opera House.

Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts presents Patti Lupone: A Life in Notes
Three-time Tony Award-winner Patti LuPone describes her new concert, A Life in Notes, as a “personal musical memoir.” Lupone performs a musical touchstone of her life, singing songs that affected her as a young girl growing up on Long Island, experiencing her first love, finding freedom in Manhattan, career, true love, and family. She'll perform at Eisemann Center for Performing Arts in Richardson.

Sunday, March 24

Photo courtesy of Paula Poundstone

Paula Poundstone will perform at Winspear Opera House on March 23.

The Simon & Garfunkel Story
The Simon & Garfunkel Story features a full live band performing all of the duo's greatest hits, including "Mrs. Robinson," "Cecilia," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Homeward Bound," and more. The one-night-only performance takes place at Winspear Opera House.

Madonna in concert
It's been eight years since pop star Madonna went on a proper tour, and 12 long years since she included Dallas on any of her tours, meaning area fans haven't been able to see her perform songs from either of her last two albums, 2015's Rebel Heart or 2019's Madame X. She'll make up for lost time with two concerts - one Sunday and one Monday - at American Airlines Center.

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Animal News

Latest animal to die at Dallas Zoo is young male gorilla named Zola

Dallas Zoo

Zola RIP

Another animal at the Dallas Zoo has died an untimely death: Zola, a young Western lowland gorilla, died on Wednesday, November 5, at age 23.

The zoo does not know why Zola died. A necropsy will be performed. According to their post, Zola was euthanized after showing symptoms of lethargy, reduced appetite, and signs of discomfort at the end of October.

"Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to begin breathing on his own afterward, despite the extraordinary efforts of our veterinary and animal care teams," their post says. "With his comfort as our priority, we made the difficult decision to let him go peacefully."

The zoo did not announce Zola's death immediately, instead waiting two days until Friday afternoon at 3 pm. Politicians and government agencies prefer to choose Friday afternoons to post news that is negative or controversial, since fewer people, and definitely fewer journalists, are online on Friday afternoons. It's called the "Friday news dump."

The death is very inconvenient for the Dallas Zoo since they were just about to ship off their male gorillas, which also include Juba, B'Wenzi, and Zola's half-brother Shana, to the San Antonio Zoo. Animals are very dear to the zoo — until it's time to ship them off to another zoo.

The relocation of the other three male gorillas is "temporarily on hold" but the zoo says they will be moved "when the time is right."

Other gorillas will be shipped in to replace them — although we do not know which gorillas and from where. The Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the overseeing body for zoos, only divulges that kind of intel on a "need to know" basis. Right now, you and I do not need to know. If we did know which gorillas were coming and where they were coming from, we might ask questions that would force the zoo to explain what it's up to.

Zola was born at the Bronx Zoo in 2002 and became internet famous as the "breakdancing gorilla" for splashing in pools and puddles. Some animal experts attributed his actions to frustration at being locked inside a zoo. He was relocated to the Calgary Zoo in 2009 when he was only 7 years old — zoos always play up what great bonds and family ties their animals have, until it's time to ship them somewhere else, and then suddenly the bonds and family ties don't matter.

Unfortunately, Zola did not "integrate well" at the Calgary Zoo, so he got shipped off to the Dallas Zoo in 2013.

At least now he won't have to be relocated again.

Death count
Zola's death is one more in a long-running series of deaths at the Dallas Zoo in recent years, the most previous being Jata, a 7-year-old painted dog who died in June 2024. Jata also showed signs of lethargy and decreased appetite, reportedly due to kidney disease.

Whenever a death occurs, they always wax on about their "extraordinary" veterinary and animal care teams — and yet, so many of these deaths were either unexplained or completely caught their teams by surprise.

Zola the Western lowland gorilla is the latest to join this death march of animals at the Dallas Zoo:

Jata, one of the zoo's three African painted dogs, died in June 2024, at seven years old.
Ferrell, a 15-year-old giraffe, died in December, 2023, following "an unexpected fall in the barn" that injured the giraffe's jaw so badly, they were forced to euthanize him.
Ajabu, a 6-year-old African elephant who died on May 8, 2023, from the herpes virus.
Pin, a 35-year-old lappet-faced vulture, died on January 22, 2023, cause unknown.
Jesse, a 14-year-old giraffe, died on October 29, 2021, cause unknown.
Auggie, a 19-year-old giraffe, died in late October 2021 of liver failure.
Marekani, a 3-month-old baby giraffe, sustained a mysterious injury and was euthanized on October 3, 2021.
Kirk, a 31-year-old chimpanzee, died in August 2021 due to "surprise" heart disease.
Keeya, a 6-year-old Hartmann's mountain zebra, died in March 2021 due to a mysterious unexplained head injury.
Subira, a 24-year-old silverback gorilla, died suddenly in March 2020, due to a cough, or maybe cardiovascular disease. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hope, a 23-year-old Western lowland gorilla, died suddenly in November 2019 after being at the zoo for only two years.
Ola, an 8-year-old female African painted dog, was killed in July 2019 by two other painted dogs, less than a month after she was transferred to the zoo.
Witten, a 1-year-old giraffe, died in June 2019 during a physical exam under anesthesia when he suddenly stopped breathing.
Adhama, a baby hippopotamus, mysteriously died in 2018.
Kipenzi, a baby giraffe, died in 2015 after running in her enclosure.
Kamau, a young cheetah, died of pneumonia in 2014.
Johari, a female lion, was killed in front of zoo spectators in 2013 by male lions with whom she shared an enclosure.

And in February 2021, they lost a crow called Onyx who was part of their "animal ambassador team," "participating in a training session" for a bird show. He was never found.

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