Photo by Steven Visneau

Texas Ballet Theater presents The Nutcracker

Featuring dazzling choreography and exquisite sets, The Nutcracker celebrates the season with enchantment, snowflakes, and sweets. Experience the most magical Christmas tradition of the season as Clara and her Nutcracker Prince battle an army of mice and travel through a winter wonderland to meet the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Kingdom of Sweets.

Photo by Casey Howes and Krystal Butler

These are the 10 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Weekend Event Planner

There is quite the variety of events going on across Dallas this long Memorial Day weekend, with multiple outdoor events and celebrities of all different types. Choices include a (literally) major golf tournament, dance in a (sculpture) garden, two local theater productions, a horror convention, two big rock concerts, a classical concert, a unique musical performance, and an arts festival.

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

Thursday, May 25

Photo by Casey Howes and Krystal Butler

Pilobolus in the Garden will be at Nasher Sculpture Center on May 25 and 26.

KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship
Major Championship golf is coming to Frisco for the first time with the playing of the 83rd KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort. Twenty-five major champions will be part of the 156-player field, including John Daly, David Duval, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen, Pádraig Harrington, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman, Justin Leonard. Davis Love III, Jose Maria Olazabal, Vijay Singh, Mike Weir, and more. The tournament takes place through Sunday.

TITAS/Dance Unbound presents Pilobolus in the Garden
Pilobolus in the Garden is a special TITAS-commissioned site-specific project created for, and in, the Nasher Sculpture Garden. The magical work involves the famed Pilobolus dancers performing with Booker T. Washington HSPVA’s student dancers, moving throughout the entire the Nasher garden landscape. The dancers, and audience, move quietly through the sculpture garden in an outdoor experience. There will be four performances through Friday.

Pocket Sandwich Theatre presents How the Other Half Loves
How the Other Half Loves follows three married couples whose lives are hopelessly, hilariously, entwined. Chaos ensues following the consequences of an adulterous affair between a married man and his boss' wife and their attempts to cover their tracks by roping in a third couple to be their alibi, resulting in a chain of misunderstandings, conflicts, revelations, and laughter. The production runs through June 17 at Pocket Sandwich Theatre in Carrollton.

Friday, May 26

Texas Frightmare Weekend
The annual Texas Frightmare Weekend, the Southwest’s premier horror convention, celebrates all aspects of genre films. The event features a variety of celebrity appearances, including filmmaker John Carpenter; filmmakers Sam and Ted Raimi; Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, and Dane DiLiegro from Prey; actor/dancer Amie Donald from M3GAN; and more. There will also be autograph signings, screenings, exclusive parties, and horror memorabilia vendors from all over the country. The event takes place through Sunday at Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas.

Dead & Company in concert
Dead & Company comes to Dallas part of their final tour since forming in 2015. The band - Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, John Mayer, and Bob Weir, with Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti – will perform two sets of music drawing from the Grateful Dead’s historic catalog of songs. The concert is at Dos Equis Pavilion.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Liszt & Ligeti"
The final concert in Dallas Symphony Orchestra's 2022/2023 classical series will be "Liszt & Ligeti," featuring conductor Jaime Martin and pianist George Li. The program will include Ligeti's Concert Românesc für Orchester, Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major for Piano and Orchestra, and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. There will be three performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Bush in concert with Our Lady Peace
British rock band Bush is a rarity in the music industry, in that they've consistently been more popular in the United States than their native country. Their debut albums, 1994's Sixteen Stone, went to No. 4 on the Billboard 200, but only No. 42 in the UK, a trend that has remained the same throughout their career. They'll honor that special relationship with U.S. fans at this concert at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, which is in support of their 2022 album, The Art of Survival. They will be joined by Our Lady Peace.

Richardson Theatre Centre presents No Sex Please, We're British
A young bride who lives above a bank with her husband, who is the assistant manager, innocently sends a mail order off for some Scandinavian glassware. What comes is Scandinavian pornography. The matter is considerably complicated by the man's mother, his boss, a visiting bank inspector, a police superintendent, and a muddled friend who does everything wrong in his reluctant efforts to set everything right, all of which works up to a hilarious ending of closed or slamming doors. The production runs through June 11 at Richardson Theatre Centre.

Jess Garland presents Luminescence
Part of AT&T Performing Arts Center's Elevator Project series, Luminescence is a performance featuring Jess Garland on a laser-harp created by frequent collaborator Eric Trich. The performance shows the connection between light, sound, and visual arts. There will be three performances through Sunday at Wyly Theatre.

