Weekend Event Planner

These are the 14 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Although March had a few festivals, the month of April is when festival season kicks into high gear. This weekend will feature three of them in and around Dallas, along with two local theater productions, a symphony concert, three comedians, two dance productions, a quartet of art openings, and a concert from a Dallas favorite.

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

Thursday, April 3

The Firehouse Theatre presents Godspell
Godspell was the first major musical theatre offering from Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Children of Eden), and it took the world by storm. Led by the international hit, "Day by Day," Godspell features a parade of songs, including "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord," "Learn Your Lessons Well," "All for the Best," "All Good Gifts," "Turn Back, O Man," and "By My Side." The production runs through April 19 at The Firehouse Theatre in Farmers Branch.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Sibelius’ Symphony No. 3"
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Principal Harp Emily Levin will be front and center for Henriette Renié’s Concerto for Harp and Orchestra. Widely recognized for his dual career, John Storgårds both plays and conducts Beethoven’s Romance and Keith Jarrett’s Elegy. The concert is headlined by Sibelius’ Third Symphony. The concert will have three performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Improv Addison presents Frank Caliendo
From his many appearances on late night shows to his weekly picks segment on the FOX NFL pregame show, comedian/actor/impressionist Frank Caliendo has been seen all over television. He's known for his impressions of John Madden, Jon Gruden, Al Pacino, and many others. He'll perform for one night only at Improv Addison.

Friday, April 4

Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair
The third annual Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair transforms Deep Ellum’s streets into a three-day celebration of art, music, community, and culture. Festival goers can discover booths from more than 120 fine and decorative artists, while enjoying sounds from more than 80 bands and performing artists spread across four stages. A wide variety of food and drink specials will be available throughout the weekend from the neighborhood’s restaurants and bars. The fair takes place through Sunday.

The State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine presents Swan Lake
The State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine will present Swan Lake, the most famous love story of all time. With completely new choreography and stage production by Andrei Litvinov, the classical score by Tchaikovsky comes to life. The performance, taking place at the Music Hall at Fair Park, features a ballet troupe of 50 dancers, and more than 200 new costumes created specifically for this production.

Lewisville Playhouse presents Uncle Vanya
Sonia and her uncle Vanya have devoted their lives to managing the family farm in isolation, but when her celebrated, ailing father and his charismatic wife move in, their lives are upended. In the heat of the summer, all the wrong people fall in love, desires and resentments erupt, and the family is forced to reckon with the ghosts of their unlived lives. Lewisville Playhouse will present an intimate, immersive new adaptation of Chekhov’s classic Uncle Vanya from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker. The production runs through April 20.

Saturday, April 5

Crow Museum of Asian Art exhibition openings
The Crow Museum of Asian Art will open three new exhibitions on Saturday. In the solo exhibition "Let One Bird Sing," Anila Agha addresses the violence and destruction of natural environments such as plants, trees, and entire ecosystems. "The Shogun’s World: Japanese Maps from The Maclean Collection" features ceramic plates that the Japanese used to give a worm's-eye view of the world. And Cecilia Chiang: "Don’t Tell Me What To Do" features work from the self-taught artist who operates beyond the confines of the traditional artistic canon, expressing her spontaneity and creativity across a broad spectrum of media.

Breakaway Music Festival
The Breakaway Music Festival is an electronic music event that will be headlined by Slander, Zedd, Afrojack, GRYFFIN, and Louis The Child. They will be joined by 16 national touring acts and four local DJs across two nights. The experience will also include a silent disco featuring local artists and brand activations. Originally scheduled to take place on Friday and Saturday at Fair Park, it will shift to Saturday and Sunday due to expected inclement weather on Friday.

Dallas Country, Blues & Red Dirt Festival
The Dallas Country, Blues & Red Dirt Festival will feature five different performers, including Jarrod Sterrett & The Hired Guns, Brennen Leigh, Jeremiah Johnson, Sundance Head, and headliner Wesley Pruitt. There will also be an arts & crafts marketplace and a gourmet food garden with craft beverages. It takes place at Flower Mound Riverwalk.

Nasher Sculpture Center presents "Otobong Nkanga" opening day
The Nasher Sculpture Center will present a new and re-envisioned work from the 2025 Nasher Prize laureate, Otobong Nkanga. The work of Nkanga reconsiders people's relationship with the land and the materials extracted from it. For this exhibition, Nkanga will engage with Texan history, material culture, ecology, and community through a process of deep research and an exchange of knowledge. The exhibition will remain on display through August 17.

Michael Blaustein: The Taste of Me Tour
Comedian Michael Blaustein has had appearances on the Comedy Central Campus Tour, The College Humor Tour, and the Oddball Comedy Fest. Along with his college campus experience, Blaustein performed at prestigious festivals such as Just For Laughs 42 and The New York Comedy Festival. He currently co-hosts the podcast Stiff Socks with Trevor Wallace. He'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Ballet Ensemble of Texas presents Gaîté Parisienne and Other Works
Ballet Ensemble of Texas’ annual Celebration of Dance will feature a revival of Gaîté Parisienne, along with other works. The troupe is the official performing company of the Ballet Academy of Texas and trains dancers who are recognized by prestigious pre-professional training programs across the country. The production takes place at Irving Arts Center on Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday, April 6

Josh Johnson: The Flowers Tour
Josh Johnson is an Emmy-nominated writer, stand-up, actor, and NAACP award-winner from Louisiana by way of Chicago. He is currently a writer/correspondent on The Daily Show, and is a former writer and performer on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he made his late-night debut in 2017. Johnson’s most recent stand-up special, Josh Johnson: Up Here Killing Myself, premiered on Peacock. He'll perform twice on Sunday at Majestic Theatre.

St. Vincent in concert
Dallas can claim musician and songwriter Annie Clark - aka St. Vincent - as its own, as she spent her formative years here and was once a member of The Polyphonic Spree. One of the most distinctive artistic voices and original guitarists of her generation, she's collaborated with such big names as David Byrne, Taylor Swift, and The Chicks. She'll play at The Bomb Factory in support of her 2024 album, All Born Screaming.

Photo courtesy of Josh Johnson

Josh Johnson: The Flowers Tour comes to Majestic Theatre on April 6.

theater concerts symphony music comedy festivals dance exhibitions galleries museums event-planner

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.

animals