Weekend Event Planner

Country music superstars blaze into 16 best Dallas events this weekend

The run of weekends with almost too much to do continues around Dallas, headlined by a big concert with a pre-game party. Other choices include a great art experience, a Smurfs event, an awards show with Country music royalty, four theater productions, a legendary singer in concert, a dance production, a symphony concert, a celebration of military aircraft, a Asian American festival, a visit from a famous foodie, a unique stringed-instrument concert, and an event featuring two very funny comedians.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. If you want more options, check out the calendar for an even longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, May 8

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Return to Infinity: Yayoi Kusama"
For the first time since 2018, the DMA will install Yayoi Kusama’s All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, an iteration of the artist’s iconic “Infinity Mirrored Rooms” incorporating one of the artist’s quintessential symbols, the pumpkin. This boundary-pushing experiential work draws on several of Kusama’s characteristic themes, including infinity, the sublime, and obsessive repetition, allowing the viewer to literally become a part of the art. The exhibition will remain on display through January 18, 2026.

The Smurf Experience
The Smurf Experience is an immersive attraction that lets guests transform into a Smurf with a mission to save the planet from the evil wizard, Gargamel. Traveling through Smurf Village, the Enchanted Forest, and Gargamel’s lair, The Smurf Experience includes scavenger hunts, obstacle courses, virtual reality adventures, meet-and-greets with beloved Smurf characters, and more. The event will continue through at least August 11 at Esports Stadium Arlington.

60th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards
The 60th Academy of Country Music Awards will celebrate the best in Country music. Hosted by Reba McEntire, the milestone show honors six decades of unforgettable performances, iconic artists, and rising stars shaping the genre today. Performers will include Chris Stapleton, Ashley McBryde, Kane Brown, Kelsea Ballerini, Lainey Wilson, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, and more. The event takes place at the Ford Center in Frisco.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song
From Frozen to Phantom to Wicked, Forbidden Broadway is a satirical roast of over 30 Broadway hits featuring outrageous costumes, silly spoofs of the songs you know by heart, and madcap impressions by a stellar cast. A New York sensation for 35 years, a talented quintet of comic chameleons throw out pointed parodies at a dizzying pace. The production will have four performances through Saturday at Wyly Theatre.

Paul Simon in concert: A Quiet Celebration
Legendary singer/songwriter Paul Simon, now 83 years old, will make a rare live appearance after retiring from touring in 2018. One of the few artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice - for his work with Simon & Garfunkel and his solo career - Simon will present the live debut of his 2023 Grammy-nominated album, Seven Psalms, alongside a celebration of his timeless classics. The second of two concerts (the first took place Wednesday) will be at Winspear Opera House.

Friday, May 9

Post Malone's Travelin' Tailgate
It's a big enough deal that Post Malone is bringing his F-1 Trillion tour to AT&T Stadium on Friday, where he'll be joined by Jelly Roll and Sierra Ferrell, but it will be preceded by the Travelin’ Tailgate, a free event that's open to anyone, regardless of whether you have a concert ticket or not. Running from 12-6 pm outside the stadium, it will feature live music, food, beer, merch, carnival games, photo opportunities, and tattoos by Posty’s personal tattoo artists.

Theatre Arlington presents The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
15-year-old Christopher has an extraordinary brain: He is exceptional at mathematics but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched, and he distrusts strangers. Now it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher stands beside his neighbor’s dead dog, Wellington, who has been speared with a garden fork. Finding himself under suspicion, Christopher is determined to solve the mystery, but his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a thrilling journey that upturns his world. The production runs through May 25 at Theatre Arlington.

Avant Chamber Ballet presents Masterworks
Masterworks showcases the artistic genius of four renowned choreographers with a live orchestra. It features masterpieces by August Bournonville, the father of Romantic ballet; Christopher Wheeldon, one of the most sought-after choreographers of our time; Paul Mejia, a leader in the modern vision for ballet; and Marius Petipa, the pinnacle of classical ballet. The production will have performances on Friday and Saturday at Moody Performance Hall.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "¡Bailamos! A Night of Latin Music"
Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will present a night of sultry Latin music, featuring tango classics and ballads. Edna Vázquez will spread her message of light, love and cultural healing. Argentine bandoneón artist Héctor Del Curto will perform music by the iconic Astor Piazzolla and Carlos Gardel, including the famous “Por Una Cabeza.” Argentine master dancers Celina Rotundo and Hugo Patyn will perform the tango alongside the music. There will be three performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Pegasus Theatre presents Death/Take:1!
After getting trapped on a cruise liner with Harry and Nigel, Lt. Foster and his friends end up in Egypt. Inside the pyramid the intrepid trio has entered, an action-adventure movie is being shot. The hapless film director, the famous action-adventure star, and his leading lady are being bullied by the all-powerful screenwriter. With tension thick in the air, it isn’t long before someone snaps and someone eats a lead sandwich. Harry, Nigel, and Foster have to solve this nefarious crime before the killer strikes again. The production runs through May 24 at Bath House Cultural Center.