Saturday, May 27

Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair
Taking the place of the now-defunct Deep Ellum Arts Festival, the inaugural Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair seeks to highlight the wide variety of artists, performers, and entertainers in the Dallas area. Taking place through Monday, the event will be filled with curated exhibits, concerts, and food showcasing the talent and businesses inside of the community. The layout of the fair will run down Crowdus Street to bring more foot traffic to Deep Ellum businesses.

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44 new Dallas debutantes star in this week's most popular stories

This week's hot headlines

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. 44 new Dallas debutantes begin Presentation Ball prep with glam parties and glorious gowns. With the start of summer vacation came the beginning of the 2023-2024 Dallas Symphony Orchestra League debutante season - even though it seems like just yesterday that the 2023 debs were Texas-dipping into society. The DSOL introduced 44 new debs during Announcement Weekend festivities, May 18-20. Their parties, philanthropy, and training will culminate with the 38th Presentation Ball.

2. 21 North Texas museums offer free admission to military families this summer. Nearly two dozen Dallas-Fort Worth museums are honoring active duty military personnel and their families with free admission through the Blue Star Museums initiative, May 20-September 4, 2023.

3. 11 Dallas icons star in new book of most influential Texans from last 50 years. To commemorate Texas Monthly's 50th anniversary, the publication has collected the stories and photographs of 50 iconic Texans who have shaped the state and the country over the past 50 years for a book called Lone Stars Rising. Eleven Dallas megastars have made the roster.

4. These are the 7 best most intriguing hot dogs in Dallas right now. Hot dogs are the quintessential summer food and an item that nearly everyone loves. They're simple, flavorful, easy to make at home, and affordable if you dine out. Here are the seven most interesting hot dogs you can find in Dallas-Fort Worth.

5. Mississippi sisters debut perky Southern-chic boutique on Dallas' Greenville Avenue. When Allison and Anna Williams graduated from University of Mississippi in 2021, they didn't picture themselves owning a boutique on Lower Greenville in Dallas. But the Williamses' new women's clothing boutique, Five 54, opened this spring at 1906 Greenville Ave., next to Clark's Barbershop, in the buzziest neighborhood in town.

Dallas-Fort Worth arrives at surprising spot among top summer travel destinations

SUMMERTIME blues

Dallas-Fort Worth recently racked up more than a dozen accolades at the 2023 Texas Travel Awards. But a new survey reveals it's not necessarily such a hot travel destination this summer.

DFW comes in at a middle-of-the-road No. 45 in WalletHub's recent 2023 Best Summer Travel Destinations report.

The report compared 100 of the largest metro areas in America across 41 metrics, including number of attractions.

DFW scored an overall rating of 52.56 out of 100. Broken down by category, the Metroplex ranked 86th in "Travel Costs & Hassles;" 32nd in "Local Costs;" 20th in "Attractions;" 41st in "Weather;" 27th in "Activities;" and 50th in "Safety."

Taking the top spot in Texas was San Antonio, at No. 11, with Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown at No. 14. Behind Austin and San Antonio in the 2023 rankings is El Paso (No. 18), then Houston (No. 38). After 45th ranked DFW came Corpus Christi (No. 62), and McAllen (No. 86).

Dr. Susan Weidmann, assistant professor in the department of recreational management and physical education at Appalachian State University, said in the report that summer 2023 is going to be a “good season for travel” despite recent economic downturns that have many worried about a recession.

“Coming out of Covid, I think many people have taken these last few years to really evaluate what they want out of life, and for those that love travel, I think they have probably put it at the top of their list of things to do,” she said. “As far as economics are concerned, many may have saved their traveling money from the last multiple years, so will have money to spend. That being said, after the airline chaos of last year, many people may be thinking about domestic travel over the long-haul, just to alleviate many of the concerns that airlines, especially in Europe, are still grappling with, such as reduced staffing leading to flight cancellations.”

Weidmann predicts the time period between July and early August will be the most popular season for National Parks, like Texas’ Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains.

Despite none of them being in Texas, the top 10 destinations in WalletHub’s report are all popular cities worth a glance in sun-friendly states like Hawaii, New York, and Florida.

