Good Thing

Leon Bridges comes home to headline favorite Fort Worth music festival in 2019

Leon Bridges will headline the third annual Fortress Festival, taking place outside Will Rogers Memorial Center on April 27 and 28, 2019.

Photo by Jacob Power

UPDATE (January 9): The Fortress Festival has released the full lineup for the 2019 edition, with additions of headliners like CHVRCHES, Rae Sremmurd, Tinashe, and Superorganism. For the full lineup, go the festival website.

UPDATE 2 (April 22): The Fortress Festival has released the full schedule for 2019, with CHVRCHES taking the stage at 10:30 pm on April 27 and Leon Bridges performing at 9 pm on April 28. None of the performers will overlap, allowing festival-goers to catch every act if they so choose.

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Fort Worth's own Leon Bridges will return home to headline the next Fortress Festival, set to take place in the Cultural District on April 27 and 28, 2019.

Bridges released his sophomore album, Good Times, in 2018. The Grammy nominee has continued to earn great acclaim, and even branched out with an appearance in the Oscar-worthy film First Man. His appearance at Fortress Festival marks the first time he's done a major concert in his hometown.

Other notable initial performers include Tank and the Bangas, a six-member funk-soul-rock outfit from New Orleans that recently was named winner of the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Contest; Dallas’ acclaimed hip-hop lyricist Bobby Sessions; The Bright Light Social Hour, a psychedelic rock band from Austin; rapper/singer Abhi the Nomad, who currently resides in Austin; and Lubbock-based singer-songwriter Red Shahan.

Local performers include up-and-coming emcee Adrian Stresow; female-led garage rock foursome Sailor Poon; Oak Cliff’s indie-rock sextet Luna Luna; psychedelic rockers The Cush; and punk rock group War Party.

Presented in partnership with the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fortress Festival is a boutique festival-going experience that celebrates music, art and culture.

The event will be entirely housed within the lawn adjacent to the Will Rogers Coliseum and will include two outdoor main stages featuring non-overlapping sets to ensure fans are able to catch every minute of each main stage performance.

The second phase of the lineup, which will include another headliner, will be announced in January 2019. A limited number of $79 early bird GA passes are on sale now at www.fortressfestival.com. VIP tickets, which run for $189, are also available, offering exclusive events, preferred viewing areas, free parking, expedited entry, and more. All ticket prices will increase once all early bird passes are sold.

All festival passes include free access to the Modern’s art galleries during the festival, including extended hours each day of the event.

festivals music

Party Is Over

Party City chain to close all stores including 9 in Fort Worth

Party City

A chain of stores where the party is always going on is closing down: Party City will close all of its stores and has initiated layoffs, effective immediately. According to CNN, CEO Barry Litwin told corporate employees that Party City has to “commence a winddown process immediately,” and that Friday would be their last day of work for the company.

However, the actual store locations, including those around North Texas, will be open until February 28.

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, Party City is largest party goods retailer in the U.S. — the go-to destination for every type of celebration, with more than 700 company-owned and franchise store locations across North America selling home decor, candles, balloons, wrapping paper, tableware, bulk candy, baking supplies, and more.

A typical Party City store ranges in size from 10,000 to 12,000 square feet and carries approximately 30,000 items. Halloween accounts for as much as one-quarter of yearly sales, but they celebrate all seasonal holidays, from New Year's Eve to the Fourth of July to Father's Day to Super Bowl Sunday, and offer a wide array of merchandise for birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, wedding and bridal showers, and baby showers.

Party and costume merchandise has become more competitive in recent years, with companies like the budget-focused Spirit Halloween expanding beyond its Halloween pop-ups into “Spirit Christmas” stores, as well as competition from Amazon and other online retailers.

In 2023, the chain filed for bankruptcy, then emerged with a plan that included transitioning into a privately held company and canceling nearly $1 billion in debt. At that time, there were approximately 800 U.S. stores.

There are 64 stores in Texas, with 9 in the Fort Worth area, as follows:

Arlington
Burleson
Denton
Euless
Fort Worth
Hurst
Lake Worth
Mansfield
Watauga

Dallas-Fort Worth stores have already started sales between 5 and 50 percent off.

holidays closings