Best Things To Do in Dallas, Sept. 17–23

In a city this big, there's something to do every single day of the week. How could there not be? Dallas is a destination for festivals, traveling art exhibitions, stand-up comedy circuits and literally everything in between. This list is by no means exhaustively comprehensive, but it is a stacked, weekly guide of top picks you don't want to miss.

And the ways to fill your schedule don't stop here — check out our full events calendar for even more ways to get through the week in North Texas.  Not to toot our own collective horn or anything, but the Dallas Observer has some pretty great members-only events (supper club, ahem). If the temptation to become a member just hasn’t been strong enough, this Wednesday could do the trick. Come celebrate the release of our brew collab with Community Beer Company (3110 Commonwealth Drive). It’s a tasty, slightly sassy amber ale called Off the Record (get it?!) and new members can join (any amount, one-time or recurring) and get a free pint. The first 10 current members to arrive also get a free pint, and they’re just $5 after that. Be there at 6 p.m. and don’t say we never gave you anything… to drink. Find out more about the beer and the perks from our own LDD.

Groundless Ground: A Night of Strength, Song & Story at the Meyerson Symphony Center
It’s always a good idea to give the Turtle Creek Chorale one’s money and attention, but this week, it feels particularly right. The TCC performs Groundless Ground: A Night of Strength, Song & Story along with the Women’s Chorus of Dallas and an orchestra. The show is 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and it’s one dedicated to lifting and celebrating the voices of people of color, immigrants and, of course, the LGBTQ+ community and women. The TCC calls these the voices, the ones that deserve to be celebrated. Tickets start at $50, available online. Also of note, the 5th annual Rhapsody Benefit Gala takes place at the Statler Hotel this Saturday, Sept. 20, and features David Foster and Katharine McPhee. Tickets to that are also available online.

Thursday, Sept. 18

North Texas Wildlife Fundraiser & Opossum Meet and Greet at Vector Brewing
Thursday is officially North Texas Giving Day, and many nonprofits are offering events and special to-dos for fundraising. But we couldn’t resist calling out this particular one since, well, it stars a natural-born superstar. Vector Brewing (9850 Walnut Hill Lane) welcomes North Texas Wildlife onto the patio for a bake sale and meet and greet with some fuzzy friends. And there’s one in particular that really draws the attention: Blossom the Opossum, a stunning white educational ambassador opossum. Come learn about the good these creatures do for our ecosystem and neighborhoods (psst! pest control!) from 5 to 8 p.m.

Addison Oktoberfest in Addison Circle Park
Prost! It’s time for the annual four days of Oktoberfest celebration in Addison Circle Park, which makes it feel like the city turned into Munich for a hot minute. Thursday through Sunday, let the big Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr bier (and some Texas craft beer) flow and enjoy delicious German food and captivating music. There’s a full detailing of tents, vendors and events online, but remember Thursday admission is free and Sunday Hund-Day is when to report in for the Dachshund Dash. Get all the deets online.

2025 H-E-B | Central Market Plano Balloon Festival at Oak Point Park
Not too far away from the Oktoberfest-ivities, things will be getting hot and airy, as the Plano Balloon Festival commences, courtesy of Texas’ patron saints of groceries and goodwill, H-E-B and Central Market. Thursday through Sunday, be in Oak Point Park/Red Tail Pavilion (2801 E. Spring Creek Parkway, Plano) with stunning balloon glows and launches, fabulous concerts and performances and nightly fireworks. It may be in its 46th year, but it never gets boring to look at beautiful balloons. Go ahead and cue up “Up, Up and Away,” then get online for tickets and info.

Friday, Sept. 19

FTC Presents: Luis Juarez LIVE! at the Latino Cultural Center
Let’s give it up for comedian Luis Juarez. After the Texas Dream Act was invalidated, jeopardizing the education and futures of thousands of students across the state of Texas, he sprang into action to organize a show to raise money for “Dreamer” students, subsequently stripped of their scholarships, grants and other financial aid. Juarez headlines the show, which also features Latin comics Lilli Lopez, Jesus Castillo and CAIN, as well as host and co-presenter Paulos Feerow of local production company For The City. Score tickets online. Donations will also be accepted during the show, which is 8 p.m. at the Latino Cultural Center (2600 Live Oak St.). Look, there’s free booze, so give up that cash for the kids.

Texas Ballet Theater’s Peter Pan at Winspear Opera House
The world of Neverland has been reimagined and reinvented. Texas Ballet Theater brings to the stage a magical version of the J.M. Barrie tale of Peter Pan and his cohorts, choreographed by international star Trey McIntyre and with sets and costumes by award-winning designer Emma Bailey (Six: The Musical). McIntyre has equated the child’s journey to that of the artist’s, so perhaps that’s why this production promises to surprise and delight the dormant inner child in every audience member. The two-act performances run Friday through Sunday at the Winspear Opera House (2403 Flora St.), and are not to be missed. Hook tickets online.

