This week's hot headlines

New Universal Studios theme park blasts into this week's 5 hottest Dallas headlines

Universal Parks & Resorts is opening a one-of-a-kind theme park in Frisco.

Universal

Editor's note: A lot happened this week, so here's your chance to get caught up. Read on for the week's most popular headlines. Looking for the best things to do this weekend? Find that list here.

1. Universal Studios will open a new family-friendly theme park in Frisco. Dallas-Fort Worth, get ready to meet Shrek: Universal Parks & Resorts is opening a one-of-a-kind theme park in Frisco, promised to be unlike any other in the world — a new park set in a green landscape featuring immersive themed lands that celebrates Universal's iconic characters and stories.

2. One of Dallas' most authentic fish & chips spots closes due to lease issues. After a mere five years of bringing some of the most authentic fish & chips to Dallas-Fort Worth, Richardson restaurant Fish & Fizz has closed. Located at 400 N. Coit Rd., the restaurant from chef Nick Barclay, an actual native of England, and his Dallas native wife, Kelli, has closed due to their inability to negotiate a satisfactory lease with the landlord.

3. Healthy restaurant bows out of Dallas' Deep Ellum just as New Year hits. In a fatal stroke for New Year's resolutions, a healthy restaurant has closed in Dallas' Deep Ellum: Sweetgreen, the California-based fast-casual restaurant concept with salads and bowls, shuttered its location at 2614 Main St.

4. Grapevine cracks open its first and only indie bookstore. Grapevine is finally getting an independent bookstore, and it's women-owned, to boot. Talking Animals Books, located at 103 W. Worth St. in Grapevine, is throwing open its doors to the public on February 2. Founded by Katy Lemieux and co-owned with Valerie Walizadeh, the shop will also double as an arts venue, with the popular Shakespeare in the Bar becoming its resident theater company.

5. How to join the cast of 'Yellowstone' spinoff '1883: The Bass Reeves Story' filming in North Texas. Dallas-Fort Worth fans of the hit TV shows Yellowstone and 1883 will have the chance to act in the shows’ newest spinoff, 1883: The Bass Reeves Story, at the end of January. The new series' talent agency, Legacy Casting, announcedthey're seeking people, ages 16-50, to cast as Union and Confederate soldiers for scenes being shot in North Texas.

closings parks hot-headlines

Park patriotism

State Fair of Texas marks America's 250th with flyover, music, and more

Canned food display at the State Fair of Texas

Photo by Kevin Brown

There will be patriotic displays everywhere you look at the 2026 State Fair of Texas.

As if all the food, entertainment, and discounts the State Fair of Texas is offering in 2026 wasn't enough, they will also continue the celebration of America's 250th birthday with a variety of patriotic attractions, exhibits, and experiences.

Red, white, and blue will be woven throughout Fair Park during the annual extravaganza, running September 25-October 18 this year, thanks to the State Fair's commemorative theme, “Stars, Stripes, and Howdies." That will be especially evident opening weekend, September 25-27, according to a news release.

At the annual Opening Day Ceremony, which takes place at 6:45 pm on the Hall of State steps on September 25, there will be a special America 250 flyover after the national anthem concludes.

The flyover will consist of a B-52 Stratofortress, two F-35 Lightning IIs, and an A-10 Thunderbolt II. Following the flyover, future servicemembers of the U.S. Air Force will be sworn in with the Oath of Enlistment.

Additionally, an HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter and other military assets will be on display near the Hall of State the full weekend.

Finally, The United States Army 1st Cavalry Band will put on a special performance every two hours from 2-8 pm on Sunday, September 27 on the all-new ZiegenBock Stage at The Old Mill.

Visitors can also celebrate patriotism through several different types of exhibitions taking place the full run of the fair.

At D.A.R. House will be "Revolutionary Women: The Role of Women and Girls in the American Revolution," featuring display panels and artifacts that tell the stories of service, rebellion, and hardship of the mostly overlooked roles of women and girls in the American Revolution.

At the Music Hall at Fair Park, Broadway Dallas will present free daily screenings of Compagnia de' Colombari's Whitman on Walls!, featuring 50 artists performing Walt Whitman's iconic poem, "Song of Myself."

The Creative Arts building will host “United We Can,” a special display featuring hundreds of canned jars themed to each state, all arranged in a specific way to create an American Flag.

There will also be opportunities to visit the permanent Texas Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, located across from the Music Hall and a visit from the Freedom250 Mobile Education Truck, which covers various aspects of American history.

As always, active-duty military, retired military, veterans, and first responders enjoy $5 off admission any day of the State Fair.

americas 250th birthday fairs-festivals families kids music patriotism state fair of texas