There is not a ton of new stuff happening in and around Fort Worth this weekend, but with three big events taking place, it'll feel like a lot is going on anyway. You can witness the opening of a highly anticipated new entertainment area, see the sequel to a Broadway legend, rock out at a daylong festival, and more.
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, August 9
Texas Live! Grand Opening Celebration
The opening of the new Texas Rangers stadium, Globe Life Field, is still almost two years away, but the grand opening for the adjoining Texas Live! complex is happening this weekend. The $250 million dining, entertainment, and hospitality district will debut a variety of restaurants and its outdoor event pavilion, Arlington Backyard. Performers during the celebration, taking place through Sunday, will include Toadies, Eleven Hundred Springs, Bleachers, Joywave, and Kip Moore.
Broadway at the Bass: Love Never Dies - The Phantom Returns
This story of boundless love is the sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, one of the most successful musicals of all time. Ten years after his disappearance from the Paris Opera House, the Phantom has escaped to a new life in New York. He has finally found a place for his music to soar, but he has never stopped yearning for his one true love and musical protégé, Christine. The musical will run through Sunday at Bass Performance Hall.
Friday, August 10
Magnolia at the Modern presents Gauguin - Voyage de Tahiti
Gauguin (Vincent Cassel) has exiled himself to Tahiti to rediscover his painting as a free, wild man — far from the moral, political, and aesthetic codes of civilized Europe. Deep in the jungle, coping with solitude, poverty, and sickness, he encounters Tehura (Tehui Adams), who will become his wife and the subject of his greatest paintings. The film, which is in French with English subtitles, will play seven times through Sunday at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Theatre Arlington presents The Sweetest Swing in Baseball
Dana Fielding is a hot commodity in the art world, but fear of failure after critical acclaim in her early career — and a recent disastrous gallery opening — drive her to a suicide attempt. When she finds out her health insurance will pay only for a 10-day stay in a mental ward, she cooks up a scheme to fool the doctors into believing she’s psychotic, taking on the personality of the troubled baseball star Darryl Strawberry. The comedic play will run at Theatre Arlington through August 26.
Saturday, August 11
Ridglea Metalfest featuring Drowning Pool
Metalheads don't often get a festival to call their own, so they'll be sure to enjoy Ridglea Metalfest, taking place at Ridglea Theatre. The one-day festival will be headlined by Dallas' own Drowning Pool, which is hard at work on its seventh studio album. Other performers will include Lockjaw, Bury Your Dead, Outline in Color, Big Iron, Secret of Boris, Leroy the Prophet 333, Blackstar Republic, Driven Below, Negative 263, and more.
Panther Island Pavilion presents Rockin’ The River
The final Rockin' The River of the summer will feature a concert headlined by Shinyribs. He will be joined at Panther Island Pavilion by The Drugstore Cowboys, Grady Spencer and The Work, Zach Nytomt, and Larry Hooper and The Reserves. Visitors can watch the concert, which also features a fireworks show, from a tube on the river or from the shore.
Sunday, August 12
Panther Island Pavilion presents Sunday Funday
Sunday Funday is a day of relaxation and fun in the sun. Tubes and pedal boats area available to rent, along with kayaks, canoes, and stand-up paddle boards from Backwoods Paddlesports. Local craft beer will be sold from award-winning Panther Island Brewing. Visitors can enjoy music, friends, food trucks like Crazy Burger, and floating the Trinity River.
Gauguin - Voyage de Tahiti will screen at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, August 10-12.
