Weekend Event Planner

These are the 18 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

This weekend across Dallas is another big one, offering a large variety of events to enjoy. They include two festivals, the start of another Halloween event, four local theater productions, seven concerts from across the musical spectrum, a big golf tournament, two dance productions, and a celebration of autumn in the great outdoors.

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, September 19

HEB | Central Market Plano Balloon Festival
The Plano Balloon Festival is an annual four-day event that features nightly balloon glows, skydivers, hot air balloons taking off into the morning sky, concerts, drone shows, fireworks, a kids fun zone, merchandise vendors, corporate exhibitors, and variety of foods. The festival takes place at Red Tail Pavilion in Plano through Sunday.

Addison Oktoberfest
At the annual Addison Oktoberfest, visitors can enjoy a taste of the original Bavarian bash with a purely Texan twist. The four-day event features polka bands and other traditional entertainers on multiple stages, as well as special games for bier lovers, kids of all ages, dachshunds, and more. The festival takes place at Addison Circle Park through Sunday.

Howell Farms presents Pumpkin Nights
At Pumpkin Nights, guests can venture along a half-mile walking path, where they’ll discover the Forbidden City, a Pirate’s Cove, and more fantastical lands built using over 5,000 hand-carved and artificial pumpkins. The celebration continues with entertainment and games in The Village, the festival area. The event takes place at Howell Family Farms in Arlington through October 31.

Fellowship for Performing Arts presents The Screwtape Letters
The Screwtape Letters is a fast-paced, tour-de-force performance of an adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ satiric masterpiece. It follows Screwtape, a senior tempter in Hell, as he schemes to capture the soul of an unsuspecting human on earth and reveals spiritual warfare in vivid, humorous, and powerful ways. The production runs through Sunday on the main stage at Wyly Theatre.

Watering Hole Collective presents I Am An Island
As part of AT&T Performing Arts Center's Elevator Project, Watering Hole Collective will present I Am An Island, a surrealist dark comedy set on an island sinking into the sea. The hero, May, tries to convince others of this truth, but no one will listen. She resorts to a political demonstration by sinking into the sea herself. The play explores the emotional impact of climate change and the struggle to know how to live when it feels out of control. The production runs through Sunday in the Studio Theatre at Wyly Theatre.

Gracie Abrams in concert
As the daughter of filmmaker J.J. Abrams, Gracie Abrams has long been familiar with fame, so her rise in the music industry likely doesn't faze her much. She released her debut album in 2023, a time during which she was also serving as an opening act for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour and nabbing a nomination for Best New Artist at the 2024 Grammy Awards. All of that exposure led to her new album, The Secret of Us, coming in at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. She'll play in support of that album at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Friday, September 20

Maridoe Golf Club presents LIV Golf Dallas
The golf world was split in two in 2022 when the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf successfully poached some of the best golfers in the world by offering them hundreds of millions of dollars. The league will come to the Dallas area for the first time with its Team Championship, during which 13 teams will vie for the title and millions more dollars. Crushers GC, led by 2024 U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, will defend its title, competing against teams led by 2023 Masters Champion Jon Rahm, five-time major champion Brooks Koepka, World Golf Hall of Famer Phil Mickelson, and more. The tournament goes through Sunday at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton.

Ray LaMontagne in concert
Singer/songwriter Ray LaMontagne has been a favorite of folk rock fans for many years, dating back to his debut album, Trouble, in 2004. Since then, he has released seven more albums, including the acclaimed God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise in 2010 and his latest, 2020's Monovision. He'll play at the Music Hall at Fair Park as part of his Long Way Home tour.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Twist and Shout: The Music of the Beatles – A Symphonic Experience"
Beatlemania comes to the Meyerson Symphony Center when Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik, vocalists Paul Loren, Colin Smith, and Rick Brantley, instrumentalists, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Fab Four’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. The concert will feature some of iconic band's best-loved hits, including “Love Me Do,” “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help!,” and “Yesterday,” joined by projections of rare and previously unseen photos and videos playing above the orchestra. There will be three performances through Sunday.

Mainstage Irving-Las Colinas presents The Children's Hour
An unruly student at a rural Massachusetts boarding school falsely accuses her two female teachers of engaging in a romantic relationship. Suddenly, the two women must navigate the truth among the lies as they fight to save their reputations, their families, and the school itself. But as the schoolgirl’s rumor escalates to scandal and the outraged community quickly withdraws all of their students, a witch hunt ensues that ultimately leads to terrible and tragic consequences. The production runs through October 5 at Irving Arts Center.

