Editor's note: As we look back at the most-read society stories of 2025, we see three topics Fort Worth prides itself on: cowboys & cowgirls, culture, and cuisine. Readers devoured recaps of two big food and wine events, and they roped in great reads about Western-glam galas (including a Texas-themed Jewel Charity Ball). Also hitting high notes this year were two soirees celebrating the 2025 Cliburn Competition and a glorious Fort Worth Symphony Gala.

Here are the 10 hottest society stories of 2025 in Fort Worth:

1. Fort Worth raises a glass to Rodeo at fab food and wine extravaganza. It was a perfect pairing of bubbly and boots during the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo’s 2025 Bubbles & Bites food and wine extravaganza, held Sunday, February 2 at the Round Up Inn inside the Amon G. Carter Jr. Exhibits Hall. More than 600 wine lovers attended brunch-themed sip-and-social, this year featuring winners from FWSSR’s inaugural Vine 2 Wine international wine competition.

2. Fort Worth Rodeo gets glamorous grand entrance at Junior League gala. Hundreds of Fort Worth philanthropists and patrons of both Junior League of Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo descended on "the dirt floor" of Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, January 11 for Junior League's 13th annual Grand Entry Gala.

Fort Worth mayor Mattie Parker and Ed Bass at the Grand Entry Gala. Photo by Canon Sawyer, Canon Elizabeth Photography

3. Cowtown Ball tramples records at 2025 gala in Fort Worth Stockyards. About 300 revelers pulled on their "special occasion" cowboy boots and clasped their classiest turquoise necklaces for Fort Worth's buzziest Western-chic gala of the year, Cowtown Ball. Now in its 32nd year, the 2025 edition of the American Cancer Society fundraiser scooted to the Fort Worth Stockyards and took up residence at Tannahill's Tavern & Music Hall the evening of Friday, September 26.

4. Foodies forge through chilly 2025 Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival. Rain, wind, and chilly temperatures didn’t stop foodies from coming out in force for the annual Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival. Held April 3-6 on an unusually cold spring weekend that saw highs only in the 40s and 50s, the four-day fete welcomed nearly 5,000 guests across four events. The festival raises money for local grant programs and culinary scholarships.

Panther City BBQ at The Ring of Fire event at 2025 Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival. Photo by Cristina Tapia

5. Epic fireworks finale fetes Cliburn winners in Fort Worth's Sundance Square. Once the piano pyrotechnics of the 2025 Cliburn Competition had ended, the new winners were celebrated with a spectacular fireworks show in Fort Worth. Barely an hour after the medalists had been named, they were paraded by mariachi band from Bass Performance Hall to Sundance Square Plaza, where hundreds of fans were gathered for the official community Grand Finale and Winners Celebration on Saturday, June 7.

Cliburn medalists Aristo Sham (left), Evren Ozel, and Vitaly Starikov watch the fireworks at the Cliburn Winners Celebration in Sundance Square. Photo by Brandon Wade

6. Fort Worth ushers in 2025 Cliburn Competition with elegant Draw Party. A black-tie soiree on a Monday night in Fort Worth could only mean one thing: It was Cliburn time. Hundreds of community leaders and arts patrons welcomed the 28 competitors in the Seventeenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition to Fort Worth at a formal Opening Dinner & Draw Party on Monday, May 19 at the Worthington Renaissance Hotel.

7. Fort Worth Jewel Charity Ball lassos limitless fun with Texas flourish. Texas was a state of mind at the 2025 Jewel Charity Ball, which welcomed 1,300 guests to the Will Rogers Memorial Center’s Amon G. Carter Jr. Exhibits Hall on March 1. Jewel Charity president Peggy Sims chose the theme "The Sky’s the Limit," inspired by the beauty of a Texas sunset, for Fort Worth’s grand-dame gala - the largest fundraiser for pediatric patients of Cook Children’s.

8. Fort Worth Symphony Gala-goers party to the tune of a million bucks. The 2025 Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Gala took place on an unseasonably cold and drizzly Saturday in early April, but that didn't stop fervent patrons from making it a red-hot, record-breaking night. Music director Robert Spano welcomed renowned American pianist Garrick Ohlsson to Bass Hall for a concert featuring Rachmaninoff's beloved Piano Concerto No. 3; it was followed by drinks, dinner, and dancing at the Worthington Renaissance Hotel.

Connie Beck, Quynh Lu, Garrick Ohlsson, Mercedes T. Bass, J. Brooks, Lee Hallman at the Fort Worth Symphony Gala. Photo by Jill Johnson

9. Essential guide to the most fun and fab Fort Worth galas of fall 2025. It was time to press those dresses. There was full roster of fun, philanthropic fall galas and parties ahead in Fort Worth, starting with a jam-packed weekend in September. This was our guide to the top galas of fall.

10. 10 spring galas every Fort Worth social butterfly must attend in 2025. Polishing the "good" boots was in order. Spring gala season arrived, and about half the big shindigs had Western themes. Here were the 10 can't-miss Fort Worth galas of spring 2025.