Weekend Event Planner

These are the 11 best things to do in Fort Worth this weekend

Clint Black will play at the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson on October 12.

Clint Black/Facebook

The spring weather of April means that it's time for some outdoor events. There will be not one but two art-centric events in downtown Fort Worth, as well as the final days of an event focused on butterflies. You can also countdown to the Cliburn with some free concerts, take in Disney on Ice, enjoy some classic music from the '60 and '70s, and more.

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, April 7

Main St. Fort Worth Arts Festival
The Main St. Fort Worth Arts Festival is returning to downtown Fort Worth for its 35th year, where visitors can enjoy a variety of sights, sounds, and tastes. Spanning more than 18 city blocks, the event will feature more than 200 juried artists from across the U.S., music from performers like Jonathan Butler, Josh Weathers, Tatiana “LadyMay” Mayfield, and Grady Spencer & The Work, and much more. Taking place through Sunday, the event is not related to...

Fort Worth Art Fair
Smack dab in the middle of the footprint of the Main St. Fort Worth Arts Festival will be the Fort Worth Art Fair in Sundance Square Plaza. The competing event is focused on local galleries like Artspace111 & Love Texas Art, Art Tooth, Bale Creek Allen Gallery, Daisha Board Gallery, Dang Good Candy, Flatbed Press, and Pencil on Paper Gallery. They'll also have performances from the likes of Clint Black, Abraham Alexander, and Ledisi. The event also takes place through Sunday.

Countdown to the Cliburn
Countdown to the Cliburn is a series of community concerts taking place at venues across Dallas-Fort Worth over two months leading up to the Sixteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, taking place June 2-18. Internationally renowned pianist and Cliburn laureate Kenny Broberg will play at White’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Southlake on Thursday, while 2013 jury discretionary award winner Steven Lin will be at the Main St. Fort Worth Arts Festival on Sunday for the second of his four performances.

Disney on Ice: "Let's Celebrate"
At Disney on Ice: "Let's Celebrate," 50 favorite Disney friends come to life through world-class ice skating. Audiences at Dickies Arena can see Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the Toy Story 4 gang help Forky realize what it means to be a toy; sing-along with Elsa at the coolest adventure in town; sing “Hakuna Matata” with Timon and Pumbaa; and more. There will be seven performances through Sunday.

Casa Mañana presents The Music of Laurel Canyon
One of the most sacred musical places in the 1960s and early '70s sits just above the Sunset Strip. Laurel Canyon became a nest of creativity, immortalizing artists like Joni Mitchell, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, and The Mamas and the Papas. The Music of Laurel Canyon will feature songs of the era performed by Buffalo Rome in the intimate Reid Cabaret Theatre at Casa Mañana. There will be seven performances through April 16.

Friday, April 8

Upright Theatre Co. presents Present Laughter
Noel Coward's semi-autobiographical comedy follows a self-obsessed actor in the midst of a mid-life crisis. Freely indulging his considerable appetite for wine, women, and sleeping late, the theatre’s favorite leading man suddenly finds himself caught between fawning ingénues, crazed playwrights, secret trysts, and unexpected twists. Upright Theatre Co. in Euless will present the production through April 30.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents "Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody: Jennifer Higdon, Respighi, and Rachmaninoff"
In this concert, Canadian pianist Angela Cheng tackles one of the repertoire's greatest challenges: Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The program opens with Jennifer Higdon's Blue Cathedral and also features Respighi's Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. The concert, conducted by Robert Spano, will have three performances through Sunday at Bass Performance Hall.

Billy Gilman in concert
Country singer Billy Gilman is only 33 years old, but he's been trying to make it in the music business for over half of his life. He released his debut album, One Voice, in 2000 at the tender age of 12, which earned him a Grammy Award nomination for the title song. Sixteen years later, he was the runner-up on season 11 of NBC's The Voice. He'll perform at Downtown Cowtown at the Isis.

Chris Young in concert
Country singer Chris Young also started relatively young, releasing his debut album at the age of 21. He had five straight No. 1 singles from 2009-2011, and his songs have rarely been outside of the top 10 since. He's released eight albums in his career, including 2021's Famous Friends, which features collaborations with Kane Brown, Lauren Alaina, and Mitchell Tenpenny. He'll play on both Friday and Saturday at Billy Bob's Texas.

