weekend event planner

These are the 14 best things to do in Houston this weekend

Let’s face it – it’s all about Taylor Swift this weekend.

Her new album The Life of a Showgirl will drop this Friday and there will be many celebrations going on in the city, from listening parties at Sig’s Lagoon, Pizaro's Pizza Napoletana and Rooftop Cinema Club Uptown to weekend-long release parties at such movie houses as Alamo Drafthouse LaCenterra and River Oaks Theatre.

Of course, lots of other things are popping off this weekend, from the Original Greek Festival to the Southern Smoke Festival to a “PAWZtober Fest.” And, if you have a friend or a loved one who’s a teacher, take them out on World Teachers’ Day this Sunday – maybe even get them tipsy as hell at the Shaboozey concert.

Thursday, October 2

59th Annual Original Greek Festival
A cornerstone of the local fall festival season and the largest of its kind in the nation, the Original Greek Festival features homemade Greek food, traditional Greek dancing, all sorts of authentic shopping, and an opportunity to learn more about the Greek Orthodox faith and culture. The family-friendly, three-day festival also offers domestic craft beers, authentic Greek beer Fix Hellas, plus a variety of imported Greek wines available by the bottle and glass. 5 pm (11 am Friday and Saturday).

Mid Main Houston presents First Thursday Block Party
Mid Main’s First Thursday Block Party returns with live music, art, food, and activations, this time benefiting Camp For All, a nonprofit that transforms the world for children and adults with challenging illnesses, disabilities, and special needs. Sorry, Sarah, Sam Turner and the Cactus Cats, and Davey Knowles will be performing live outside, while live mural painting and sculptures by Scrapdaddy will be some of the art activations going down. Saint Arnold Brewing, 8th Wonder Brewery, Condesa Gin will come with the drinks. 6 pm.

Cirque du Soleil: OVO
Cirque du Soleil: OVO features an all-new production that transports the audience into a hidden ecosystem alive with movement, color, and acrobatics. Agile insects crawl, flutter, and leap through an explosion of life, celebrating nature’s beauty with Cirque du Soleil’s signature awe-inspiring performances. Composed of 100 people from 25 different countries, including 53 artists, OVO (“egg” in Portuguese) brings to the stage high-level acrobatic acts redefining the limits of the human body. 7 pm (3 and 7 pm Saturday; 1 and 5 pm Sunday).

Friday, October 3

ARTECHOUSE presents Julius Horsthuis: "Fractal Worlds" opening day
ARTECHOUSE Studio and visual artist Julius Horsthuis invite audiences to step inside the infinite, exploring how mathematics shapes not only our physical world but also our perception, emotion, and imagination. Visitors can go on a cinematic four-part fractal journey with 16K visuals and 31-channel Hyperreal sound within ARTECHOUSE's 270-degree Immersion Gallery. They can also step inside ARTECHOUSE's infinity room, where kaleidoscopic fractal formulas take visitors into other dimensions. Through Sunday, March 1. 10 am.

Gabby's Dollhouse Live
Yes, there is a Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie currently in multiplexes. But if you really want to blow your kids’ minds, take them to Gabby’s Dollhouse Live, based on the global preschool sensation from DreamWorks Animation. In this new musical show, Gabby uncovers a special acorn that needs the magical touch of a rainbow to grow. But when CatRat causes a color cat-astrophe and breaks the rainbow, Gabby and the Gabby Cats must find the colors again to set things right. 6 pm.

Moody Center for the Arts presents Moody Project Wall: Guadalupe Hernandez opening reception
Moody Center for the Arts will celebrate original work from Guadalupe Hernandez at the opening reception for the Fall 2025 Moody Project Wall. Organized in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month, the event will include remarks from the artist and a special offering of tamales and Mexican hot chocolate. Guests will learn more about the work, titled "Hijos de la Virgen morena," and the creative contributions of Rice students who crafted papel picado elements through a series of artist-led workshops. Through Saturday, December 20. 6 pm.

Botanica presents The Cursed Cauldron
The Cursed Cauldron is casting its spell once again with a mystical metamorphosis. After two successful seasonal runs, the beloved spooky pop-up has found its permanent annual home at the recently opened Botonica, where it will bewitch guests this fall. Located at the bottom of Sky House River Oaks high-rise apartments, the space will be designed as a three-part realm, immersing guests further into the witch’s world as they progress. Through Sunday, November 2. 4 pm.

Saturday, October 4

The Original Ninfa’s Uptown and Lone Star Pawz present PAWZtober Fest
The Original Ninfa’s Uptown will partner with Lone Star Pawz, a non-profit animal rescue and rehabilitation organization for cats and dogs, for a fundraiser dubbed PAWZtober Fest. The free Tex-Mex-themed event will raise funds and awareness for the organization and those it serves. Guests of the event will enjoy live music by local rock and party band The Guzzlers and raffle prizes including Houston Texans tickets, Astros tickets, a gift card to The Original Ninfa’s, two processed deer packages, and a St. Arnold’s gift basket. 1 pm.

Southern Smoke Foundation presents Southern Smoke Festival
Get ready to receive all the smoke this weekend. The Southern Smoke Foundation, a Houston-based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing emergency relief funds nationwide and access to mental health services for food and beverage workers, will present its annual, park party fundraiser known as the Southern Smoke Festival. More than 70 culinary stars from across the country will serve food, and there will also be drinks from the best wine, spirit, and beer producers, as well as live music. 4 pm.