The top 10 best summer destinations are:

No. 1 – Atlanta
No. 2 – Honolulu, Hawaii
No. 3 – Washington, D.C.
No. 4 – Wichita, Kansas
No. 5 – New York City
No. 6 – Chicago
No. 7 – Tampa, Florida
No. 8 – Orlando, Florida
No. 9 – Richmond, Virginia
No. 10 – Springfield, Missouri

Score a hole in one at these 10 top public golf courses in Dallas-Fort Worth

Tee Time

North Texas recently popped the cork for the new $520 million Omni PGA Frisco Resort, which opened in May and features its own entertainment district, full-service spa and salon, four swimming pools, 500 guest rooms and suites, 10 private ranch houses, and 13 unique dining options.

But as the name hints, the resort is very much about the golf. With Father's Day around the corner, we're revisiting Dallas-Fort Worth's best public courses, including the two newest ones found in Frisco and their alternative ways to play.

Load up the clubs and hit the green with this list:

Fields Ranch
Frisco
Omni PGA Frisco Resort boasts two 18-hole championship golf courses, collectively known as Fields Ranch. Fields Ranch East was designed by Gil Hanse, and Fields Ranch West by Beau Welling.

Registered hotel guests can book tee times 120 days in advance of their stay to play Fields Ranch, which will be home to 26 major championships starting in May and continuing through 2034.

Not ready for the full 18-hole experience? Take a few practice swings at the Fields Ranch Practice Facility, then head to The Swing, a lighted 10-hole, par-3 short course, or The Dance Floor, a two-acre putting course and entertainment area.

This will also be the site of Frisco's first Lounge by Topgolf and PGA of America's new headquarters.

Take advantage of all that expertise at the PGA Coaching Center, which offers a high-tech, data-driven club-fitting and instruction experience.

Cowboys Golf Club
Grapevine
If you're a die-hard fan of both the 'Boys and the links, here's where your passions combine. The par-72, 6,553-yard course is as swanky as you'd expect from Jerry Jones, with years of Cowboys history scattered throughout. Of course, with all this top-of-the-line design comes a rather hefty price tag for the green fees, but you do definitely get your money's worth.

Meadowbrook Golf Course
Fort Worth
The 18-hole regulation facility is considered one of the top in Texas, with a par 71 that covers the most rolling terrain in the city. It's also a popular course, with a golf association of more than 200 members who play regularly.

Stevens Park Golf Course
Oak Cliff
All 18 holes of this par-70 course were completely redesigned in 2011, including new tee boxes, fairways, greens, and bunkers. Even the carts boast newly installed TekGPS units that track yardages to the front, middle, and back of the green (and help keep play moving). Appreciate mature oaks, dramatic elevation changes, and great views of downtown Dallas while you traverse the course, which is also affectionately known as "Little Augusta."

Pecan Valley
Fort Worth
Originally designed by golf course architect Ralph Plummer in 1963, Pecan Valley is actually two 18-hole golf courses separated by the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. The "River" course is considered one of the top municipal courses in Texas, while the "Hills" course is approximately 150 yards shorter. Several hundred trees were semi-recently planted and are just beginning to mature, which only bodes well for playing conditions in the years to come.

Texas Star Golf Course
Euless
The accolades come rolling in for this course, which has been recognized for its beauty and serene atmosphere by Golf Digest and Golf Weekly, among others. Unlike most public courses, which back up to private homes or run along busy streets, this par-71, 6,529-yard course is truly secluded, surrounded only by ponds, waterfalls, woodlands, and fairways. Reasonable green fees are a bonus, with residents of Euless receiving a 15 percent discount with proof of residence.

Tierra Verde Golf Club
Arlington
As the first municipal course in the world to be certified as an Audubon Signature Sanctuary, Tierra Verde offers breathtaking natural scenery to go along with its challenging holes. The par-72 6,085-yard layout boasts some of the most uniquely designed holes in DFW, and was named the top course in DFW in 2012 by Avid Golfer.

The Tribute Golf Club
The Colony
Not had the chance to play Hogan's Alley at Carnoustie, Nos. 1 and 18 from St. Andrews, or the fifth from Royal Troon? Then you can experience the next best thing here in Texas, without having to fly across the pond. This par-72, 7,000-yard course is brilliantly designed while replicating the best links-style courses from the United Kingdom.

Waterchase Golf Club
Fort Worth
Like its name implies, Waterchase does indeed boast a cascading waterfall, found between the ninth and eighteenth greens. From tree-lined doglegs to split fairways, the risk and reward opportunities are abundant for the six sets of tees on the par-72 course. The club even received a nomination to Golf Digest's best new courses and promises to be "a round you'll remember."

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