Ochre House Theater presents Moving Creatures
Moving Creatures is a politically charged satire about an evil and intolerable oligarch, Baron Leopold Verdugo, and his four monstrous creations. The Baron is a soured, bloated old goat who lords over a once rich and beautiful region that is now a wasteland due to the Baron’s greediness. The monsters were once beautiful, successful women that fell victim to the Baron’s insatiable desire to kill, destroy, and rebuild in his own image. The production runs through May 24 at Ochre House Theater.

Saturday, May 10

Commemorative Air Force presents Warbird Weekend
Warbird Weekend takes visitors back in time to see vintage aircraft and vehicles up close. There will be a variety of egendary aircraft on display, along with a vintage car show, and hands-on activities including panels, model airplanes, flight areas, food trucks, and more. The event takes place on Saturday and Sunday at Henry B. Tippie National Aviation Education Center.

City of Garland presents Asian American Heritage Festival
At the City of Garland's 3rd Annual Asian American Heritage Festival, visitors can enjoy cultural performances from countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and more. Highlights include a World Parade, a lion dance, craft stalls, live performances, and Ube Land, a celebration of all things ube. The event takes place in Downtown Garland.

Alton Brown Live: Last Bite
Alton Brown comes to town as part of his Last Bite tour. The famed foodist will reflect on his decades in food media, present several of his favorite culinary mega-hacks, and sing some of his funny food songs as part of the culinary variety show. The event takes place at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie.

Hee Yun Kim presents Strings Across the Pacific
Strings Attached Across the Pacific is a concert with a unique ensemble of culturally diverse string instruments, where the two-stringed bowed instruments from the East, the Korean haegeum, and Chinese erhu meet a string quartet from the West. The concert will include the premiere of a 45-minute composition, Calling of the Whales, by composer Hee Yun Kim, which is inspired by the underwater sound of whales and timbral richness of this sextet. The production, part of AT&T Performing Arts Center's Elevator Project, will have performances on Saturday and Sunday at Wyly Theatre.

Sunday, May 11

Two Funny Mamas: Sherri Shepherd & Kym Whitley
Comedic actresses Sherri Shepherd and Kym Whitley blend their comedic power and chemistry to deliver their award-winning podcast, Two Funny Mamas, that speaks to culture, sisterhood, moms, and working women everywhere. The show will feature stand-up routines from Sherri and Kym, along with both women on-stage talking about current events, telling stories, and answering questions from audience members. The event takes place at The Black Academy of Arts and Letters.

Photo by © Chinh Phan/Fotowerk Group

Reba McEntire hosts the 60th Academy of Country Music Awards in Frisco on May 8.

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R.I.P.

Texas actor James Van Der Beek, beloved for Dawson's Creek, dies at 48

James Van Der Beek/Instagram

James Van Der Beek announced he was being treated for colorectal cancer in 2024.

Actor James David Van Der Beek has died, according to an announcement on his social media. He was 48 years old.

"Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning," the post reads. "He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity, and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.

Van Der Beek shared in 2020 that he and his family were moving to the Austin area, and they settled in Spicewood. He announced his colorectal cancer diagnosis in 2024.

In late 2025, Van Der Beek auctioned some of his TV memorabilia from his time on Dawson's Creek to pay for his treatment.

The actor originally starred in coming-of-age dramas at the dawn of the new millennium, shooting to fame playing the titular character in Dawson’s Creek and in later years parodied his own hunky persona.

Forever tied to ‘Dawson’s Creek'
A one-time theater kid, Van Der Beek would star in the movie Varsity Blues and on TV in CSI: Cyber as FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo, but was forever connected to Dawson’s Creek, which ran from 1998 to 2003 on The WB.

