Happy New Year

9 top New Year's Eve celebrations around Fort Worth to welcome in 2025

Sundance Square presents New Year's Eve Celebration

There will be New Year's Eve celebrations all around Fort Worth, including in Sundance Square Plaza.

Photo courtesy of Sundance Square

There is no shortage of ways to celebrate New Year's Eve in and around Fort Worth — from a comedy show to country music to a Times Square-style party in the center of town. We've compiled nine options ranging from big to small, but no matter what you choose, all of them promise to be a fun way to say goodbye to 2024 and welcome 2025.

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History presents Noon Year's Eve
The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History presents a New Year celebration fit for the whole family at Noon Year’s Eve. Guests can make their own confetti popper and noise maker, decorate party wear with a Noon Year's Eve hat, write New Year’s resolutions on ribbon and add it to the confetti pile, explore New Year’s Eve-inspired items and animals from the History and Science Collections, and more.

Sundance Square presents New Year's Eve Celebration
Sundance Square will celebrate New Year’s Eve in the heart of downtown Fort Worth with live music, fireworks, and more. The plaza will be alive with performances by jugglers, stilt walkers, trick ropers, aerialists, mimes, and disco ball dancers, as well as a selection of food trucks. Make plans to get there early, as streets will shut down around Sundance Square early in the day and upwards of 40,000-50,000 are expected to be on hand.

Texas Live presents NYE Live!
At NYE Live! at Texas Live in Arlington, guests can welcome the New Year in style with entertainment, food and drink options, and a vibrant atmosphere. There will be live music, entertainment, decor, champagne toasts, and celebrations all night long.

Keith & Margo’s Murder Mystery Texas presents Killer New Year's Eve
Killer New Year's Eve is an immersive mystery dinner theatre experience from Keith & Margo’s Murder Mystery Texas. While dining and celebrating the New Year with loved ones, suddenly there's a scream. Can you clear your good name and discover the killer before midnight? The event is designed especially for amateur sleuths with a twisted sense of humor. It takes place at Aloft Fort Worth Downtown.

Gaylord Texan presents Glass Cactus New Year's Eve Bash
Gaylord Texan in Grapevine will ring in the New Year at their nightclub, Glass Cactus, with performances by cover bands Infinite Journey and Nerd Halen. General admission includes a sparkling rosé toast at midnight, while VIP admission includes a sparkling rosé toast at midnight passed hors d’oeuvres, one drink ticket, and early entrance to club that includes a private 15-20 minute acoustic set from Infinite Journey.

Meow Wolf Grapevine presents New Year’s Eve Adultiverse
On New Year’s Eve, reality takes a backseat as Meow Wolf Grapevine presents a special edition of Adulti-Verse. Guests 21 and over can enjoy Meow Wolf’s unique experience in style as the interdimensional soirée features a full-service bar and a performance by Night Shade Burlesque, as well as a champagne toast at midnight. Food & beverage will be available for purchase at the cafe.

Four Day Weekend presents New Year’s Eve Show
Comedy troupe Four Day Weekend will celebrate New Year’s Eve in a big way with their annual New Year’s Eve Show. The package includes a cocktail-style dinner from 8:30-9:45 pm, admission to the interactive comedy show starting at 10 pm, and a champagne toast with party favors. The show takes place at Stage West Theatre.

Kimpton Harper Hotel presents Cowtown Countdown: Rhinestone Rodeo
Kimpton Harper Hotel will ring in the New Year with the Cowtown Countdown: Rhinestone Rodeo at Refinery 714, their rooftop bar. Guests are encouraged to dress to impress as they groove to the beats of DJ Soft Cherry, enjoy a variety of activations, and indulge in curated food and drink specials throughout the night, all leading up to a signature champagne toast at midnight.

Billy Bob's Texas presents New Year's Eve Party with Gary Allan
Country singer Gary Allan, who typically makes a couple of appearances at Billy Bob's Texas every year, will just eke in his only 2024 stop for a special New Year's Eve show. In addition to the concert, which will include a performance by Dalton Torres on The Honky Tonk Stage, there will be four separate balloon drops throughout the night and a champagne toast at midnight.

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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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