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You thought SXSW was the only days-long party in town promising loud music and smelly animals? Then this must be your first rodeo! OK, this one’s slightly more wholesome: Activities include a stock show, pro rodeo, petting zoo, pig races, carnival rides, and your favorite fareground vittles, plus a fresh headliner every day, including Lukas Nelson, Los Huracanes del Norte, Wynonna Judd, and Flatland Cavalry. Too wholesome? Pull on your finest shitkickers and hit the dance hall; there’s a full bar and, Rodeo Austin teases, a “chance to dance with a real cowboy.” Runs through March 23. – Kimberley Jones

After two years creating a space for “making and strengthening community and creative critical action today and tomorrow in the comics, gaming, animation, and multimedia storytelling arts,” Austin’s very own symposium for comic fans of color returns for three days. Explore topics like reinterpreting historical media, current Black comics as interpreted by Black scholars, and “Why Are All the Cowboys White?” All this, and workshops, animation screenings, and plenty of networking opportunities to meet other folks in the graphic narrative field. – James Scott

Baristas and coffeeheads from all over town are converging at Medici Roasting in Springdale General to participate in this competition to see who can concoct the yummiest cold beverage using premium java and that new coconut milk from Califia. Of course there’s a panel of industry judges, but there’s also a crowd favorite to be decided – which is where you and your excellent taste come in, O caffeine-fueled connoisseur: right there among the tony shops and cultural flair of this Eastside marketplace. – Wayne Alan Brenner

Having just released a mood-enhancing collection of bite-sized percussion works on Austin’s (iN)Sect Records, Broken Social Scene drummer Justin Peroff brings his beat-craft to Exploded Drawing – the all-ages, DIY-style warehouse party celebrating electronic music’s creative underground. The Eastside event, hosted by (iN)Sect chairman Butcher Bear and KUTX’s beat music authority Soundfounder, also welcomes dreamy sample specialist Eno Obong, Magna Carda’s sonic maestro Dougie Do, the lush ambience of A.M. Architect, soundscaping songwriter Lucía Beyond, and Sources & Methods – a heavy new collaboration between Reaganometry & Multi-Tracker that bridges sample-jazz and instrumental grooves. – Kevin Curtin

If you caught the 2018 doc McQueen, about the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen, then you’re already familiar with the talents of his nephew and protégé Gary James McQueen, who was responsible for the stunning, under-the-skin skull sculptures featured in the opening credits. Those skulls, as represented via 3D lenticular artworks, form the basis of the Gary James McQueen exhibit – his first stateside – now running at West Chelsea Contemporary through March 24. – Kimberley Jones

Brazilian trans poet Anderson Bigode Herzer lived a wild life full of loss and struggle, which he utilized to create literary art. While confined to a youth correctional facility for most of his teen years, Anderson wrote one of the first trans masculine memoirs in his poetry collection A queda para o alto. He passed at 20 after taking his own life, a sadly still-occurring outcome for today’s trans youth. Through her aGLIFF-supported program at AFS, Queer Cinema Lost and Found, Elizabeth Purchell screens Sérgio Toledo’s Vera – a fictionalized biopic of Anderson described by Purchell as “a critically acclaimed, yet sadly underseen, piece of trans cinema history.⁣” – James Scott

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

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

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!

You think it’s easy, being somebody’s mother? You think giving birth to another human being doesn’t put your own humanity and purpose under some fierce self-scrutiny? Milwaukee-based artist Aimée M. Everett, in her solo show at the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, uses abstraction, minimalist line-making, saturated colors, and melodic compositions to explore “the profound transformations experienced during childbirth and the subsequent journey of self-discovery into motherhood.” Word – or, more appropriately, image – to your mother. – Wayne Alan Brenner

ColdTowne's new brick-and-mortar place is totally open, and who knows what they'll shake this city with next? But one truth remains: ColdTowne is a designated den of gold, baby, sweet comedy gold.