The Bald Brothers Tour featuring Tony Baker & KevOnStage
Comedians Tony Baker and El Paso-born KevOnStage, also known as the hosts of the Bald Brothers podcast, come to Houston as part of their 2025 co-headlining tour. Baker has appeared on NBC's Last Comic Standing, Gabriel Iglesias Presents Stand-Up Revolution, Comics Unleashed, and other comedy TV specials, while KevOnStage has appeared on the HBO Max series, A Black Lady Sketch Show, and was also the host of Will Smith’s Dad’s Just Don’t Understand. 7 pm.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents ASCO: Without Permission
This genre-defying film (executive-produced by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna) profiles the provocative Los Angeles–based, Chicano artist collective ASCO. From 1972 to 1987, the members merged activism and artistic practice as they challenged the lack of representation in the mainstream art world, Hollywood, and the news media. There will also be a post-screening discussion with director Travis Gutiérrez Senger; Houston Latino Film Festival programmer Pedro Rivas; and Latin American and Latino Art assistant curator Cindy Peña. 7 pm.

Sunday, October 5

Mai's Áo Dài Storytime with Thái Nguyễn and Monique Truong
Houston's vibrant Vietnamese American community and book lovers citywide are invited to experience a special cultural celebration. Celebrity fashion designer Thái Nguyễn and award-winning author Monique Truong will present their acclaimed children's picture book Mai's Áo Dài, illustrated by New York Times-bestselling picture book artist Dung Ho, at the Mid-Autumn Moon Harvest Fair. The authors will host a special storytime during the festival, which runs from 11 am to 5 pm at DoubleTree Westchase. 3 pm.

Hasan Minhaj and Ronny Chieng: Hasan Hates Ronny | Ronny Hates Hasan
Comedians Hasan Minhaj and Ronny Chieng were so hilarious when they faced off on The Daily Show that they’ve now turned it into a full-fledged comedy show. The two comics will come to Houston as part of a nationwide tour where they will air their grievances — onstage, at the same time. They will debate about presidents, war, the economy, immigration, infrastructure, food, dating, family values, and more. 6 and 8:30 pm.

Sasha Colby: Stripped II
International drag icon Sasha Colby comes to Houston as part of her Stripped II tour. As a proud trans-Hawaiian woman, Sasha is a staple in the American drag industry. Sasha is also the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15, the first Hawaiian and trans contestant to be crowned. Post Drag-Race, Sasha founded a line of hair extensions, Sasha Colby Hair, and released a new single, "Feel The Power," featuring producer Glovibes and vocalist Luciana. 8 pm.

Photo by Emily Jaschke

The Southern Smoke Festival returns this Saturday.

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Movie Review

Muddled drama After the Hunt wastes a strong Julia Roberts performance

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Andrew Garfield and Julia Roberts in After the Hunt.

The #MeToo movement was at its peak during the late 2010s, with high profile people in the entertainment industry and elsewhere starting to be held accountable for prior sexual assaults and/or sexual harassment. A few movies, like The Assistant and Bombshell, confronted the issue while it was still garnering headlines, making the films themselves feel even more important.

The new film After the Hunt seems to have an appropriate title, as it’s a fictional look back at the culture during that time from the perspective of the current day. Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts) and Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield) are professors at Yale University in the same department. They are both very friendly with Alma’s TA, Maggie Price (Ayo Edebiri), even inviting her and other students to Alma’s home for boozy gatherings.

That friendliness and booziness comes to a head when Maggie confides to Alma that Hank “crossed the line” after walking her home one night. Alma, whose history with Hank is more than just professional, finds herself in a battle between believing what Maggie is telling her and standing up for her longtime friend. The tight group slowly gets pulled apart as each of them and people around them grapple with the fallout of the accusation.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by first-time screenwriter Nora Garrett, the film’s solid premise soon gives way to the disease of bloat. The overly-long 138-minute movie isn’t satisfied with the dramatics of its central plot, instead adding on a number of character quirks that either add nothing to the story or do little to enhance it. These include a mysterious ailment for Alma that gives her intense stomach pain, her somewhat strained marriage to Frederik Mendelssohn (Michael Stuhlbarg), and Maggie’s relationship with a transgender man.

The filmmakers make the choice to not show a number of key moments, like the actual incident between Maggie and Hank or when Hank finds out he’s been accused. The scenes they do include, like charged one-on-ones between Maggie and Alma or Alma and Hank, work well, but the film loses all momentum when it digresses into other areas. As consequences start to be felt, it’s almost as if Guadagnino and Garrett stop caring about the main plot at all, with the main characters devolving in a number of ways.

More than anything else, the film never has anything interesting or new to add to the #MeToo conversation. Instead of a tight, taut drama about how the three main characters deal with their feelings about the incident/accusation, the story meanders aimlessly. Garrett also seems to want things both ways, casting doubt on Maggie while also giving her a righteous cause. The result is a muddled mess with nobody coming off as compelling.

That clutter extends to the casting, with the 57-year-old Roberts portrayed as a contemporary with the 42-year-old Garfield. The film never adequately explains their relationship, leaving audiences to fill in gaps they shouldn’t have to bridge. Roberts, Garfield, and Edebiri are each fine actors who do good work in their roles, but the story does them no favors.

Just because it’s disappeared from the headlines doesn’t lessen the importance of the #MeToo movement, but if After the Hunt was trying to revive it in some way, it fails in that ambition. Its star power is mostly wasted in a story that never seems as interested in its main idea as it should be.

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After the Hunt is now playing in theaters.

movies film