Saturday, Sept. 20

Fall Fest and Garland Guzzler 0.5K Run in Downtown Garland
Garland is throwing down with the fall festival vibes on the Square from 5 to 10 p.m. this Saturday. There’s free entertainment, pumpkin patch photos, kids’ area and tons of food. Oh, and a Fall Crawl beer tasting around various downtown businesses, in preparation for the very ridiculous race around the square. Speaking of which, Friday is the last day to register for the “physically undemanding but mentally strenuous” Garland Guzzler 0.5K, so get on that. Find out all you need to know online.

Kevin McDonald Superstar: A Rock Opera at Stomping Ground Comedy Theater
Kevin McDonald wrote a rock opera. About his life. More explicitly, the Kevin McDonald of The Kids in the Hall wrote a comic rock opera about his time in comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, his possibly-ex-girlfriend and some allegedly “terrible” thing that he did while traveling with (you guessed it) The Kids in the Hall. Now, all of the previous info would get us off the couch, but the best part about this rock opera is that McDonald stars in it, but also performs with a supporting cast made up of local talent from and at Stomping Ground Comedy (1350 Manufacturing St.). See Kevin McDonald Superstar at 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20. Tickets are available online and at the door.

Doktor Kaboom! Look Out! Science is Coming! at Coppell Arts Center
OK, if you’ve been described as “part Mr. Wizard, part Mr. Rogers,” you’re getting a reco from us. All the better if you’re showing off explosive properties and topics like velocity and pressure. There’s clearly a good reason for the name Doktor Kaboom. Kids from 3 to 8, will really be jazzed, but kids of all ages can get down with the science and should grab their safety goggles, memorize as much of the periodic table as possible (no, not really, but why not commit it to memory sooner than later?) and score tickets for the 2 and 6 p.m. shows on Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Coppell Arts Center (505 Travis St., Coppell). They’re $34.06 each and available online.

Sunday, Sept. 21

Tamagotchi USA Road Trip at Galleria Dallas
It was a little traumatizing, a little cute and a lot funny. Anyone who had one went through their own discovery moment. There was even a scene on ER about it: The moment everyone figures out that their Tamagotchi needs a poop-scoop. Now, on the heels of the Tamagotchi Paradise release, Galleria Dallas hosts the Tamagotchi USA Road Trip this Saturday and Sunday. Children of the 1990s and maybe, well, actual children, head to the mall to check out a special shop, games, photo ops and more in a special immersive experience. Check out other Galleria events online.

Monday, Sept. 22

Autumn at the Arboretum: ¡Mundo México!, presented by Reliant
The Dallas Arboretum (8525 Garland Road) brings back its spectacular fall festival, but this year, it’s got a special focus on Mexico and opens Sept. 20, perfectly timed to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. As usual, the programming combines the beauty of nature, art and education, and this time there is even more attention to culture. The gardens are transformed with more than 110,000 pumpkins, gourds and squash, with the Pumpkin Village featuring seven houses, each honoring a Mexican region. And there’s the addition of eight enormous and breathtaking sculptures from Spirit Guides: Fantastical Creatures from the Workshop of Jacobo and María Ángeles. The artists are based in San Martín Tilcajete, a Zapotec community in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the pieces (on loan from Denver Botanic Gardens) are based in Zapotec cosmology. Visit several times as the season changes — Autumn at the Arboretum: ¡Mundo México! runs through Nov. 2. Find out class, event and admission details online.

Continuing Events

Opera Box at Ochre House Theater, through Sept. 20   
Ochre House Theater is really outdoing itself this time with Opera Box. Written and directed by Matthew Posey, the show combines song, dance, puppets, hilarious performances in verse and lots more. A poor family faces their own opioid crisis, then a Tibetan Book of the Dead changes their approach to the future. Opera Box opens Wednesday, Sept. 6, and runs through Sept. 20, but Ochre House offers a lovely gesture by way of a donate-what-you-can performance Monday, Sept. 8. Reserve a set and find out more online.

Double Cut at Cox Playhouse, through Sept. 27
Rover Dramawerks is bringing twists, turns and thrills to the stage with the opening of Double Cut this Thursday, Sept. 11. A diamond heiress (totally relatable, right?) is faced with a stranger who shows up and claims to be her long-dead brother. He’s got all the papers and weird family knowledge, but something is off. Or is she the one with the secret? There’s hysteria, suspicion and a cache of stolen diamonds somewhere. Find out who-done-it, or who’s going to do it as the production runs through Sept. 27 at the Cox Playhouse (1517 H Ave. in Plano). Find tickets online.

Earth Moves at The Bath House Cultural Center, through Sept. 27
Earth Moves, an exhibition by Dallas artist Terri Thoman, will display at The Bath Cultural Center (521 E. Lawthur Drive) through Sept. 27. Themed around “the powerful forces shaping our planet,” the show will feature etchings, monotypes and woodcuts spanning four decades of Thoman’s career and capture the “horror and beauty” of the earth and all that inhabit it. A reception will be held on Saturday to kick off the exhibition between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. More information can be found online.

