(Fireworks explode over Waterway Square at the Memorial Day Weekend Celebration in The Woodlands./Photo courtesy of The Woodlands CVB)

Memorial Day kicks off the unofficial start of summer with a full roster of hot events this weekend.

Just north of Houston, The Woodlands boasts two nights of dazzling fireworks displays in Waterway Square on Saturday and Sunday at their Memorial Day Weekend Celebration. Families can enjoy live music and other activities from 6-9 p.m. before the sky lights up.

Granbury officials say their big Memorial Day Celebration will go on as planned after a devastating tornado ripped through the edge of town last week. The Historic Granbury Square was untouched, and the city is welcoming visitors Saturday through Monday for live music, contests, arts and crafts, ceremonies and more. This year’s theme is “Balconies, Bands and Boats.”

And in Kerrville, it’s a great time to take in the local art and music scene while the Kerrville Folk Festival and several art shows cross paths. The Texas State Arts and Crafts Fair and the Texas Masters of Fine Art and Craft Show both stay only for Memorial Day weekend, but the music festival goes through June 9. If you go, be sure to make time for the Southwest Gourd Fine Art Show and other exhibits at the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center.

Other events coming up this holiday weekend include:

Anthony: KLAQ Balloon Fiesta

Dallas: Dallas International Festival

El Paso: Neon Desert Music Festival

Ennis: National Polka Festival

Farmers Branch: Liberty Fest

Fort Worth: Crowne Plaza Invitational

Fredericksburg: Crawfish Festival

Rockport: Rockport Festival of Wines

San Antonio: Memorial Day Arts and Crafts Show

The Super Bowl is heading back to Houston—Super Bowl LI, to be exact.

NFL owners voted Tuesday to award the 51^st Super Bowl to Houston in 2017. Houston’s Reliant Stadium last hosted a Super Bowl in 2004, and the big game was last held in Texas in 2011 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

Houston officials cheered Tuesday’s announcement, citing the game’s benefit to tourism, media attention, and the local economy.

“This is a worldwide stage that will be constructed in Houston and the world will be watching,” Houston Texans owner Bob McNair said in a press release. “It’s an opportunity to showcase our wonderful city, the NFL and the Super Bowl all at the same time.”

The Houston Super Bowl Bid Committee is planning a 10-day festival called “Super Bowl El Centro” leading up to February 2017 game, according to a news release from the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“Our plans for the international celebration leading up to the game will create an unprecedented fan experience for Super Bowl LI,” said Ric Campo, chairman of the bid committee.

For book-lovers drawn to the Texas Book Festival and its engaging congregation of authors each fall in Austin, it’s worth noting that the festival also partners with other events around the state to highlight books and authors.

The next such event takes place tomorrow at the Highland Park Centennial Anniversary Literary Festival. Authors including Lawrence Wright, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Stephen Harrigan, and Joe Nick Patoski will speak.

The free event is at the Highland Park Methodist Church. As its name suggests, the literary festival is part of the 100^th anniversary celebration of the founding of Highland Park, an enclave in Dallas.

Lois Kim, who took over last month as the Texas Book Festival’s executive director, says the festival looks for opportunities to contribute to events that promote community engagement with authors and stimulate intellectual conversation.

In the past, the festival has partnered on events in Houston and Austin. In April, it held the Texas Book Festival/San Antonio Edition in conjunction with the San Antonio Library Foundation, which was celebrating its 30^th anniversary.

The Highland Park event starts at 10 a.m. and includes a 12:30 lunch that requires an RSVP.

“We would just love for people to come out, because it’s free and there are going to be great authors,” Kim says.

Women take a closer look at a piece of pottery at the Rockwall Founders Day Festival, which features all-day live music, gourmet food trucks, children’s activities and a street fair of vendors. This year’s event is on May 18. (Photo courtesy of the City of Rockwall Parks and Recreation)

The Metroplex-area city of Rockwall celebrates its 159^th birthday May 18 with a festival and a chance to get a glimpse of the mysterious formation that gives the town its name.

The Rockwall County Historical Foundation will offer rare access to private land for a presentation about the underground rock formation where it’s been exposed by a small excavation. Experts have speculated on whether the subterranean wall is the work of prehistoric people or simply an unusual geological occurrence. The wall’s mystique recently attracted the attention of cable television’s “America Unearthed” on the H2 (History 2) channel, which filmed an episode last month that’s expected to air late this year.

