North Texas doesn’t do quiet weekends in late September, and this one might be the busiest of the fall. The State Fair opens Friday. There’s a German festival in McKinney, a Broadway legend at the Meyerson, a honky-tonk headliner at Billy Bob’s, a baseball team that dances between pitches and the Indigo Girls downtown on Sunday night. Here’s how to pace yourself, where to eat and a few tips that’ll save you money and aggravation.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
The tuba gets there first. Somewhere under a striped tent on Marktplatz, an oompah band finds its footing, and the sound rolls down Main Street past the limestone storefronts. By the time you reach the gate, the air smells like grilled sausage, and a few hundred strangers are getting ready to do the chicken dance together without a trace of embarrassment.
That is Oktoberfest in Fredericksburg, and this year it runs October 2 through 4.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
We already told you the festival was coming back. What nobody’s told you yet is what’s actually new on the shelves this year, and that’s the part worth planning a grocery trip around.
The short version: Central Market is running its Hatch celebration from August 5 through August 18, with two free in-store events bookending the season, and a genuinely different product lineup than last year’s. The chain has been doing this since a single pallet of peppers sold out in ten minutes at the Austin store back in August 1995, and thirty-one years in, they’ve apparently decided the answer to “what else can we do with a chile” still hasn’t run dry.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Brownwood isn’t a place most Dallas or Fort Worth diners think to plan a trip around, but come October, it might be worth the three-hour drive. Feels Like Home Festival has announced the first wave of barbecue joints joining its third annual return on Saturday, October 3, 2026, and the lineup reads like a highlight reel of what’s happening in Texas barbecue right now, not just the usual suspects.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Spring in North Texas brings a full slate of outdoor gatherings, and in Richardson, one event has become a seasonal mainstay: the annual Crawfish & Music Festival hosted by The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany.
Now in its 14th year, the festival returns April 18 with a day centered on the convivial tradition of the crawfish boil. What began as a parish gathering has grown into a community-wide event, drawing families, food enthusiasts, and first-time visitors.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Festival organizers at The Fort Worth Stock Show Syndicate today announced the official 2026 BBQ Pitmasters lineup for the Syndicate Smokedown & Music Festival, returning Saturday, April 18, 2026, to the historic Fort Worth Stockyards for its milestone 5th anniversary. Tickets are on sale now at SyndicateSmokedown.com.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Food festivals can be joyful, strange, reverent, and occasionally a little unhinged—but at their best, they reveal how deeply a single ingredient can shape a community’s identity. Around the world, people gather not just to eat, but to honor the crops, animals, and culinary traditions that have sustained them for centuries. These celebrations transform ordinary ingredients into symbols of pride, creativity, and heritage. From parades held in a guinea pig’s honor to dangerous hill chases after runaway cheese, these festivals show how food can be playful, ceremonial, and even heroic. Each one tells a story of the land, the climate, and the people who have built their culture around what grows—or walks—on it.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
The 2025 Chefs for Farmers Food & Wine Festival in Dallas is set to be a culinary celebration like no other. Taking place from October 29 to November 2, 2025, at Old City Park, the festival will feature a series of events, culminating in the main event. The festival brings together top chefs, local farmers, and food enthusiasts to celebrate Texas’ rich culinary heritage and the farm-to-table movement.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
