weekend event planner

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

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day at Post HTX

Image courtesy of Post HTX

We won't blame anyone who gets butterflies this weekend — the whole city will, as a beloved butterfly centers spreads its wings again. Foodie alert: Some tasty food events pop up all around town, while boss babes, plants, rodeo, and wellness all vie for your attention at weekend markets and events.

Meanwhile, revelers can raise a glass to St. Patrick downtown, as a cool destination celebrates the day a week early. Enjoy; here are you best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, March 9

Burger Bodega & Craft Pita Cheeseburger Pita Collab

Houston restaurants Burger Bodega and Craft Pita are teaming up to make a special edition cheeseburger pita. The pita consists of a smashed kafta patty, akawi cheese, Lebanese pickles, grilled onions, and Harlem aioli sauce. The pita will only be available for one day. The collaboration is part of a series that Burger Bodega will host with guest chefs in Houston. Chef Rafael Nasr of Craft Pita will be the first Houston chef to collaborate with Burger Bodega’s Abbas Dhanani. 11 am.

Paul John Whisky Dinner Pairing at Musaafer

Paul John Indian Whisky returns to Musaafer for an exclusive dinner pairing by chef Mayank Istwal. The second edition of this annual dinner boasts six courses, each carefully complemented with a variety of specialty selections from the award-winning family of whiskies made on the Arabian coast of India. The menu will take dining back to the basics with traditional Indian classics like kebabs, curries, and biryanis to savor with the whisky. The special event will begin with a cocktail hour followed by a six-course dinner. 6:30 pm.

Curiosity Lab & Theater presents Now That You've Seen Me Naked

Drs. Percy Hinks and Adelaide Hibble are trying to win the Nobel Prize for a formula that reveals the mysterious love code. With a team of interns who reluctantly must act out various relationship scenarios to collect data, Hibble and Hinks want to prove they are legitimate researchers and not what their colleagues refer to as loony “mad scientists.” This production features hilarious, original, memorable songs and scenes that cover everything from fairytales to performance art. 7 pm (8 pm Friday; 3 & 8 pm Saturday; 3 pm Sunday).

Friday, March 10

Bridgeland presents Friday Night Bites

Bridgeland, one of the top-selling, master-planned communities in Texas, celebrates the first Friday Night Bites of 2023 this weekend. The event will feature an assortment of Houston-area food trucks and family-friendly activations, including multiple art stations, inflatables, lawn games, and live entertainment from Good Time Muffin. Guests can enjoy a diverse line-up of savory dishes from Houston favorites, including Kaow, Skye Café, Heffernan, Loaded Potato, Araguaney, Sabines and Zaab Thai. 6 pm.

Cockrell Butterfly Center Reopening at Houston Museum of Natural Science

Science “springs” to life at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS), with a museum member preview of the Cockrell Butterfly Center’s grand reopening. Explore the recently renovated rainforest conservatory and speak with Cockrell Butterfly Center manager Lauren Davidson. Or, join in the fun later on in the evening with special events including crafts, food trucks, cash bars, and endless strolls among the butterflies. Guests will even have the opportunity to release a live butterfly into its new home. 6:30 pm.

Performing Arts Houston presents Ragamala Dance Company: The Fires of Varanasi

The Fires of Varanasi is a large-scale, multidisciplinary dance work in which the choreographers (Ranee, Aparna & Ashwini Ramaswamy - mother and daughter) explore the liminal spaces in the birth-death-rebirth continuum to understand human experiences of migration - physical, cultural, emotional. French light/set designer/art director Willy Cessa has created a multi-sensory experience, while New Delhi-based visual artist Manav Gupta has designed a large-scale stage installation. 7:30 pm.