Shuttles will depart the Rockwall County Historical Foundation Museum, at 901 E. Washington, every half-hour from 1-3 p.m. on May 18. Tickets cost $10 (cash or check only, nonrefundable) and are available at the museum, which is open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Visitors can call 972-722-1507 to check for availability. Some tickets might still be available the day of the tour, but buying them in advance is recommended, says Debbie Lawhon, curator of the Rockwall County Historical Foundation Museum.

“Most locals have never seen any part of an exposed wall ever, so people are really excited about this,” Lawhon says. “I’m selling tickets left and right.”

The museum also will host demonstrations, a scavenger hunt and other activities  in conjunction with the city’s big birthday bash. Just half a mile away, the Rockwall Founders Day Festival on the downtown square will rock out with a full day of live music, including the Casey Donahew Band, plus a children’s area, food trucks, shopping and a farmers’ market. The festival runs from 10 a.m.-9 p.m., so there’s plenty of time to visit before or after the rock wall tour.

A cook-off competitor fries up his best chicken-fried steaks in Lamesa.

The West Texas town of Lamesa, about 60 miles south of Lubbock, serves up its annual Chicken-Fried Steak Festival this weekend in celebration of the town’s claim as the birthplace of the Texas delicacy. According to local legend, short-order cook James Donald Perkins accidentally made the first dish of its kind in 1911 when he misinterpreted an order for chicken and fried steak at a small restaurant called Ethel’s Home Cooking. Instead of making two separate items, he thought the customer wanted a steak battered and fried like a chicken—and what a delicious mistake it turned out to be.

One hundred years later, the Texas Legislature gave Lamesa official recognition in 2011 as the “Legendary Home of the Chicken-Fried Steak,” and the first Chicken-Fried Steak Festival launched the same year. Now held annually on the last weekend in April, the event features a Friday-night CFS dinner, the chicken-fried cook-off Saturday, a classic car show, live music and lots of food. The Crossroads Hot-Air Balloon Rally helps turn up the heat with a “fire concert” (accompanied by the balloons’ burners) Saturday night, plus balloon lift-offs Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Also on the events menu this weekend are major annual events in Houston, San Antonio Corpus Christi and Port Aransas. The final weekend of the Houston International Festival, April 27-28, celebrates this year’s Brazil theme with cultural performances, food, music, arts and crafts, and concerts by Los Lobos and Aaron Neville.

Fiesta San Antonio offers one last chance to revel in the diverse cultures of San Antonio and get confetti in your hair at NIOSA (Night in Old San Antonio), which takes over La Villita from April 23-26.

In Port Aransas, art takes shape right before your eyes this weekend at the Texas SandFest sand-scupting competition, April 26-28. The event includes master and amateur contests, as well as live music, children’s activities and food for spectators–and, of course, the opportunity to spend the day at Mustang Island Beach.

And just across the bay in Corpus Christi, there’s still time to swing by the Buc Days festival and carnival (pronounced “caarrrrnival” if you’re truly in the buccaneer spirit), which runs through May 5. Next weekend’s events include an Art  Walk on May 3 and the Illuminated Night Parade on May 4.

Other events this weekend include:

Mesquite: Real. Texas. Festival., April 26-27

Waxahachie: Scarborough Renaissance Festival, through May 27

Bastrop: Yesterfest, April 26-28

Muenster: Germanfest, April 26-28

Hallettsville: Texas State Championship Fiddlers Frolics, April 25-28

Some are shy on stage; others are natural performers. Some feature technical playing; others draw on their emotions. They’re all budding accordion slingers aiming for the title in this year’s Big Squeeze competition.

Eight of the state’s best young accordionists are traveling to Austin this weekend for the semifinals of the Big Squeeze. The semifinalists, ranging in age from 11 to 18, will perform a free show at Lonestar Plaza of the Bullock Museum from 2 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday

Johnny Ramirez, the 2008 Big Squeeze champ, and Keyun Dickson, the 2010 winner, jam together at a Houston show.

Texas Folklife, an Austin-based nonprofit dedicated to preserving and showcasing Lone Star culture, started the accordion competition in 2007 as an educational arm of its annual Accordion Kings & Queens concert in Houston (June 1 at Miller Outdoor Theatre).

“We’re interested in preserving the traditional music of Texas, and we wanted to make sure the younger generations were picking up the accordion, so we set out to see how many young people we could find,” says Sarah Rucker, program and events manager for Texas Folklife. “We figured the most fun way to do that would be a contest, and through that we found the most talented young players in Texas in a range of musical genres, including conjunto, zydeco, Tejano, polka.”

This year’s competition, which is limited to players 21 and younger, started in February with opening-round performances in Houston, Edinburg, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Tomball, Dallas, and Los Fresnos. Other interested contestants had the option of sending in videotapes of their playing.

