weekend event planner

Here are the top 14 things to do in Houston this weekend

Top Chef judges Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons

Catch the premiere of Top Chef on Thursday.

Photo by Stephanie Diani/Bravo

This weekend is all about reality — TV that is — as Top Chef debuts with Houston-centric episodes and Dancing with the Stars comes to town. Speaking of stars, don't miss Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in Concert, a screening paired with a Houston Symphony performance.

Crooner Maxwell hits H-Town and a sundae Funday is a sweet way to end the fun. Here are your best bets for your weekend.

Thursday, March 3

Official Top Chef Houston Watch Party
Guests are invited to watch the season premiere of Top Chef Houston alongside notable local chefs, who have assisted in shaping the city’s culinary community. The free public event will feature music by DJ (and co-owner of Blood Bros. BBQ) Robin Wong, and guest appearances by Houston artists David Maldonado, who created the series’ Houston logo, and GONZO247, who designed the show’s production set. 5:30 pm.

Rock Cats Rescue presents The Amazing Acro-Cats
The Amazing Acro-cats (featuring Tuna and the Rock Cats) are a troupe of rescued house cats. This two-hour "purrformance" features talented felines rolling on balls, riding skateboards, jumping through hoops, and more. The finale is the only all-cat band in the world. The current band lineup features St. Clawed on guitar, Bowie on drums, Nue on keyboard, and four new members: Ahi on woodblocks and Albacore on cowbell, Roux on trumpet, and Oz on saxophone. There's even a chicken — Cluck Norris — rockin' the tambourine. 7 pm.

Venardos Circus
This unique, Broadway-style circus, created by former Ringling Bros. ringmaster Kevin Venardos, wraps animal-free circus acts into a format dubbed “The American Circus with the heart of a Broadway Show.” Guests can expect to be transported back in time to a centuries-old tradition, but one that has been reinvented for the next generation. With an assortment of aerialists, acrobats, juggling, etc., this experience will entertain both adults and kids alike. Through Sunday, March 13. 7 pm (1, 4 and 7 pm Saturday; 1 and 4 pm Sunday).

Friday, March 4

United Way presents Women Who Rock
This fundraiser event salutes extraordinary parents in our community and empowers them to continue their education through the Women Who Rock Child Care Scholarship. This year’s keynote speaker, business and life coach Retha Nichole, will further explore this year's theme, "One Woman Can Make a Difference, Together We Can Rock the World." The scholarship underwrites child care for deserving young parents who are committed to continuing their education after completing high school. 11:30 am.

Maxwell in concert with Anthony Hamilton and Joe
Get ready for a night of three soul-singing men, hitting audiences with wall-to-wall, seductive, sexy music. First, we have headliner Maxwell, the smooth, silky singer who gave us the baby-making classic Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite over 25 years ago. As for the opening acts, veteran crooners Anthony Hamilton (who held his own alongside Musiq Soulchild during that Valentine's Day Verzuz a couple weeks back) and Joe will get things all nice and moist at the top of the show. 7 pm.

Dancing with the Stars: Live
This onstage extravaganza will feature favorite dancers from the hit ABC show, as well as special guest star Kaitlyn Bristowe. The all-new production will feature fan-favorite routines from the TV series and new numbers choreographed just for the live audiences. The show will showcase the professional dancers in a brand-new production showcasing every type of dance style, ranging from tango to foxtrot, cha-cha to waltz — and everything in between. 8 pm.

Houston Symphony presents Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in Concert
The battle between good and evil rages on in the final chapter of the original Star Wars trilogy. Luke, Leia, Han, and the whole Rebel Alliance seek to destroy the Death Star and face a final showdown with Darth Vader and the Emperor. Audiences will feel the full splendor and Force of John Williams’s incredible score — from 20th Century Fox fanfare to closing credits _ as the Houston Symphony accompanies the movie, live. 8 pm (2:30 and 8 pm Saturday; 2:30 pm Sunday).

