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Apparently, the last time a total solar eclipse was visible from Central Texas was 1878. So what better place to celebrate this year’s eclipse than the living history museum that takes you back to 1800s Texas? Pioneer Farms offers two days of themed programming, including an old-timey medicine show, a chance to make your own cyanotype (sunprint) or eclipse viewer, and live music from Max and the Hot Pickin 57s at Monday’s Citizen Scientist Sun Party. During the eclipse, Pioneer Farms anticipates the opportunity to take note of its farm animals’ changes in behavior and actually hear the eclipse through a special device that makes it audible. Whoa. – Kat McNevins

Monday’s solar eclipse is no time to blather on about music. And yet … the headliner of this two-day soundtrack got us thinking. Back to Eighties college rock when Buffalo threesome the Goo Goo Dolls plied inebriated thrash pop on Metal Blade Records. 1993’s Superstar Car Wash rolled Westerburgian suds prior to A Boy Named Goo breaking them Kings of Leon-style, and paired with platinum ATX trio Fastball (“The Way”), an alt-pop event manifests. Six sets a day starting around noon, including Sunday’s Hank Williams IV, Cory Morrow, and Kyle Park, then the Dolls, Fastball, and Switchfoot on Monday, light up Fredericksburg, which expects a half-million sun worshippers. – Raoul Hernandez

For the second year in a row, Austin will play host to the Country Music Television Awards. The awards, hosted by Kelsea Ballerini, will gather some of the genre’s biggest stars at the Moody Center, where the show will broadcast live. Notable performances include Jelly Roll, whose three CMT victories last year made him 2023’s winningest artist; Keith Urban, whose 20th CMT performance will set a record; and reunion performances for mega acts Sugarland and Little Big Town, who are celebrating 20 and 25 years of breakout success, respectively. Fingers crossed that Beyoncé reprises a 2016 CMA Awards appearanceto celebrate her new country album Cowboy Carter – though chances are admittedly slim. The awards air on CBS, 7-10pm CST, and will also stream live on Paramount+ with Showtime. Limited award show tickets still available. – Abby Johnston

A spinoff of the annual UTOPiAfest, Eclipse UTOPiA offers the best seat in the house to the “Great Texas Twoclipse,” where the paths of last year’s annular eclipse and this year’s astronomical event will cross. Focusing on Texas-centric talent, the 46-artist lineup is headlined by soul-pop force Sir Woman, funk-driven electro-rock duo Ghostland Observatory, and Latin neo-soul searchers Caramelo Haze. Make sure to check out side quests like acroyoga, disc golf, and an abundance of featured workshops. Don’t forget your star-studded corsage for the anticipated space prom! Passes start at $350. – Miranda Garza

Invited recently to the Austin Music Commission, yours truly testified about journalism and all-ages music ops. Burned into my soul remains the image of my preschooler sneaking a surreptitious blow on a Honk!TX tuba pre-pandemic. Year 12 now, the marching band summit crescendos the capital’s best free music festival, a four-day brass fantasy of honking, whistling, thumping mania. Thursday: “pre-clipse” takeover of the Ballroom, 8pm. Friday: 6-10pm at Central Machine Works, as well as East Cesar Chavez diner Sawyer & Co. and French brasserie Justine’s. Saturday: all day, for the main event at Mueller Lake Park. Then Sunday’s Pan Am Park parade, 1-6pm. HONK. – Raoul Hernandez

Who’s ready for a bedtime story? Because there’s nothing like Stephen Sondheim’s grand unification theory of the Brothers Grimm’s collection of German fairy tales. All your childhood folklore favorites become tangled up in the search for the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold. Underneath the toe-tappers and cunning one-liners, there’s a fable about the perils of getting what you wished for and not paying attention to what you have, a moral reiterated by a witch who’s not good, not nice; just right. – Richard Whittaker

On the site of the upcoming Kerrville Folk Festival, absolute hallowed ground for Texas singer-songwriters, arrives a special eclipse weekend. As at the main fest, folks can camp out and enjoy a range of Texas-emphasis sounds. Austin reps include Good Looks, THEBROSFRESH, Jomo & the Possum Posse, Phoebe Hunt, and the Flyin’ A’s, as well as a Sunday presentation by solar scientists from the University of Hawaii. On Monday, local psychedelic cult sun worshippers Golden Dawn Arkestra appropriately take the total eclipse set. Passes are available for Monday, two days, and the full weekend, starting at $100. – Rachel Rascoe

Free and open to all ages, Rancho Alegre Conjunto Music Festival returns for its 19th annual celebration of Tejano and Tex-Mex musical stylings. After losing city funding and almost facing cancellation in 2023, organizers crowdsourced enough donations to keep the tradition alive and well. Apart from local fan favorites Conjunto Los Pinkys and CruzSante, the event ropes in talent as far as Laredo (Kamila y Bella Divas) and Edinburg (Riley y Los Gilitos). Don’t miss headlining sets from luchador mask-donning Los Enmascarados, conjunto classics Rene Joslin y Los Favoritos, and Kingsville foursome Los D Boyz. – Miranda Garza