Houston Symphony presents Brahms Piano Concerto 1 & Dvořák 8

Dvořák’s enchanting Symphony No. 8 invites listeners on a sun-drenched jaunt through nature’s endless charms, and the result is joyous, uplifting, and life-affirming. Surging with youthful fire, tender passion, and thunderous power, Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 looms large as one of music history’s most monumental and stunning creative achievements. Pianist Stephen Hough joins Jonathon Heyward and the orchestra, and the concerts open with Carlos’s Simon’s Beethoven-inspired Fate Now Conquers. 8 pm (2:30 pm Sunday).

Saturday, March 11

Wellfest at CITYCENTRE

CITYCENTRE will be welcoming guests this weekend to its first-ever Wellfest— a full day of approachable workouts, wellness events, and sustainable shopping in partnership with Life Time and Epic-Cycles. An event focused on bringing the community together through movement and wellness, Wellfest is free & open to anyone on any fitness journey. Guests can make their way around the plaza and experience such wellness vendors as juice and smoothie samples, massage therapists, kids programs and more. 8 am.

Houston St. Patrick’s Parade and Celebration

Even though the actual day is next Friday, POST is hosting a day full of events to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Enjoy a day full of games, food, Irish performances, drinks, and the St. Patty's Day parade, which will start and conclude at POST. There will also be bagpipe performances, an outdoor flea market, a live DJ, and more. And let’s not forget the Seltzerland festival, where attendees can spend the afternoon tasting 100+ unique hard seltzers. This event is free and open to the public of all ages. 11 am.

HTX Boss Babes Spring Fest

HTX Boss Babes and amenity-rich environment The Ion is excited to celebrate Women's History Month this March. They have curated a fun festival with 50+ women-owned businesses, including State Line Designs, Miradela, Maverick Parties, Bear Cub Leather Goods, Chauncey and Coco, A Pop of Literacy, Herr Apparel and Pristan Boutique. This festival will be a fun opportunity to shop local vendors, enjoy a lineup of female DJs and take fun photos in the installs around the Ion. 11 am.

7th Annual Hootenanny at Eureka Heights Brew Co.

It's rodeo season, which means it's time for Eureka Heights Brew Co.’s annual hootenanny. Dust off your brand-new cowboy boots and get ready for some daytime two-stepping. Country music recording artists Libby Koch and The Dealers will be coming back to perform. Their collection of originals and covers is sure to pair well with beer and BBQ. There will also be local artisan vendors, games and the glorious return of Golden Buckle, Eureka Heights’ infamous mosaic cream ale.

Sunday, March 12

Spring Forward Houston Plant Market at M-K-T

Spring forward into the season of growth and renewal with Houston Plant Market. Enjoy an open-air market featuring Houston's finest growers, gardeners, artisans, crafters, and more. Support local vendors with a variety of items including honey, candles, jewelry, and so many other goodies. And don’t forget to head to the Heart of Hou Community tent for a Springtime Scavenger Hunt adventure around M-K-T, featuring prizes from Sweetgreen, Solidcore, Union Studio Yoga, Treadwell, Cariloha, Go Easy, and Houston Botanic Garden. Noon.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents "Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest and Worry Will Vanish" opening day

The MFAH continues its series of grand-scale, immersive presentations with this special experience, This brings together two works from the Museum’s collections: Pixel Forest, an installation of thousands of hanging LED lights; and Worry Will Vanish, a video projection that takes viewers on a dreamlike journey through the natural landscape, the human body, and the heavens. The presentation transforms the vast, central gallery of Cullinan Hall into a cosmic destination. Through Monday, September 4. 12:30 pm.

Abstract Turntablism Workshop for Adults - The Language of Chance

Learn from artist DJ and The Orange Show artist-in-residence Maria Chavez (who will do a DJ set at Orange on Friday night) about the concepts around abstract turntablism. Get a hands-on opportunity to use turntables and vinyl records as instruments from Maria Chavez. Participants will learn about Chavez’ equipment and practice and create their own variations on the form. Participants are also invited to perform a solo abstract turntablism piece at the residency-closing recital on March 17. $10 per participant. 1 pm.

Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 doesn't match the first movie's enthusiasm

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2.

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films like M3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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