Saturday, March 5

The Super Happy Toy Show and Art Market

Back by popular demand, the biggest toy event of the year returns, and there's only one toy store that could pull it off -- Super Happy Incredible Toys! This event will be an entire weekend filled with two full days of fun, excitement, toys and beer. This all-ages event will showcase some of the best toy vendors and most talented artisans with many opportunities to purchase from both. Taps will be flowing as well, so enjoy your favorite Saint Arnold's beverage while you shop. 11 am.

Archway Gallery presents Larry Garmezy: "Stuck" opening reception
Larry Garmezy is one quirky photographer. A retired geologist, he’s spent his life as a photographer inspired -- by nature’s beauty and his unique, digital, photographic techniques -- are quite stunning. But what does a photographer do when his muse is taken away? Garmezy’s show is a unique, often playful, chronicle of a disrupted life, a deserted downtown, and how stuck we, as individuals, remain as our society ripples and shifts. Through Thursday, March 31. 5 pm.

Redbud Gallery presents Darden Smith: "Western Skies" opening reception
Redbud Gallery presents this exhibition by Austin-based artist Darden Smith. Smith’s multi-media practice spans photography, drawing, illustration, video, songs, essays, and performance. He seeks to find the humor in the mundane, the beauty in the rubble and the grace of the overlooked detail in order to translate what he sees into something new. As a songwriter, Smith is rooted in the Texas traditions, and as such, the power of story is prevalent in his works. Through Thursday, March 29. 6 pm.

Opera Leggera presents She's Like A Song - A New Orleans Style Evening of Jazz
Opera Leggera will present an intimate evening of jazz in honor of International Women's Day. Performed by Houston's jazz musicians and singers, this performance will showcase a diverse repertoire of jazz works and internationally recognized, musical compositions written about, composed by, or made famous by renowned women. Ermelinda Cuellar will pay tribute to the great women of song, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday, among others. 7 pm.

Sunday, March 6

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents "Dawoud Bey: An American Project" opening day
Photographer Dawoud Bey portrays communities and histories that have been underrepresented or even unseen. From portraits in Harlem to nocturnal landscapes, classic street photography to large-scale studio portraits, his images combine an ethical imperative with an unparalleled mastery of his medium. This exhibit spans the breadth of Bey’s career through nearly 90 works, from the 1970s to the present. Through Monday, May 30. 12:30 pm.

Sundae Funday Anniversary Party
SweetCup Gelato will be hosting a 10-year celebration party at their gelato shop on Montrose Blvd. A timed "Cone Contest" will take place at 4:30 pm and the person who can hold and eat 6 scoops on top of a cone the fastest will win 10 pints. The party will also feature limited-edition, RodeoHouston flavors. SweetCup will also be donating 10 percent of proceeds to Second Servings of Houston to support the nonprofit’s mission to fight hunger and end food waste in Houston. 3 pm.

Musica Tra Amici presents Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio #1 in B flat major D898
For this event, violinist Eric Halen and cellist Brinton Averil, two of Houston Symphony's most beloved musicians, will be performing with California-based pianist Ayke Agus. They will perform Franz Schubert's beautiful B flat major trio, considered one of the greatest gems of the trio literature, and several delectable and fun, short pieces by Franz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz, which are a particular specialty of Dr. Agus. 7 pm.

event-planner

Where the River Took Us

Texas Pulitzer winner discusses new podcast about life after July 4th flood

Photo courtesy of Texas Monthly

Aaron Parsley's new podcast "Where the River Took Us" looks at how the flood has impacted his own family and others this past year.

Less than a year ago, the Guadalupe River swallowed everything in its path. Houses. Roadways. Lives. For many Central Texans, time now splits cleanly into a before and an after, and for Aaron Parsley, senior editor at Texas Monthly, that divide is deeply, irreversibly personal. After winning a 2026 Pulitzer Prize for his firsthand account of the flood, he's expanding the narrative in Where the River Took Us, a seven-episode limited narrative podcast out now.