The series followed a group of high school friends as they learned about falling in love, creating real friendships and finding their footing in life. Van Der Beek, then 20, played 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg quality.

With Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want To Wait,” as its moody theme song, Dawson's Creek helped define The WB as a haven for teens and young adults who related to its hyper-articulate dialogue and frank talk about sexuality. And it made household names of Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, and Joshua Jackson.

“While James' legacy will always live on, this is a huge loss to not just your family but the world,” Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote to his widow on Instagram. Katharine McPhee Foster added: “This is just beyond devastating news.” Others posting messages of mourning were Jenna Dewan and Olivia Munn.

The show caused a stir when one of the teens embarked on a racy affair with a teacher 20 years his senior and when Holmes' character climbed through Dawson's bedroom window and they curled up together. Racier shows like Euphoria and Sex Education owe a debt to Dawson's Creek.

Van Der Beek sometimes struggled to get out from under the shadow of the show but eventually leaned into lampooning himself, like on Funny Or Die videos and on Kesha's “Blow” music video, which included his laser gun battle with the pop star in a nightclub and dead unicorns.

“It’s tough to compete with something that was the cultural phenomenon that Dawson’s Creek was,” he told Vulture in 2013. “It ran for so long. That’s a lot of hours playing one character in front of people. So it’s natural that they associate you with that.”

A popular GIF and Varsity Blues
More than a decade after the show went off the air, a scene at the end of the show’s third season became a GIF. Dawson was watching as his soul mate embarks on a love affair with his best friend and burst into tears.

“It wasn’t scripted that I was supposed to cry; it was just one of those things where it’s a magical moment and it just happens in the scene,” Van Der Beek told Vanity Fair. He seemed exasperated when he told the Los Angeles Times: “All of a sudden, six years of work was boiled down to one seven-second clip on loop.” (Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Funny or Die and gave it a second life.)

While still on Dawson’s Creek, Van Der Beek hosted Saturday Night Live — the musical guest was Everlast — and landed a plumb role in Varsity Blues, playing a second-string high school quarterback who leaps into the breach when the star suffers an injury.

Van Der Beek’s character, Mox, turns out to not be a football fanatic, preferring to read Kurt Vonnegut and yearning for the college education that will allow him to escape the jock mentality of his Texas town.

“I don’t want your life,” he screams at one point. Critic Roger Ebert called him “convincing and likable.

After Dawson’s Creek
Some of his projects after Dawson’s Creek included co-creating and playing Wesley “Diplo” Pentz, a dull but likable music producer in the mockumentary satire on Viceland, What Would Diplo Do? In 2019, he made it to the semifinals of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and played a balding, out-of-shape ex-boyfriend on How I Met Your Mother.

“The more you make fun of yourself and don’t try to go for any kind of respect, the more people seem to respect you,” he told Vanity Fair in 2011. “I’ve always been a clown trapped in a leading man’s body.”

Between 2003 and 2013, he made appearances in shows like Criminal Minds, One Tree Hill, and How I Met Your Mother. He played himself with a crackpot intensity in the Krysten Ritter-led ABC drama Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23, and the short-lived CSI spinoff CSI: Cyber and CBS’ Friends With Better Lives.

He’s also appeared in movies such as Kevin Smith’s 2001 comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and its 2019 sequel, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. He was in the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation of The Rules of Attraction in 2002 opposite Jessica Biel and Kate Bosworth.

In 2025, he was unmasked as Griffin on The Masked Singer, after singing a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen.

Early life as a theater kid
Van Der Beek, who was raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, started acting at 13 after suffering a concussion playing football that prevented him from playing for a year. He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of Grease.

He stuck with theater, landing at 16 in 1994 an off-Broadway role in Finding the Sun by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee and one of the sons in a revival of Shenandoah at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House in his home state.

He earned a scholarship to New Jersey’s Drew University but left school early when he was cast in Dawson’s Creek. In 2024, he returned to campus to accept an honorary degree for his “selfless service and exemplary commitment to the mission of Drew,” the university said.

Drew University President Hilary Link welcomed Van Der Beek with a popular quote from his Dawson’s Creek character: “Edge is fleeting,” she said, “but heart lasts forever. So on this morning, we pay tribute to that heart.”

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been established for the family.

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AP Music Writer Maria Sherman and CultureMap Austin editor Brianna Caleri contributed to this report.

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