While most places are still getting over their holiday hangover, Bass Performance Hall is hitting the ground running in 2020. They'll host three separate events over three days, including a live music-to-movie concert, a celebration of a legendary composer, and a Tony-winning musical. You can also catch the tail end of holiday events, visit a pyramid-shaped entertainment venue, see the start of a new art exhibit, catch a college football bowl game, 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, January 2
Holiday event closings
Now that we're into the New Year, it's time for the remaining holiday events to come to a close. Finishing up their runs will be Gaylord Texan's Lone Star Christmas, featuring millions of twinkling lights, lavish large-scale décor, 2 million pounds of hand-carved ice, and more; and Daystar Television Network presents Daystar Christmas, featuring over one million lights, a life-sized Nativity, kid-friendly Christmas town, a drive-through tunnel, and more. Both events will end on Sunday.
PY1
Imagined by Guy Laliberté, co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, PY1 is a pyramid-shaped entertainment venue that features Through the Echoes, a custom multimedia production for the pyramid, as well as Stella – The time machine journey, a show for the entire family. The event, taking place in a parking lot just outside of Globe Life Park in Arlington, also features PY1 Nights, a nightlife experience. The special event will take place through March 1.
Friday, January 3
Magnolia at the Modern: Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project is a mystery in the form of a time capsule. It's about a radical Communist activist who became a fabulously wealthy recluse archivist. Her work was crazy, but it was also genius, and she would pay a profound price for dedicating her life to this visionary and maddening project. The film will screen six times through Sunday at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents Disney's Fantasia
At this one-night-only event, scenes from each of the two iconic films, Disney’s Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, will be projected in high definition on a large screen above the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as they perform selections like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and No. 6, Debussy’s "Clair de Lune," Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours,” Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance,” Respighi’s “Pines of Rome,” Stravinsky’s “The Firebird,” and Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” among others. The performance will be at Bass Performance Hall.
Saturday, January 4
Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents "Eliot Porter’s Birds"
"Eliot Porter’s Birds" is an exhibition highlighting rarely-seen color photographs of birds by the esteemed photographer that Ansel Adams described as the “master of nature’s color.” While Porter is widely celebrated for his color photographs of nature, his career-long focus on photographing birds is less known. This exhibition features these avian photographs drawn from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art’s extensive holdings of Porter’s work that is part of the museum’s renowned collection of American photography. The exhibition will be on display through May 10, 2020.
Lockheed Armed Forces Bowl: Southern Miss vs. Tulane
The 2020 version of the Lockheed Armed Forces Bowl comes at the tail end of the college football bowl season, taking place a week after the semifinal rounds of the College Football Playoff. But that doesn't mean the game, featuring a matchup between the Southern Miss Golden Eagles of Conference USA and the Tulane Green Wave of the American Athletic Conference, won't be a fun one, especially for fans of either team. It will take place at Amon G. Carter Stadium in the TCU campus.
The Cliburn presents Beethoven at 250: The Piano Concertos
To kick off 2020, which will be a yearlong, international celebration of the Beethoven’s 250th birthday, this Cliburn at the Bass concert will present each of Beethoven’s five piano concertos, in order. There will be two concerts in one day featuring five spectacular pianists — Till Fellner, David Fray, George Li, Jon Nakamatsu, and Joyce Yang — along with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Miguel Harth-Bedoya in the midst of his final season as the orchestra’s music director. The concerts will be at Bass Performance Hall.
Josh Abbott Band in concert
The Josh Abbott Band has a habit of starting their year at Billy Bob's Texas, as this will be their fifth straight year playing at the venue during the first weekend in January. The band is part of the next generation of Red Dirt/Texas Country acts alongside Eli Young Band, Randy Rogers Band, and more. They have released five albums in their 12-year career, including 2017's Until My Voice Goes Out.
Sunday, January 5
Broadway at the Bass: The Color Purple
The Color Purple is the 2016 Tony Award winner for Best Musical Revival, a re-imagining of an epic story about a young woman’s journey to love and triumph in the American South. This joyous American classic conquered Broadway with a soul-raising score of jazz, gospel, ragtime and blues, giving an exhilarating new spirit to the Pulitzer Prize-winning story. The musical will have one performance only at Bass Performance Hall.
Joyce Yang will be one of five pianists performing during The Cliburn presents Beethoven at 250: The Piano Concertos, taking place at Bass Performance Hall on January 4.
Sopes plate at El Garambullo.
El Garambullo