You Can’t Take It With You at Theatre Arlington, through Sept. 28
It’s one of the most produced plays and Theatre Arlington (305 W. Main St., Arlington) is giving everyone the opportunity to see it, for the first time or on repeat. You Can’t Take It With You combines the Sycamores and the Kirbys for a fateful dinner. Good-hearted Alice and her well-off love Tony want the blessing of their parents for their engagement. But Alice’s family may be a little too odd and unpolished for the upstanding Kirbys. They might come together if they realize… well, we know what the play is called. See opening night (Friday) through Sept. 28 after purchasing tickets online.

Going Home: A Group Exhibition at PDNB Gallery, through Oct. 11
PDNB Gallery will not go quietly, and for that we’re so grateful. The dependable and venerable photography advocates are celebrating 30 years in a brand new location. It may have taken them a bit further from Big D — in Little D, specifically — but the trip is worth it. Going Home, a group exhibition, opens Friday, Sept. 12 with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m., celebrating not only its new home in the basement of the Wells Fargo Bank Building (101 S. Locust, Denton) on the downtown square, but co-directors Missy and Burt Finger’s work as private art dealers there. Check out works from Keith Carter, Earlie Hudnall, Jeanine Michna-Bales and others, as the show runs through Oct. 11. Find more details online.

Hispanic Heritage Month with Joy Reyes art at Galleria Dallas, through Oct. 15
Hispanic Heritage Month begins Monday and Galleria Dallas has already started celebrating with a new Artist Collective exhibition featured in the art window on Level 1 near Sephora. Joy Reyes is a multidisciplinary artist who highlights both social inequities and the beauty of community through themes ranging from motherhood to religion. Her portraits are instantly captivating in their vivid hues and representation of humanity. See the exhibit through Oct. 15. Find out more about Galleria Dallas’s Artist Collective online.

Rusty Scruby and Raychael Stine at Cris Worley Fine Arts, through Oct. 25
CWFA (1845 E. Levee St.) celebrates the opening of two new exhibitions with an artists’ reception from 5 to 7 p.m. this Saturday, Sept. 6. Dallas artist Rusty Scruby explores memory, loss, information distortion and more via pixelations, plays of gradients, and other abstractions in Summer Breeze. New Mexico’s Raychael Stine paints natural elements blended with the celestial to present the tender, the cosmic and sometimes disruptive in Stars and Springs and Stardust Things. See them both through Oct. 25 and find out more on the gallery’s website.

Nasher Public: Jóhann Eyfells, through Oct. 26
The Nasher Sculpture Center (2001 Flora St.) hosts a serene exhibition by Icelandic artist Jóhann Eyfells, through October 26. It’s a selection from Cairns, a body of work to which he contributed throughout his life. He made the various sculptures in a process that inherently opposes the natural behavior of the Earth: He poured molten liquid into the ground to fill gaps, holes and fissures. In a sense, the late Eyfells created beauty out of unknown emptiness. Find out more on the Nasher website.

Roaming Mexico: Laura Wilson at Meadows Museum, through Jan. 11
Now, if you’re thinking, “Wait, I thought that was going to be a book of Laura Wilson’s photographs,” you’re not wrong. The Roaming Mexico title inspiring artist/author events at the likes of Interabang Books in October, is published to accompany the major exhibition of the Meadows Museum opening Sunday, Sept. 14. The show features nearly 90 of Wilson’s photographs documenting more than three decades of the artist's travels and studies across the country. It shows incredible range of Wilson’s talents, of course, but also of the people and culture of Mexico. Subjects sometimes provide a vibrant harmony and other times, offer a distinct dissonance when put in juxtaposition. Don’t miss Wilson’s love letter from the lens, hanging through Jan. 11. Find more online.

Return to Infinity: Yayoi Kusama at the Dallas Museum of Art, through Jan. 18
“All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins,” one of Yayoi Kusama’s iconic “infinity room” installations, will be displayed at the Dallas Museum of Art (1717 N. Harwood St.) for the first time since 2018, starting Wednesday. The immersive exhibition at the DMA envelopes the viewer in a trippy, tangible display of art history. Kusama hails from the mythic '60s art scene. “Pumpkins,” created in 1991, incorporates many themes characteristic of the legendary artist’s work: infinity, the sublime, and obsessive repetition. And, of course, pumpkins — so many pumpkins. To book your appointment to honor these pumpkins, visit the DMA’s website.

Groundbreakers: Post-War Japan and Korea from the DMA Collection at The Crow Museum of Asian Art at UT Dallas, through July 26
If you missed it at the Dallas Arts District location of The Crow, now’s your chance to see Groundbreakers: Post-War Japan and Korea from the DMA Collection… and consider that second degree. The Crow Museum of Asian Art at UT Dallas offers up the fantastic exhibition that includes pieces created in fascinating ways: with feet, with a mouth, by pouring paint onto a canvas, and other methods that channeled convention after the considerably conventional 1950s. Don’t miss it. Find out more online.