Saturday, April 9

Ballet Frontier presents "Director's Choice: Take Flight"
The final performance of Ballet Frontier's 2021-2022 season, "Director's Choice: Take Flight" will include excerpts of ballets from across the world, including Don Quixote, Lady of the Camellias, and Pinocchio. The company will present two performances — one Saturday and one Sunday — at W.E. Scott Theatre.

Sunday, April 10

Fort Worth Botanic Garden presents Butterflies in the Garden
Sunday will the final day to take in "Butterflies in the Garden," at Fort Worth Botanic Garden’s Rainforest Conservatory. The largest exhibit of live, exotic butterflies in north central Texas features educational programs, exhibits, gift shop items, and more designed to enhance the visitor experience. A variety of different butterflies will be featured, including the ever-popular Blue Morpho.

Casa Mañana presents The Music of Laurel Canyon, featuring Buffalo Rome, through April 16.

Photo courtesy of Buffalo Rome

Casa Mañana presents The Music of Laurel Canyon, featuring Buffalo Rome, through April 16.

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Movie Review

Oscar-worthy film A Complete Unknown digs deeply into Bob Dylan

Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown.

Music biopics never seem to go out of style, although they’re rarely very good because most of them tend to tell the same story. A musician/band gets discovered, rises to popularity, experiences trouble at their peak due to (insert sex/drugs/alcohol/ego), and either finds a measure of redemption once they’ve been sufficiently humbled or dies due to their lack of control.

Paradoxically, what few music biopics fail to do is properly showcase the music that made the person popular in the first place, a mistake that A Complete Unknown doesn’t repeat, becoming a smashing success in the process. The film follows Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) over a roughly four-year period from when he first arrived in New York City in 1961 to his then-revolutionary electric set at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

Dylan seeks out well-known folk singers Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and an ailing Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) when he first arrives, with Seeger taking him under his wing. Dylan starts to establish himself in the local club scene with his unique songwriting voice, meeting fellow singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), with whom he starts an on-and-off relationship. As his popularity grows, his reaction is antithetical to what’s expected, as he rarely engages with fans and focuses on his next song(s) instead of the ones for which he became known.

Directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line) and written by Mangold and Jay Cocks, the film may not be much of a revelation for Dylan superfans, but for casual fans or those who know nothing about him, it is one of the most effective music biopics in recent memory, if not ever. Not only does Mangold track the musical evolution of Dylan, but he gives the full context of the people who influenced him most, including Guthrie, Seeger, Baez, and more.

The film is not a musical in the traditional sense, but the amount of music in it makes it the next best thing. Rarely does more than a few minutes go by before someone is singing, either on stage, for someone close to them, or as part of the songwriting process. Whether you’re a folk music fan or not, the way the genre is showcased in the film will make you believe in its power and why it was so popular at that particular point in time.

Dylan is famous for his enigmatic personality, and Mangold does a great job of maintaining that elusiveness while still exploring what drove Dylan early in his career. His relationships with Baez and the fictional Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) give him some dimension, but why he continually went back-and-forth between them (or why they put up with him) is only lightly explored. The film keeps most of the drama focused on the music, and it’s this decision that makes it as compelling as it is.

Chalamet has been “The Next Big Thing” since his Oscar nomination for Call Me By Your Name, but the combination of the Duneseries, Wonka, and now this has firmly established him as the star he is. His Dylan impersonation (including singing) is subtle-yet-clear, and he has the cool factor that makes him completely believable in the role. The supporting cast is also off-the-charts good, with Norton and Barbaro making the best cases for awards notice.

While 2024 has had its fair share of great movies, A Complete Unknown - in this critic’s opinion - should now be the favorite to win Best Picture at next year’s Oscars. It bucks the trend of mediocre music biopics by giving moviegoers the transporting feeling of what it was like to experience Dylan’s meteoric rise, and why his early songs remain so indelible.

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A Complete Unknown opens in theaters on December 25.

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