Glass Animals in concert
English indie rock band Glass Animals has been on a steady climb since their debut album in 2014. That one, Zaba, didn't gain much traction, but it did produce a minor hit, "Gooey." They finally broke out for real in 2020 thanks to the No. 1 hit "Heat Waves," which led to a Best New Artist nomination at the 2022 Grammy Awards despite them being long past that designation. They'll play at Dos Equis Pavilion in support of their new album, I Love You So F***ing Much.

TITAS/Dance Unbound presents Twyla Tharp Dance
Revolutionary choreographer Twyla Tharp returns to TITAS, celebrating her 60th anniversary with a boundary-breaking program featuring a dynamic revival and two new pieces. Ocean’s Motion (1975) featuring music by rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry, and Brel is an homage to the Belgian vocalist Jacques Brel. Composer Simeon ten Holt’s signature minimalist style in Bi-Ba-Bo intermingles with Vivaldi’s Baroque score in masterful new work The Ballet Master. The performance takes place at Winspear Opera House.

Theatre Coppell presents The Diary of Anne Frank
The memoirs of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl forced to hide for nearly two years to escape Nazi persecution, are an essential part of how one of the darkest periods of human history is remembered. In spite of her oppressive circumstances and the horrors that surround her, Anne’s spirit transcends, as she voices her belief, “in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.” The production runs through October 6 at Coppell Arts Center.

Saturday, September 21

Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden presents Autumn at the Arboretum: Texas Town
Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden will present the return of its fall festival, Autumn at the Arboretum: Texas Town. Visitors will be immersed in Texas history as the Lakeside Exhibit Area transforms into a celebration of pioneer life, set amidst 100,000 pumpkins, gourds, and squash throughout the garden. Guests can explore six pumpkin houses, a pioneer farmstead, a quaint general store, a simple sod house, and a one-room schoolhouse. The event takes place through November 2.

André 3000 in concert
The career of André 3000 is one that is both enviable and mysterious. For over a decade from the mid-'90s to the mid-2000s, he released six albums with the duo Outkast alongside Big Boi, almost all of which came in at No. 1 or 2 on the Billboard 200. In 2007, the rapper want "solo," which mostly consisted of him contributing to other artists' songs. It wasn't until 2023 that he released his first solo album, New Blue Sun, which - of course - was an all-instrumental work of him playing a variety of flutes and percussion instruments. He'll perform at Winspear Opera House.

Avant Chamber Ballet presents The Princess and the Pauper
The world premiere of The Princess and the Pauper brings to life the classic tale with dance and live music with modern storytelling and projection mapping in collaboration with Lightware Labs. The choreography by Katie Puder will seamlessly blend classical ballet techniques with modern movements, offering a fresh interpretation of a beloved tale, inspiring with its timeless message of love and unity overcoming societal barriers. There will be performances on both Saturday and Sunday at Moody Performance Hall.

Junior H in concert
For most of his career, singer Junior H has been a big name in the Latin music market, scoring multiple top 10 albums on the Billboard Latin chart, a few of which went to No. 1 on the Regional Mexican Albums chart. But his latest album, $ad Boyz 4 Life II in 2023, made it all the way to No. 14 on the overall Billboard 200, an indication that his appeal is broadening greatly. Another indicator? The fact that he's playing at Dos Equis Pavilion.

Sunday, September 22

Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

The Plano Balloon Festival takes place at Red Tail Pavilion through September 22.

BEAT in concert
Former King Crimson members Adrian Belew and Tony Levin banded together with guitar virtuoso Steve Vai and Tool drummer Danny Carey to create the supergroup BEAT, a creative reinterpretation of three iconic '80s King Crimson albums - Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair. They'll play that music (and maybe more) at Majestic Theatre.

concerts dance event-planner families festivals kids music nature oktoberfest sports symphony theater

RIP, Frank

Frank Beard, drummer of legendary Texas rock band ZZ Top, dies at 77

Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

He kept the tempo for the band’s biggest hits like 'Sharp Dressed Man,' 'Legs,' and 'Gimme All Your Lovin.'

NEW YORK (AP) — Frank Beard, the drummer for the Texas boogie-rock trio ZZ Top who kept the tempo for the band’s biggest hits like “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs,” and “Gimme All Your Lovin,’” has died. He was 77.

Beard was in hospice care when he died Tuesday, August 18 at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, near Houston, with family members at his side, according to publicist Bob Merlis. Band co-founder and guitarist Billy Gibbons, on tour with bassist Elwood Francis, hailed Beard in a statement.

