Home Events

for Fri., Dec. 31

  • Affordable Art Fair Austin

    Affordable Art Fair Austin will launch in May 2024, showcasing original contemporary artworks ranging between $100 to $10,000. Welcoming a whole host of local, national and international exhibitors, their spectacular first edition is set to be unmissable!
    May 16-19  
    get tickets
    Palmer Events Center

  • Laundry & Bourbon with Lonestar

    Laundry and Bourbon with Lonestar, two companion one act plays set in backyards of a small Texas town. Three ladies come together to talk about their life's ups and downs. Lonestar follows the life of three small town boys and the events that have shaped them. Both shows give us highs & lows with humor spread around, for good measure.
    Apr. 19-May 5  
    get tickets
    Navasota Theatre Alliance
Recommended

  • Community

    New Year's Guide

    Austin's New Year: Fireworks From Afar

    The city presents its traditional fireworks show by Lady Bird Lake but encourages residents to view it from afar, with several streaming options: ATXN; Spectrum or Grande channel 6; or U-Verse channel 99. Those traveling in the area, be advised that a portion of Riverside Drive and the South First Street bridge will be closed preceding the show.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 10pm  
    info
    Vic Mathias Shores

  • Arts

    Visual Arts

    Butridge Gallery: The Art of Peace

    Paintings and drawings by five award-winning Austin figurative artists: J.C. Amorrortu, Lawrence Jolly, Meena Matocha, Rhea Pettit, and Linda Wandt.
    Through Jan. 8  
    Direct Link Right Here
    Dougherty Arts Center

  • Community

    Events

    Donate Blood, Get a Free Sweatshirt

    Blood donors are especially needed around the holidays, and now you can stay warm after you give back with We Are Blood's sweatshirt giveaway. Schedule online or call 512/206-1266.
    Through Dec. 31  
    schedule an appointment
    We Are Blood donor centers & mobile drives

  • Community

    Events

    Downtown Holiday Stroll

    Enjoy free and family-friendly events all month, and with your Downtown Passport, collecting stamps at participating businesses can get you entered in a drawing for prizes. Grand prize is a Hotel ZaZa staycation package, and others include gift cards and even a ukulele!
    Through Dec. 31  
    get tickets
    Downtown Austin

  • Food

    Food Events

    Fresa's New Year's Eve

    Let Fresa’s New Year’s Eve pre-party kick off your night’s celebrations, with happy hour drinks at the bar while DJ SB spins live music on the patio. Fresa’s famous achiote and citrus wood-grilled chicken, esquites, grilled sweet potatoes, kale caesar salad, rice, and beans will be served buffet-style with all the fixin's (including desserts of Mexican wedding cookies and brown butter fudge brownies).
    Fri., Dec. 31, 4-8pm. $10-20.  
    DIrect Link Right Here
    Fresa's Chicken al Carbon

  • Qmmunity

    Nightlife & Parties

    Iron Bear New Year’s Eve Celebration

    DJ Mike, Champagne, and your fave bear bartenders to say goodbye to the shitshow that was 2021.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 9pm  
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    The Iron Bear

  • Community

    New Year's Guide

    Live Fireworks and a Movie

    For a very COVID-safe new year, enjoy a live fireworks show from the car after a film at the drive-in. Early shows include Sleepless in Seattle and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; later screenings are New Year's Eve and The Matrix.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 6pm  
    get tickets
    Doc's Drive In Theatre

  • Community

    Out of Town

    Marble Falls Walkway of Lights

    Mosey through the lighting displays along the lake and then head over to the ice skating rink for more holiday fun.
    Through Sat., Jan. 1  
    info
    Marble Falls

  • Food

    Food Events

    New Year's Eve at the W Hotel

    The W Hotel in Downtown Austin invites you to a night of fantasy and wonder: It's a party in the Living Room Bar with a live DJ, of course – but also featuring circus performers from Artisan Oddities. Admission includes a complimentary glass of bubbles, lite bites, and access to all four Living Room Bar spaces.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 9pm-2am. $100-250.  
    DIrect Link Right Here
    W Hotel

  • Community

    New Year's Guide

    New Year's Eve Dance

    Spin your partner to tunes from the Nash Hernandez Septet and enjoy hors d’oeuvres, punch, and a midnight toast.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 8:30pm. $45-65.  
    facebook
    Austin Uptown Dance, 8868 Research

  • Arts

    Theatre

    New Year's Eve Improv Big Bash

    Start your New Year’s Eve off with a candy-enhanced early show (8pm) featuring five of Austin’s finest professional improvisers (and pianist Ammon Taylor). Or join these talented zanies for the late show (10:30pm) and careen full speed into 2022 with a champagne toast as the ball drops at midnight. Note: This joint's so perfectly Downtown, you can roll out of the Hideout and into the middle of the biggest New Year’s celebration in the city.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 8 & 10:30pm. $35-45.  
    Click It For Tickets & Details
    Hideout Theatre & Coffeehouse