The judging panel that selected eight semifinalists from the field of 33 entries was made up of a big-name list of professional accordionists, including Joel Guzman, Sunny Sauceda, Anthony Trevino and Juan Tejeda.

At the semifinals, Susan Torres, accordionist for the Austin band Susan Torres y Conjunto Clemencia, will help select the four finalists who will compete for the championship at the June 1 Accordion Kings & Queens concert. Torres and her band will also perform at the Saturday show.

So who qualified for the semifinals? The accordionists are Juan Longoria, III (12) and Juan Dueñes (11), both of Brownsville; Yesenia Garcia (17) of Houston; Rito Peña (14) of San Antonio; Michael Ramos (17) of Dallas; Luis Gonzalez (17) of Grand Prairie; Oscar Gomez (14) of Elsa; and Juan Antonio Garcia (18) of Mission.

Ignacio “Nachito” Morales of Dallas, the 2011 Big Squeeze champion, shows how it’s done.

The Big Squeeze has fostered a network of up-and-coming accordion players across Texas. In some cases, competitors have ended up forming groups together.

“We want to create a community of this music,” Rucker says. “When they meet these other kids that are playing in other parts of the state, it’s a bonding experience. … It’s building not only a network of family and friendships, but eventually a network of performing musicians.”

If you’re interested in learning more, check out the Saturday show, or the finals in Houston. There’s also a 2009 documentary by filmmaker Hector Galán about the Big Squeeze, featuring contestants from the 2007 and 2008 Big Squeeze competitions.

The success of past Big Squeeze champions affirms the competition’s purpose of promoting the young accordionists. “I’m proud to say that all of them are performing musicians, and almost all have released CDs of their own at this point,” Rucker says.

No doubt, these young accordionists can play, and it’s a joy to watch them take the spotlight.

—

Photos by David Dodd, Courtesy of Texas Folklife.

In Austin, artists and musicians are finalizing prepwork for this weekend’s Arts City Austin Festival (April 13-14), which transforms the streets surrounding City Hall and the 2^nd Street entertainment district into an outdoor art fair. Among the reasons to go: Hundreds of artists will display their works throughout the festival grounds, more than 150 pieces of art enliven the galleries inside City Hall, local food trailers offer sustenance and libations, musicians perform non-stop, and perhaps best of all-the weather promises to be spectacular!  Tickets cost $8; free admission for kids age 12 and younger. It’s also free if you ride your bike!

Interactive kids’ activities at Art City Austin

First produced in 1951 as the Texas Fine Arts Association’s Spring Juried Art Fair, the event—renamed Art City Austin— moved downtown in 2008. It’s organized by Art Alliance Austin, which works to advance the city “by integrating art, culture, and creativity into public life.” See www.artallianceaustin.org,

We may be hard at work finishing up the summer edition of the Texas Highways Events Calendar, but our eyes are always on what’s coming up next weekend. Now that spring is officially here, there are great annual events popping up all over the state, plus plenty of Easter activities happening this weekend.

Wildflowers are starting to bloom along Texas roadways, but if you’re in East Texas, don’t forget to look up in the trees. In Palestine, the dogwood trees are putting on their best show for the last weekend of the Dogwood Trails Celebration, which features a lively roster of activities including wine tastings, cooking classes, historical tours, train rides, a gospel music festival and Easter celebrations. Tips on the best places to see dogwood blooms can be found at Dogwood Bloom Watch, or find the local visitor center at www.visitpalestine.com for more information.

About an hour northeast in Tyler, the Azalea and Spring Flower Trails is another great place to see a Texas spring in bloom, with additional events through April 7.

This weekend also marks the final days of the South Texas State Fair in Beaumont, which features a carnival, midway, live entertainment, livestock shows, and car and boat displays. Saturday is Kids Day, so all children age 17 and younger get in for free and pay only $1 per ride on the midway between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

It’s also Easter weekend, and there are plenty of opportunities to make the holiday special (and get in some extra egg-hunting practice for the kids). Here are just a few:

Amarillo: Easter EGG-citement, March 30

Beaumont: The Last Days of Christ Outdoor Passion Drama, March 28-30

Fairfield: Annual Easter Eggstravanganza , March 30

Fredericksburg: Easter Fires of Fredericksburg Pageant, March 30

Mount Vernon: Easter in the Park and Community Egg Hunt, March 30

Stonewall: Easter at the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm, March 30

The Dallas Film Society is busy preparing for this year’s Dallas International Film Festival, which kicks off next week.

The event runs April 4-14 and features 175 films at venues across the city. I had a chance to interview Lee Papert, festival executive director, by email recently, and here’s what he had to say about the event.

