Art & Athletics

Sundance Square kicks off free 'Summer of Soccer' in downtown Fort Worth

Sundance Square is getting in the soccer game: The downtown Fort Worth district is preparing for FIFA World Cup exuberance with two months of watch parties, public art, live music, and family-friendly events tied to the biggest sporting event on the planet. It's an event they're calling "Summer of Soccer at Sundance Square."

Beginning Saturday, May 23, Sundance Square Plaza will transform into a central gathering place for fans, families and visitors excited about World Cup, a release says. That includes some giant, colorful painted soccer balls by local artists that will be displayed in the plaza.

From June 11-July 19, the plaza will host free public watch parties for 104 matches, complete with food vendors, bars, DJs, and family-friendly activities.

“With Texas playing such an important role on a global stage this summer, Sundance Square has a special opportunity to welcome fans and celebrate the energy of our city and the tournament,” says Albert Rios, Sundance Square's head of special events and community engagement, in the release. “Summer of Soccer gives people a place to gather and cheer for their favorite teams. We’re creating a neighborhood party on a global stage, where good food, great music and true Fort Worth hospitality are all part of the experience.”

A kickoff event will take place May 23, and will include the installation of over two dozen giant artist-designed soccer balls throughout Sundance Square Plaza. The celebration will continue into the evening with free cumbia dance lessons from 6-7 pm, followed by a presentation of the participating artists, and a live performance by Quimikoz del Son from 7-10 pm.

“These soccer balls are joyful, highly visible, and deeply local,” says Sarah Ayala, Sundance Square art director. “Each artist brings their own point of view to a form everyone immediately recognizes. Together, the installation becomes a celebration of soccer, but also of the artists and creative voices that make Fort Worth such a dynamic cultural city.”

The artist-designed soccer balls will remain on view in the plaza through June 7 before being reinstalled across Sundance Square for the remainder of the summer, the organizers say.

Nine FIFA World Cup matches (more than in any other host city) will be played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, dubbed "Dallas Stadium," for the tournament. They will start with Netherlands vs. Japan on June 14, followed by England vs. Croatia on June 17, Argentina vs. Austria on June 22, Japan vs. Sweden on June 25, and Jordan vs. Argentina on June 27.

Sundance Square World Cup soccer ball art

Photo courtesy of Sundance Square

Artist Zuzu Perkal creates her soccer ball artwork that will be displayed in Sundance Square for World Cup.

The stadium will also host two Round of 32 matches (June 30 and July 3), one Round of 16 match (July 6), and one Semi-Final match (July 14).

Early estimates say Dallas-Fort Worth could welcome nearly 4 million visitors during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

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Movie Review

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma gives horror a surreal twist

Photo courtesy of MUBI

Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

The horror genre really ramped up in the 1970s and ‘80s, bringing with it a new subgenre - the slasher - that gave audiences new visuals of gore, but also a reliance on sexism and homophobia that would come to define the era. The new film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma wrestles with that legacy in ways that are funny, thought-provoking, and downright strange.

Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is a queer filmmaker who has been hired to reboot the moldy IP that is the Camp Miasma franchise, one that was fresh in the 1970s but which numerous shlocky sequels have rendered irrelevant. In an attempt to get to know the property better, Kris has scored a meeting with the reclusive Billy (Gillian Anderson), the star of the original film who has shunned the public eye for decades.

Turns out that Billy lives deep in the woods at Camp Rivoli, which served as the location for the first film. As Kris tries to get to know Billy and convince her to be a part of the new film, she starts to fall under Billy’s spell and the lore of the franchise as a whole. That includes believing that the movie’s villain, Little Death - a transgender person who has an air conditioning vent as a head/mask - may not just be a character created for the movies.

Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), the film at first feels like it’s going to go the straight-up comedy route, with comic explosions of blood, a strange fascination with candy brands, and a production design that does nothing to hide that the two main actors are on a movie set with painted backdrops. This is backed up by Kris’ phone conversations with her girlfriend, Mari (Jasmine Savoy Brown) and her agent (Sarah Sherman), as well as numerous other details.

But the film starts to go down the surreal route the longer Kris stays at the camp with Billy, especially when they sit down to watch the original Camp Miasma. An extended sequence shows a good amount of that film-within-the-film, demonstrating why Kris and Billy have a love/hate relationship with the property. For Kris, though, the lines between the film and the real world start to blur, and Schoenbrun uses a variety of out-there elements to drive the point home.

The final act of the film can barely be described as Kris goes deeper down the rabbit hole, with Schoenbrun using her film to comment on the horror genre as a whole, its treatment of women and LGBT people, the movie industry, and more. All the while the “camp” of Camp Miasma maintains a presence, with candy wrappers showing up everywhere and the tongue-in-cheek references to Little Death (the French term La petite mort, which means “the little death,” is a euphemism for orgasm).

Einbinder, an Emmy winner for Hacks, is the perfect person to inhabit her role. Her established real-life and fictional personas color everything she does in the film, with her enthusiasm and curiosity shining through. Anderson leans heavily into another reference - Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard - to create a character that is as mysterious as she is alluring. Supporting actors like Brown, Sherman, Patrick Fischler, Dylan Baker, and Eva Victor keep the movie at the right pitch all the way through.

While other films have made fun of horror movie tropes before, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma finds a wholly unique way of doing so. It’s a funny and daring trip into the psyches of two women who may be victims of their own obsessions, and of the movies that made them that way.

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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is now playing in select theaters

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