Bring along your dog and celebrate the 16th annual Dog Days of Denton, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, May 29 and 30, 2009. The free event in Denton, Texas features a full menu of family- and dog-friendly activities.
Check out the complete festival listing on our sister site, DogTipper.com.
Drink a toast to the Texas Hill Country during a wine and beer-tasting at Wein & Saengerfest, a day to savor all that the city of New Braunfels has to offer.
Contests:
• Let your inner Lucy Ricardo come out to play as your feet turn purple in the Grape Stomp, where you can make your mark on an "I got Stomped at Wein & Saegerfest" souvenir T-shirt.
• Local eateries vie for the best vino-inspired dishes in the Chef's Showdown. If you find yourself inspired by the culinary creations, check out the food seminar and the farmer's market.
Music: If daytime performances of polka and zydeco tunes get your toes tapping, then move your feet to the beat of live music during the evening street dance.
Shopping: From clothing to crafts, more than 40 vendor booths will be brimming with merchandise and an art market will offer an array of wonders for your walls.
Wrangle the kids in the car on Memorial Day weekend and head to the city of Conroe for a three-day tribute to a tied and true Texas tradition, the rodeo. The seats at the Lone Star Expo Center will be a sea of Stetsons as spectators get set to watch more than 2,500 cowboys compete in a round up of rodeo events from team roping to barrel racing.
Competitions
• Featuring the perfect ingredients for a good time, over 100 teams will vie to be Kings of the 'cue in the BBQ Cook-Off.
Attractions
• From tilt-a-whirls to merry-go-rounds, both the young and the young at heart will enjoy the carnival.
• Move your feet to the beat of the three bands that take to the Houston Freightline Stage each night.
• Peruse for purchased among more than 70 vendors stalls.
Texas Music Festival and Village Fair in League City
A fixture on League City's event calendar since 1954, the Texas Music Festival and Village Fair is a three-day Lone Star shindig which offers toe-tapping tunes and good, old-fashioned family fun.
Music is the driving force of the festival, with both country crooning and southern rock sounds reverberating through the park. However, if the roar of a motorcycle's engine is music to your ears, get revved up for the choppers on display at Bike Fest.
Contests: Watch contestants slather on the sauce at the BBQ competition, where participants vie to be top chef in four categories-- pork, fajita, chicken and beef. The festival's food theme continues with an apple pie contest.
Children's Activities: Texas tykes can cuddle cute critters in the petting zoo, thrill to such Big Top-inspired entertainment as juggling an aerial acts at the Star Family Circus Spectacular and enjoy a wide range of rides and games at the youth-designated Kids Zone. A carnival will also set up for both the young and the young at heart.
Shopping: Browse for bargains among the booths at the arts & crafts fair.
2nd Annual Hardin County MusicFest Comes to Kountze
The sounds of country crooning and rock riffs will mix with the roar of revving engines during the Hardin County MusicFest. Now in its second year, the festival welcomes Cory Morrow, Ian Moore, Keith Frank and Mickey and the Motorcars to the stage during two days filled with a 4 X 4 and Track Show, BBQ and gumbo cook-off, a motorcycle rally helicopter rides and games for the little ones in the KidzFest area.
When: May 15 - 16, 2009
Where: Hardin County Entertainment Ranch in Kountze
Raise your glass to Austin's first annual ode to ale, which will offer lager lovers not only samples of suds from regional breweries, but also a bevy of beer-themed activities.
Contests
• Sign up for the Beer Games Competition, where contestants find out who is Boss of the Toss as they throw washers, quarters, darts, horseshoes, empty cans, empty kegs and more. Do you think you know all about your favorite drink? Battle to be the best in a beer trivia competition. Proud of the pints that produced your beer gut? Show off your stomach in the beer belly competition.
• Combining food with beer's frothy foam, cooks fire up the grill in the BBQ Challenge. Austin area restaurants will vie for top prize in several beer-soaked categories, as will weekend grillers in separate competitions.
• Cheer on mans' best friend as their four fleet feet run for the finish line in the chihuahua races.
Other Attractions
• Get revved up for the lumberjack show as professionals perform in a chainsaw race,and compete in standing block chopping and underhand chopping competitions.
* Learn tricks of the trade from top chefs during a BBQ seminar.
• Sing along to songs performed on two stages.
• Search for a souvenir of the sudsy shindig among booth brimming with merchandise in the arts and crafts market.
Let the buoyant beat of Tejano tunes lead you to a Memorial Day weekend extravaganza which has celebrated Hispanic culture annually since 1969. Recognized as the largest Latino event in Central Texas, attendees can stroll for souvenirs among the array of arts and crafts vendor booths, clap for the contestants crowned Fiesta Amistad Queen and Princess, and enjoy family time with participation in a variety of games. A pachanga with purpose, since its inception Fiesta Amistad has helped to generate approximately one million dollars in scholarships to students in need.
Among the performances during the two-day event, attendees will be mesmerized by the kaleidoscopic colors of Round Rock Ballet Folkorico's swirling skirts as dancers move in time to mariachi music on stage. If the dance inspires you to move your feet, get ready for toe-tapping sounds of live music acts which play until the wee hours. (In 2009, headliners include Grupo Fantasma and Grammy Award winners Little Joe y La Familia.)
When: May 23 - 24, 2009
Where: 301 W. Bagdad, behind the McConico Baca Municipal Complex in Round Rock, Texas.
Dragonfly Days Festival Celebrates 10th Anniversary in May
Dragonfly Days Festival
When: May 21 - 24, 2009
Where: Weslaco, Texas and the surrounding area.
Like fairies hovering overhead, the dance of dainty dragonflies in the skies of South Texas have captured the hearts and imaginations of Weslaco residents. Sharing the area with over 100 varieties of the winged wonders, the city's first homage to the interesting insects in 1999 has since become an an annual ode to "oding"-- the hobby of hunting dragonflies and damselflies.
Sponsored by the Estero Llano Grande State Park World Birding Center site and the Valley Nature Center in Weslaco, amateurs inquisitive about insects can sign up for the Beginner's Odonata Workshop trip, which offers an overview of the dragonflies living in the Weslaco and Mercedes area, while entomology enthusiasts and newbies alike can book trips into the upper valley, mid valley and lower valley to delve in-depth into the world of the dragonfly.
Seminars and socials give attendees a chance to gain insight into the insect realm and mingle with like-minded lovers of dragonflies.
Visitors attending the Dragonfly Days Festival can stay at the event's host hotel, the Holiday Inn Express in Weslaco. When reserving a room, request the festival rate, using the code DFD.
For more information regarding the Dragonfly Days Festival or the Dragonfly Family Nature Day, a child-oriented event at the Valley Nature Center on May 16, 2009:
Bring along your dog and celebrate the 16th annual Dog Days of Denton, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, May 29 and 30, 2009. The free event in Denton, Texas features a full menu of family- and dog-friendly activities.
A fixture on League City's event calendar since 1954, the Texas Music Festival and Village Fair is a three-day Lone Star shindig which offers toe-tapping tunes and good, old-fashioned family fun.
Dragonfly Days Festival
