Weekend Event Planner

These are the 14 best things to do in Fort Worth this weekend

This weekend across Fort Worth offers a nice range of events, led by a trio of festivals. Other choices include a theater production, a visit from a well-known comedian, a symphony performance, four other concerts, monster trucks, a celebration of Latin American heritage, the final days of an art exhibition, and a chance to see a celebrity up-close-and-personal.

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, October 24

MusicalWriters.com presents Khan!!! The Musical! A Parody Trek-tacular
Khan!!! The Musical! A Parody Trek-tacular is a parody based on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: The Next Generation, featuring an entirely original score. In 2366, Data the android presents his musical comedy version of The Wrath of Khan with a cast of virtual actors on the Holodeck. A campy show-within-a-show ensues where the bloodthirsty Khan vows revenge on a washed up James T. Kirk and Data, portraying multiple roles, learns a thing or two about life along the way. The production runs through November 3 at Theatre Wesleyan on the Texas Wesleyan University campus.

Friday, October 25

Art Worth Festival
The annual Art Worth Festival is a celebration of artistic skill, featuring over 80 artists’ displays, live demonstrations of art disciplines, and performances of classical music by area ensembles. The festival features works by artists from across the United States, in addition to local and Texas artists. It will run through Sunday at The Shops at Clearfork.

Denton's Day of the Dead Festival
Held outside on Hickory and Industrial Streets, Denton’s Day of the Dead Festival is a true collaboration of the eclectic art and music community of the city. It pays homage to many of fall’s treasures such as cooler weather, the harvest, the celebration of Dia de los Muertos, and all things Halloween. Highlights of the two-day event, taking place on Friday and Saturday, include live music, the Halloween Cabaret “Cirque du Horror,” Coffin Races, a lantern-lit twilight parade, and more.

Big Laugh Comedy Club presents Caroline Rhea
Caroline Rhea is a stand-up comedian and actress, best known for her role on Sabrina The Teenage Witch and her numerous comedy specials. She voices the Mom on Disney’s Phineas and Ferb, hosted her own talk show, and has been a regular panelist on the game shows like Funny You Should Ask, Match Game, Name that Tune, and Hollywood Squares. She'll perform three times through Saturday at Big Laugh Comedy Club.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents "Jane Glover Conducts Mozart"
In 2022, pianist Angela Hewitt was the only live performer for BBC Radio’s broadcasts after the funeral and committal of Queen Elizabeth II. She'll come to Fort Worth to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 before conductor Jane Glover leads the orchestra in Mozart’s 31st symphony (“Paris”). Filling out the program are Benjamin Britten’s Suite on English Folk Tunes and Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin (Grave of Couperin). There will be three performances through Sunday at Bass Performance Hall.

Tyler Hubbard in concert
Country singer Tyler Hubbard, previously best known as half of the duo Florida Georgia Line, embarked on a solo career when the duo went on hiatus in 2021. So far that has resulted in two albums - a self-titled album in 2023 and Strong in 2024, both of which have been warmly received by country fans, if not quite as enthusiastically as the No. 1 albums that Florida Georgia Line produced. He'll play at Billy Bob's Texas.

Saturday, October 26

Monster Jam
The latest edition of Monster Jam will feature the Texas debut of four new Marvel Monster Jam trucks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, and Thor will face off for the first time against fan favorites like the legendary Grave Digger, the all-new Sparkle Smash, and more in Freestyle, Skills, and Racing competitions. The adrenaline-charged event at AT&T Stadium in Arlington will feature heated rivalries, high-flying stunts, and fierce head-to-head battles.

Conan Gray in concert
Pop singer Conan Gray is a former YouTube star who transitioned from vlogging to singing in the late 2010s, releasing his first album, Kid Krow, in 2020. A self-proclaimed lifelong Swiftie, Gray cites Taylor Swift as an inspiration in his songwriting, including on his latest album, Found Heaven. He'll play at Dickies Arena.

Southall in concert
Southall - formerly The Read Southall Band - formed out of the local songwriting scene in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 2015 following the success of Read Southall's debut solo album, Six String Sorrow. They'll play at Billy Bob's Texas in support of their 2023 self-titled album under their new name.

Sunday, October 27

Fort Worth Botanic Garden presents Celebramos closing day
Sunday will be the final day of Celebramos at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. At the celebration of Latin American culture and heritage, visitors can immerse themselves in the traditions of Latin America through performances, exhibitions, dining experiences, and shopping opportunities. The garden will offer free admission on Sunday for Día de los Muertos, and they will display their annual marigold carpet.

Globe Life Field presents Halloween Festival
The home of the Texas Rangers, Globe Life Field will present its first-ever Halloween Festival, where guests can get directly onto the field to enjoy a variety of Halloween and general ballpark activities. Attendees are encouraged to dress in their Halloween costumes and bring their own trick or treat containers to get candy at various stations. Other activities at the one-day event will include costume parades, a chance to run the bases, wiffle ball, free play on the field, pitch in the bullpen, face painting, yard games, guided ballpark tours, photo ops in the dugouts, and more.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents Dario Robleto: "The Signal" closing day
Sunday will be the final day to view Dario Robleto: "The Signal" at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. The exhibition spans film, sculpture, and works on paper to represent the culmination of Robleto’s multiyear exploration of the Golden Record, the gold-plated phonograph disk containing sounds and images selected by a team at NASA to portray life on Earth to extraterrestrials.

Lone Star Film Festival presents A Special Conversation with Billy Bob Thornton
The Lone Star Film Festival officially takes place November 1-4, but film lovers can get a preview at this special conversation with Billy Bob Thornton, star of Taylor Sheridan's forthcoming Texas-made TV show, Landman. After the conversation, Thornton will be presented with this year's Larry McMurtry Award, which honors an original storyteller who embodies McMurtry's creative spirit while recognizing outstanding contributions to film, television, and Texas. The event takes place at Tannahill's Tavern & Music Hall.

Kirk Franklin presents The Reunion Tour
Gospel singer Kirk Franklin will headline The Reunion Tour, which will also feature gospel music icons Yolanda Adams, Fred Hammond, Marvin Sapp, and The Clark Sisters. Taking place at Dickies Arena, the concert will include special guest Kierra Sheard-Kelly.

Photo courtesy of Paramount+

Billy Bob Thornton will be on hand for a special Lone Star Film Festival event at Tannahill's Tavern & Music Hall on October 27.

theater music festivals holidays kids families symphony concerts sports galleries celebrities event-planner

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.

---

A Complete Unknown opens in theaters on December 25.

movies film