“Today, Elwood and I lost a great friend and collaborator, and the world lost one of the most naturally innovative drummers and a great and true son of Texas. His signature backbeat was key to keeping ZZ on top. The band of which he was part for six decades is going to keep on keeping on as he had wished,” Gibbons said.

ZZ Top sold more than 50 million records and had six singles that reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. Seven of their albums have been in the Billboard 200’s Top 10 and they earned three Grammy Award nominations.

“I’ve found the people I was meant to play with,” Beard says in the 2019 documentary ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas. “I never wanted to quit, and never wanted to get fired.”

Band's early days
Beard, from the East Texas town of Frankston, met Gibbons in a band called The Moving Sidewalks and later introduced bassist and vocalist Dusty Hill, a Dallas native, who had been in several bands with Beard.

The trio formed ZZ Top in 1969, naming themselves in part after blues singer Z.Z. Hill and influenced by the British power trio Cream and Jimmy Reed. They maintained their original lineup for more than five decades. Their signature look — long, bushy beards on Gibbons and Hill, and dark sunglasses for all — didn’t change much, either.

When Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards helped induct the trio into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, he joked: “These cats know their blues and they know how to dress it up. When I first saw them, I thought, ‘I hope these guys are not on the run, because that disguise is not going to work.’”

ZZ Top songs — with their sly and humorous lyrics — were popular in Hollywood, which used “Gimme All Your Lovin’” in “Happy Feet,” “Sharp Dressed Man” in “Evan Almighty,” “Legs” in “Air,” “Sleeping Bag” in “I, Tonya,” “Tush” in “Dazed and Confused,” “Mexican Blackbird” in “From Dusk Till Dawn” and “La Grange” in “Armageddon.”

“The best way to describe ZZ Top is we’re interpreters of a great American art form,” Gibbons told The Dallas Morning News.

Their debut release, “ZZ Top’s First Album,” came out in 1970. Their sound was described as a hybrid mixing elements of rock, blues and funk into a steaming-hot Houston stew. They called themselves a “Little Ol’ Band From Texas.”

Breaking through
Three years later, they broke through commercially with “La Grange,” a funky blues song on the album “Tres Hombres” that paid tribute to the Chicken Ranch, a brothel outside of the Texas town of La Grange that operated from 1905 until 1973 and was immortalized in the Broadway show and the film, “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” Gibbons has ascribed the power of “La Grange" to its simplicity — just two chords and a Robert Johnson-inspired guitar solo.

The band went on to have such hits as “Tush” and “Cheap Sunglasses.” But their 1983 “Eliminator” — named after one of Gibbons’ custom cars — added more production elements, synthesizers and drum machines to their stripped-down sound and yielded the hits “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Legs” and “Sharp-Dressed Man.” The band toured with a Texas-shaped stage, live rattlesnakes and a longhorn steer.

Long beards weren’t always part of the band’s look. Gibbons said it happened by accident: In 1976, the trio took a long break and scattered. Beard went to Jamaica, Hill went to Mexico and Gibbons went to France.

“Although we were speaking by phone, this was pre-video phone. And Dusty and I did not know that we had gotten so lazy that we had decided to forget to shave,” Gibbons told The Tribune in San Luis Obispo in 2010. “So after three years we returned and showed up, and lo and behold here was this sort of wacky-looking image. And it just kind of stuck with us.”

A boost from MTV
The band’s rock-chic cool played well on the nascent MTV crowd and their videos, featuring models in short skirts emerging from one of Gibbons’ custom roadsters, became a mainstay.

They kept the beards, hats and cheap sunglasses in the video trilogy of “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” and “Legs,” made with director Tim Newman.

“ZZ Top reveled in the humor and ridiculousness of it all, busting their synchronized dance moves and spinning their white-fur guitars. These guys always got the joke, at a time when other bands were still just nervously lip-syncing in front of brick walls,” Rolling Stone said in 2021.

In 2012, superstar producer Rick Rubin helped update the trio’s sound with the band’s comeback album, “La Futura.” The album landed at No. 6 on the Billboard chart, their highest position since 1990's “Recycler,” some 22 years previously.

Hill died in 2021.

In March 2025, the band announced via Instagram that Beard would temporarily step away from the band’s tour to tend to foot and ankle problems. Beard died weeks after ZZ Top called off its August 5 concert at the Hollywood Bowl due to his health issues.

Beard is survived by his wife, Debbie Meredith, and three children.

obituary celebrities zz top deaths