The Cap10K is one of the most Austin things you’ll ever do. You arrive at the Congress Avenue bridge around 7am on a bright and fresh Sunday morning (this year’s forecast looks good!) to find thousands of friends and neighbors milling about, dressed in their gaudy running outfits. The race, such as it is, begins at 8 and the runners swarm north, taking over Congress Avenue. Then it’s 6 miles of people-watching and good vibes and walking the streets and paths of Enfield and Lady Bird Lake. When you cross the finish line there will be photos, free massages, food vendors, and even booze. And beautiful people, people, people. – Brant Bingamon

The world’s best DJs, producers, multi-instrumentalists, bands, singers, speakers, artists, and more will coalesce under the Texas skies for four days and nights of exploration, culminating during the total solar eclipse, offering an exceedingly rare chance to experience over four minutes of totality in the picturesque landscape of Reveille Peak Ranch, free from light pollution.

With an expected attendance of over 30,000 ravers and space cadets, Texas Eclipse Festival offers a temporary trek into the cosmos. The electro-drenched musical lineup includes dubstep twosome Zeds Dead, melody maestro Tycho, techno trailblazer Charlotte de Witte, and grime hitmaker Flowdan. Don’t miss headlining sets from DJ duos Big Gigantic and NEIL FRANCES. Apart from its six music stages, the festival hosts art installations, space exhibits, tech activations, and speakers including Inspiration4 astronaut Chris Sembroski. With everything the party has to offer, don’t forget to look up and catch the eclipse. GA passes start at $259. – Miranda Garza

Every now and then I get a little bit restless, and I dream of something wild. Like this, the only total solar eclipse visible in the U.S. until 2044! As Austin won’t be in the “path of totality” again for over 300 years, our stellar Parks & Recreation Department celebrates this once-in-a-lifetime celestial event by bringing out the big dogs – NASA – for a weekend of educational eclipse-themed fun. Hear about eclipses and oceans on other planets, get a selfie with a 2D version of the Perseverance rover, visit the planetarium, check out a six-wheeled rover making its way around the center, and prep for the eclipse with hands-on activities. Get all the info at austintexas.gov/parkseclipse. – Kat McNevins

For generations of children, Arnold Lobel’s stories of amphibian best buds Frog and Toad have been a charming guide to the complexities and joys of friendship. Now the pair take to the stage for this delightful Tony-nominated musical. It’s truly a family affair, adapted by Lobel’s son-in-law Mark Linn-Baker with music by Robert Reale and book & lyrics by his brother, Willie. This new production, directed by Best of Austin winner Sara Burke, features Jillian Sainz and Victoria Brown donning the signature jackets and trousers of Frog and Toad, respectively. – Richard Whittaker

The first night on a giant floating casino/discotheque just off Manhattan: What can possibly go wrong? Well, since this is the 1970s, the decade of the disaster movie, how about earthquakes, tidal waves, rats, explosions, and deadly slot machine handles? Jack Plotnick and Seth Rudetsky’s Broadway jukebox musical features toe-tappers from the decade of AOR and disco, so there’s no better place to be for a night of mayhem and Chuck Mangione. Just watch out for the sharks … – Richard Whittaker

Here in the Live Music Capital of the World, there should be no shortage of opportunities for kids to develop their tuneful talents and pursue rockstar dreams. Austin Jazz Workshop’s jam series is one of these opportunities, with twice-monthly jams led by Gil Del Bosque just for middle- and high school students to get a feel for a real gig setting. Thanks to a financial boost from the city’s Cultural Arts Division, jams are scheduled through August: first Sundays at Batch, last Sundays at Central Market South, both at noon. – Kat McNevins

When a fellow is named Tim McCool, you’ve got to hope he lives up to the moniker. We reckon that, as co-founder (with his dauntless spouse, Kira) of the right-there-in-the-garage Good Luck Have Fun Gallery off Enfield, this particular art-scene mover and shaker is as McCool as it gets. Evidence: The gallery’s newest show brings together the colorful and provocative work of four women artists – Aubree Dale, Aria Brownell, Wendy Rhode, and Barbara Miñarro – “who explore the relationships between individual identity and the collective, the process of making art and of making one’s self.” – Wayne Alan Brenner

The worst myth about William Shakespeare was that he was a unique genius who penned his greatest plays and sonnets in pristine isolation in his home in Stratford-upon-Avon. Lizzy Duffy Adams’ scathing comedy gets to the reality: that he was a jobbing playwright, a controversial upstart crow in Elizabethan London’s vibrant, tumultuous theatre scene. A long day with his contemporary, the radical Christopher Marlowe, becomes an examination of collaboration, influence, politics, desire, and the wild energy of life behind the stage. Austin Playhouse’s production runs Thursday-Sunday through April 28. – Richard Whittaker

That's right: Cap City Comedy Club, the longtime cornerstone of Austin's comedy scene for nearly four decades is at a new venue in the Domain. And here's Valerie Lopez with a closer look at what's in store for the scene via the venue. Click for details!