On July 4, Parsley's family was spending the holiday weekend together at their river house on the Guadalupe: Aaron and his husband Patrick; Aaron's father, Clint, and sister, Alissa; and Alissa's husband, Lance, and their two children, Clay and Rosemary. In the early, still dark hours of the morning, flood waters tore through the Texas Hill Country in what quickly became one of the deadliest natural disasters in recent history.

Aaron escaped. Patrick escaped. Lance escaped. Clint escaped. Alissa escaped, saving her daughter's life. But Alissa's 20-month-old son, Clay, did not.

Telling the story
In the days that followed, Parsley did what writers do: he wrote. Feverishly, at 1, or 3, or 4 in the morning, he wrote. His first-person account of the flood, which started out as an email to his boss, was the cover story for Texas Monthly last August. The story became an instant landmark piece — intimate and devastating in a way only someone who had lived it could make it. In the beginning of May, 2026, the story won Parsley his Pulitzer for feature writing.

Following up on the original story, Parsley has also written a new feature for Texas Monthly, a quiet reflection on life for his family since the flood, grief's persistence, and the strange, ongoing work of being changed by something.

In conversation with CultureMap, Parsley — speaking from his home office in Lockhart, where he and Patrick moved in December — was candid about the decision to keep his work focused on something so personal and traumatic.

"I will say that this experience itself, and then the story, and the response that I got to the story, was so overwhelming in all different kinds of ways," Parsley says. "It would have been on my mind no matter what. I was thinking and asking questions and exploring what this experience means. So, to be able to make that part of my job, I think, is a real privilege and a real opportunity."

The podcast features voices beyond Parsley's own. Listeners will hear from his sister, Alissa. From a father who lost his daughter at Camp Mystic. From the people who took Aaron and Patrick in when they crawled out of the river that morning. From neighbors who are still out there, still rebuilding.

Sitting down to formally interview his own family, including his husband and Alissa, was something else entirely.

"It was extremely strange," he says. "It was emotional. It made me feel really proud of them. Every single person showed up in the best way possible for something like this... And ultimately, those conversations are unforgettable to me, and I really appreciate that I was able to do that. I guess it sort of provided this moment for us to take some time, and sit face-to-face, and ask each other questions, and explore our experience and our lives since."

Being in the podcast studio helped, he says. "It's dark, it's quiet, we're right in front of each other. It's peaceful in there. It is an intimate setting, and I think it serves the purpose that we were looking for, which is to open up and share."

Moving forward
What Parsley is describing feels beyond journalism, though it is, of course, that too. It's a reckoning with his own personal grief, his faith, his relationship with those he loves, and his priorities in life.

"I was going to be looking at this experience no matter what," he says. "It felt right to be able to do that exploration about what it means to be a survivor of something like this."

The flood has reshaped nearly everything in his life. The move out to a smaller, quieter, and less hectic community than Austin happened faster than it might have otherwise. Patrick, a talented painter, is now pursuing his art full-time. Parsley describes a new relationship with spirituality, a changed family dynamic, and a clarity about priorities that comes from simultaneously losing so much, but not everything.

"It's been life-changing," says Parsley. "I've embraced that. I've wanted to prolong the experience of being changed by something. Continuing to write about it, and learn about it, and share about it has been a way that I can ensure that this thing that happened continues to shape my life."

Parsley also adds that the podcast is an immersive experience. Listeners don't just see the event that changed lives; they get access to the feelings and the unexpected details that come later.

"It's a depiction of what it feels like to survive something, and all these things that come with that," says Parsley. 'You don't just get back to normal life. There's all this stuff you carry with you, and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to explore that and present what we find in a way that I think is heartfelt and ultimately beautiful."

Where the River Took Us is written and hosted by Aaron Parsley and executive produced by Melissa Reese. Additional production and editing are by Patrick Michels and Sara Kinney. It is produced, engineered, and scored by Brian Standefer, with story editing by J. K. Nickell, fact-checking by Doyin Oyeniyi, and artwork by Emily Kimbro and Victoria Millner. Studio musicians are Jeff Queen and Peter Shults.

The podcast launched May 26 with the first two episodes immediately available on Apple Podcasts and other major podcasting platforms. All seven episodes will drop by June 30.

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