Weekend Event Planner

Music fests, world premiere dance and dazzling magic headline the best weekend events in Houston

There's a little something for everybody this weekend in Houston, with great events planned for lovers of theater, music, film, dance and food. But biggest of all will be a festival full of acts ranging across the musical spectrum.

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, June 4

Society for the Performing Arts presents The Illusionists
For its latest show, the Society of Performing Arts welcomes The Illusionists, a show that might be as entertaining as anything else you'd see on the Jones Hall stage. Featuring seven illusionists wowing the audience with dazzling magic, it's a production that's not to be missed. The show runs through June 6.

Vince Gill in concert
Even if he never makes another album, Vince Gill will still be considered country music royalty for the rest of his life thanks to an illustrious career that has included more than 20 Top 10 hits, not to mention a marriage to another popular singer, Amy Grant. Gill will perform a retrospective of his career at this concert at theArena Theatre.

Friday, June 5

Maravilloso! 2015: The Water Festival
With all the havoc that water has caused in Houston the past month, it'll be nice to see it put to a more uplifting use. Maravilloso! 2015: The Water Festival at Discovery Green will feature two nights of performances using the park's water, including dancers performing on glowing flowers floating on Kinder Lake and "Drench" from Karen Stokes Dance.

METdance presents Sizzling Summer Dance
It'll be a dance-off Friday, as METdance will kick off their summer programming with Sizzling Summer Dance, a night of dance under the stars at Miller Outdoor Theatre. Among the performances will be two world premieres and one of METdance company's most celebrated works — "Consumed" by Kate Skarpetowska.

Saturday, June 6

Free Press Summer Fest 2015
We named the Free Press Summer Fest as one of the 12 best summer concerts in Houston, and it's not hard to see why: With nearly 80 different acts, including big names like Skrillex, R. Kelly, Weezer, St. Vincent, Tove Lo, Lecrae and Belle and Sebastian, it would be a big draw no matter where it was held. Speaking of, make sure you go to NRG Park instead of Eleanor Tinsley Park, as recent flooding forced the move of the two-day festival.

Texas Folklife presents Accordion Kings and Queens Festival
On the opposite end of the musical spectrum from the goings-on at the Free Press Summer Fest will be this festival celebrating the accordion and genres that use it well, like Cajun, zydeco and polka. The 26th annual free festival at Miller Outdoor Theatre will feature performances from Debra Peters and the Love Saints, Jerome Batiste and the Zydeko Players, and Los Texmaniacs, who will use the festival as an album release party.

Sunday, June 7

Film screening: MFAH presents The Apu Trilogy
If you missed the first two screenings of The Apu Trilogy at the Museum Fine Arts, Houston, you're in luck: Weather issues forced the museum to push back its schedule, meaning that the final two films, Aparajito and Apu Sansar, will both screen on Sunday. Considered the greatest movies in Indian history and some of best films in movie history period, this is an opportunity cinephiles rarely get.

Straits presents the Fourth Annual Curry Crawl
Twelve of Houston's top chefs will square off in the Fourth Annual Curry Crawl at Straits, serving tasty bites inspired by the spice curry. Among the chefs who will be participating will be Michael Sanguinetti of Commonwealth, Kevin Naderi of Lilo & Ella, Brittany Eaden of The Tasting Room and Omar Pereany of Peska Seafood Culture. The event will serve as a fundraiser for Spaulding for Children.

The Illusionists will be at Jones Hall through June 6.

Photo by Joan Marcus

The Illusionists will be at Jones Hall through June 6.

unspecified

Movie Review

Billie Eilish takes fans behind the scenes in immersive 3D tour film

Photo by Henry Hwu/courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Billie Eilish in Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D.

In 2021, at the tender age of 19, singer Billie Eilish was already the subject of a documentary, The World’s a Little Blurry. At that point, she had only released one album, so the film threatened to feel too early for such treatment. The ensuing five years have only made her a bigger star, though, so in many ways that movie now feels prescient for the person on display in the new concert documentary with the unwieldy title of Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D.

Directed by Eilish and blockbuster filmmaker James Cameron, the film takes viewers inside Eilish’s 2024-2025 tour in support of her latest album, 2023’s Hit Me Hard and Soft. Filmed mostly at her series of shows in Manchester, England, the movie is a showcase for Eilish’s music, but it also serves as a smaller exploration of the type of person she is, as well as the impact she has had on her legion of fans.

The draw of the film is the use of Cameron’s beloved 3D technology, which he has employed in each of the three Avatar films. Unlike in those films, where the 3D has the odd effect of making the visuals too realistic for their own good, the technique brings an intimacy to the large-scale show that underscores the unique bond the singer has with her supporters.

Eilish and Cameron go back and forth between performances at the concert to behind-the-scenes sequences, detailing the enormous effort it takes to put on a show like that and how Eilish spends her time getting ready for it. As in The World’s a Little Blurry, this film continues to portray the singer as down-to-Earth, someone who yearns to maintain the connection to her fans that she’s had since she released her first single, “Ocean Eyes,” 10 years ago.

And as the many emotional songs in Eilish’s concert playlist prove, the feeling from the crowd is mutual. While Eilish has multiple bangers like “Bad Guy,” “Therefore I Am,” and the Charli XCX collaboration “Guess,” it’s the sad songs like “Everything I Wanted,” “Happier Than Ever,” and the Oscar-winning Barbie anthem, “What Was I Made For?” that hit the hardest. The depth of feeling emanating from her many sobbing fans singing along to crushing songs cannot be understated.

For audiences of the film, though, it’s the breadth of camera angles and shot choices that make it truly dynamic. There are cameras everywhere, including in the crowd, inside a cube at the center of the stage that rises and descends, following Eilish as she traipses every inch of the long, rectangular stage, and even a small one Eilish uses to bring an extra personal touch to the in-arena screen. Combined, they capture the complete energy of the concert, something that is not always the case in a film of this type.

Eilish has almost as many movies — two — as she does albums — three — which borders on overkill for a singer of her age. But both her music and the movies show her to be a person who knows the responsibility of being a celebrity, someone who understands that her fans are the reason she’s famous at all. Her career may go up or down from here, but it’s clear she’s already made a huge impact on those who love her most.

---

Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D opens in theaters on May 8.

movies film