These are the 13 best things to do in Fort Worth this weekend
April 18,2024
See full CultureMap article by Alex Bentley here.
This weekend around Fort Worth gets off to a fast start with competing (or complementary?) art festivals in downtown Fort Worth, as well as a huge gymnastics competition. Other choices over the next four days include three local theater productions, screenings of an acclaimed film, a symphony concert, two country concerts, a car-focused festival, a dance production, and more.
Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.
Thursday, April 18
Main St. Fort Worth Arts Festival
The annual Main St. Fort Worth Arts Festival showcases over 200 jury-selected visual artists, live music on two stages, authentic local cuisine, the family-friendly “TCC Makers Zone,” craft beer, wine tastings, and more, across 18 square blocks throughout Downtown. An estimated $4 million worth of art is expected to be sold from local, regional, and national artists representing 15 artistic media, including sculpture, painting, photography, wood, glass, jewelry, metalwork, printmaking, mixed media, and more. The festival takes place through Sunday along Main Street in downtown Fort Worth. Here are tips for parking and more.
Fort Worth Art Fair
TheFort Worth Art Fair is an annual outdoor art and music festival designed to provide Fort Worth and North Texas artists and musicians with a place to showcase their talent along side the national touring Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival. Taking place through Sunday in Sundance Square, it will feature a variety of local galleries and exhibitions alongside more than 20 local bands and musicians from a variety of genres.
2024 NCAA Women’s National Collegiate Gymnastics Championship
The NCAA Women’s National Collegiate Gymnastics Championship comes to Fort Worth for the seventh year. The event will will feature the top eight NCAA Women’s Gymnastics teams - including Alabama, Oklahoma, Florida, Utah, Arkansas, LSU, California, and Stanford - and numerous individual competitors as they compete for the title of National Champion. The event takes place at Dickies Arena on Thursday and Saturday.
Theatre Wesleyan presents Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Theatre Wesleyan will be one of the first institutions in the country to produce Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, an electro-pop opera about redemption and renewal of the soul based on a scandalous slice of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Natasha is a beautiful ingénue visiting Moscow while she waits for her beloved fiancé Andrey to return from the war. In a moment of indiscretion, she is seduced by the dashing (but already married) Anatole and her position in society is ruined. Her only hope lies with Pierre, the lonely outsider whose love and compassion for Natasha may be the key to her redemption, and to the renewal of his own soul. The musical runs through Sunday at Texas Wesleyan University.
Friday, April 19
Magnolia at the Modern: Problemista
Written and directed by Julio Torres, Problemista is a surreal adventure through the equally treacherous worlds of New York City and the U.S. immigration system. Alejandro (Torres) is an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador, struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in New York City. As time on his work visa runs out, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast (Tilda Swinton) becomes his only hope to stay in the country and realize his dream. The film will screen six times through Sunday at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents "Wagner’s Walküre and Sibelius’ Sixth"
Die Walküre is the second of Wagner’s four-opera Ring cycle. The first act narrates the tale of a forbidden romance with Wagnerian grandeur and themes that call the cycle’s other operas and characters to mind. FWSO Music Director Robert Spano leads the orchestra and star vocalists in a special concert version of this act, preceded by Sibelius’ Symphony No. 6. There will be three concerts through Sunday at Bass Performance Hall.
Stolen Shakespeare Guild presents Guys and Dolls
Considered by many to be the "perfect" American musical, Guys and Dolls is set in colorful 1950s New York City complete with gamblers, missionaries, and chorus girls with a score by Frank Loesser. The musical, presented by Stolen Shakespeare Guild through May 5 at Arts Fort Worth, features beloved songs like "Luck Be a Lady" and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat."
Jon Wolfe in concert
There are a lot of big-time stars who grace the stage at Billy Bob's Texas, but just as often they showcase talented and hard-working musicians with smaller but loyal fanbases. Jon Wolfe has seven albums to his credit, most recently 2021's Dos Corazones, and only one of them — 2015's Natural Man — made any kind of impact on the Billboard Country charts. But you can expect the venue to be packed once again for him, as he's a regular in Fort Worth.
Saturday, April 20
National Theatre Live: The Motive and the Cue
1964: Richard Burton, newly married to Elizabeth Taylor, is to play the title role in an experimental new Broadway production of Hamlet under John Gielgud’s exacting direction. But as rehearsals progress, two ages of theatre collide and the collaboration between actor and director soon threatens to unravel. This recording of a live London production will screen at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
FuelFest
A week after NASCAR rolled through town, FuelFest will take over Texas Motor Speedway with a day jam-packed with show cars, race cars, movie cars, special curated zones, and more. The event includes appearances by Tyrese Gibson and Cody Walker (brother of Paul Walker), concerts, other attractions and activities, and more.
Casa Mañana presents Mary Poppins Jr.
Mary Poppins, the practically perfect nanny, takes center stage in this Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious adventure based on the award-winning Broadway musical and classic Walt Disney film. Using a combination of magic and common sense, Mary Poppins must teach the children in her charge how to value each other again. She takes the children on many magical and memorable adventures, but Jane and Michael aren’t the only ones upon whom she has a profound effect. The production runs through May 12 at Casa Mañana.
Ballet Frontier presents Whimsical Tales
Whimsical Tales: Carnival of the Animals & Aurora's Wedding will include live music by Midway Symphony and feature favorite fairytale characters like Princess Aurora from The Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood, and more. Ballet Frontier will present performances on both Saturday and Sunday at I.M. Terrell High School.
Kolby Cooper in concert
Country singer Kolby Cooper came out of the East Texas town of Palestine just three years out of high school, with no label or industry machine in place. Since then, his songs have garnered millions of streams on Spotify, solidifying him as a voice of the future for Texas country music. He released his debut album, Boy From Anderson County To The Moon, in 2022. He'll play at Billy Bob's Texas.