How many film submissions did the festival receive?

This year, overall, we received just over 1,300 film entries.

What distinguishes DIFF from other film festivals?

The Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF) is an “encyclopedic” festival. We offer a little bit of everything—which isn’t unusual. But, most importantly (and why we are different) is the atmosphere. We strive mightily to create an ambiance that celebrates film—and all the creativity that goes into it. No matter whether you’re the director of a blockbuster or you’ve just screened your first short film; whether you’re a costume designer, cinematographer, producer, or grip—we celebrate the artist. The passion we have for the process and the people involved, well, it makes for a truly welcoming atmosphere—one that also embraces the people attending the movies, participating in the panel discussions, or having their faces painted at Family Day! (Family Day features a free screening of The Sandlot at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 6, at Klyde Warren Park.)

Has the festival grown from last year, by how much?

While we certainly won’t know attendance figures till after the 2013 DIFF is completed, we have grown in respect to our “footprint.” We’re bigger in scope and facilities. This year, we’re adding new facilities, including the Klyde Warren Park, and we’re returning to Plano for a special Centerpiece Screening at the “absolutely incredible place to watch a movie” Cinemark West Plano theater.

What are some exciting or interesting aspects of this year’s event?

As mentioned, we’re expanding our “footprint” geographically—and are partnering with a couple of brand new venues. One of those, the new LOOK Cinemas offers a wonderful new multi-theater complex and an incredible new take on the “in-theater dining” theme. LOOK is our Opening Night venue and we’ll happily show at least five different movies that night—and then treat our guests to fine dining from Nick & Sam’s Grill. Finally, we continue to embrace the word “International” that is part of our name by striving to show wonderful films from all over the world. Last year we featured films from 27 different countries. We expect even more this year.

What is the festival doing to honor Italy (this year’s featured nation)?

Each year, we like to shine a spotlight on the films and filmmakers of a different country. Last year it was Korea—this year, Italy—a country rich with film in her blood. Home to Fellini, the spaghetti western, Franco Zeffirelli’s classic Romeo & Juliet, and so much more. We will show at most seven films—showcasing everything from a classic Fellini film to one or two new movies. Throw in some classic Italian food and drink—and you have our Italian Spotlight!

What are some of the films being screened this year?

We are thrilled to be screening Java Heat with Mickey Rourke and Kellen Lutz; Midnight’s Children—Deepa Mehta’s film written by Salman Rushdie from his book of the same name; Mud with Matthew McConaughey; and many, many others.

How many people attended the festival last year?

The 2012 Dallas International Film Festival saw more than 35,000 people attend more than 180 different movies, multiple parties, our panel discussions, Family Day, our High School Day and all of the Festival’s offerings.

Who were some of the movie stars/celebrities that attended last year?

Last year, we were thrilled to bring to Dallas Laura Linney, Gabourey Sidibe, Peter Weller, Michael Weston, Famke Jannssen, Don & Donnie Nelson, Julie White, Glen Keane, and many others.

Who are some of the movie stars/celebrities expected to attend this year?

This year, we fully expect to welcome award-winning director William Friedkin, Indian director Deepa Mehta, Twilight heartthrob Kellen Lutz, the first woman to ever run a major movie studio Sherry Lansing, and a host of other stars and fan favorites.

What’s a special tip you would give to someone visiting Dallas for the festival?

Dallas is an incredible city for film. But, it’s also a great city for art and dining. Come to Dallas for the Film Festival, but each day, before the movies start, why not check out our incredible museums like the Crow Collection of Asian Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center, and the Dallas Museum of Art in the downtown Dallas Arts District. Or, if you’re here for the second weekend of the Festival, explore the many galleries attending the Dallas Art Fair. All that art appreciation is sure to make you hungry—so don’t miss our many, many FANTASTIC restaurants. There’s definitely something for everyone!

In Houston this Saturday, March 23, from 11-2, the always zany and creative Orange Show Foundation hosts its annual Easter Orange Hunt, when kids of all ages can tour the Orange Show site—a veritable playground of whirligigs, moats, and brightly tiled and painted structures—and collect eggs, candy, and (of course) oranges. Also on March 23, the Orange Show will also host its first annual PEEPS Art Contest. Using Peeps marshmallow treats, contestants will make sculptures, costumes, and other works of art, following the lead of similar contests in Washington, D.C., Denver, and Westminster, Maryland. If you’d like to submit an entry, bring it to the Orange Show for judging by noon on Saturday. Winners will receive Peeps prizes, gift cards, and recognition on the Orange Show website, www.orangeshow.org.

a Peeps creation from the Westminster competition