  • Music

    NYE 1981 music tribute w/ Amplified Heat, PT Banks, Nolan Potter's Nightmare Band, Hollywood Jones, Moving Panoramas, Dikes of Holland, Chief Cleopatra, DJ LA Scum, Youth Racket

    Returning after a gap year, Hotel Vegas and Volstead Lounge crank up the old time machine to pay tribute to artists from decades past. The 2019 edition saw a cast of mostly locals fêting icons from 1959 (Buddy Holly included, natch), while the year prior only dialed things back to 2001. This year travels back four decades to 1981, and features alter-ego sets paying tribute to luminaries Daryl Hall & John Oates, the Ramones, the Clash, the Pretenders, Blondie, Duran Duran, and more. Appearances to anticipate include Moving Panoramas members Leslie Sisson and Cara Tillman stepping into the shoes of Joan Jett and Pat Benatar, respectively; DD Dagger injecting their punk energy into the B-52’s; and Amplified Heat tapping into Texas blues fire as ZZ Top. Also joining in will be troubadour PT Banks, with a voice once described in these pages as “a piercing arrow of warmth and melancholy,” as well as soul-rock singer Chief Cleopatra, and members of psych troupe Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band. Lastly, members of garage punks Dikes of Holland will stop by; one of many bands detailed in 2013 documentary Mondo Fuzz, a film shot locally by Andy Ray Lemon, who will be sitting in as DJ Youth Racket alongside DJ sets from Hollywood Jones and LA Scum.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 8pm
    Hotel Vegas

  • Music

    NYE cosmic disco w/ Golden Dawn Arkestra, Superfónicos, Viben & the Submersibles

    Grooves, grooves, grooves from a lysergic threesome of Austin bands that amass over 25 members and all put on a festival-ready show – which is another way to say it’d be fun to trip on mushrooms and dance. Apt for the concert’s banner, psychedelic Afrobeat cirque Golden Dawn Arkestra continue to evolve their disco impulses with club-ready recent singles “Phenomenal” and “Success.” Superfónicos shake down a bouncy Afro-Colombian funk sound infused with the distinct melodies of a gaita and vocals en español. All three bands feature saxophones, but Viben & the Submersibles lean into their sleekness with a keyboard-heavy progressive style dubbed “scuba funk.”
    Fri., Dec. 31, 9pm
    The Far Out Lounge & Stage

  • Music

    NYE w/ Big Bill, Mama Duke, Chucky Blk, Lord Friday the 13th, the Boleys, Sodomy Cop

    In May, the disco ball-adorned venue side of Spider House reopened and rebranded as just “the Ballroom.” Continuing the Nineties-launched outpost for prime Austin sounds, New Year’s Eve presents Big Bill, toting stuttering 2021 singles like “Coma,” at the perfect precipice of rage and goof. Fearlessly grandiose rapper Mama Duke lives up to 2020 title Ballsy, while alt hip-hop act Chucky Blk twists catchy, complex tales in unexpected shapes. On the punk side, Lord Friday the 13th’s salty-sweet cartoon satanism, heard on latest EP Irrational Anthem, joins Sodomy Cop’s high-speed thrash metal clip. Psych-sided sibling trio the Boleys round out.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 8pm
    The Ballroom

  • Music

    NYE w/ Nané, BLK Odyssy, Me Nd Adam, TC Superstar, Vincent Antone, Branx [whole venue]

    Welcome to the Jungle NYE paints a wonderfully complete picture of prominent Austin music in 2021. Extravagant indie-soul project Nané rode falsetto-fueled fireworks off last year’s self-titled debut, also appearing on locally set series Twentysomethings: Austin. In the most widely acclaimed local record of the year, BLK ODYSSY wove funk and hip-hop for tragically revitalizing debut BLK VINTAGE. Choreography-fueled pop troupe TC Superstar crafted phone addiction anthem “Waste My Time” on As Seen on TV, while sad-boy duo Me Nd Adam played self-deprecating dirtbags in the “I Only Feel Alive When I’m Stoned” video. Vincent Antone and Branx join.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 8pm  
    get tickets
    Empire Control Room & Garage

  • Music

    NYE w/ Spliff Kazoo

    I’m surprised Spliff Kazoo even knows it’s NYE, because he’s always on “island time.” His band, the self-proclaimed “#1 Tropical Western Lounge Act in Austin,” performing in the spacious and sittable backyard of Kinda Tropical is an idyllic option for those wanting a chill-yet-entertaining New Year’s experience. A Bermuda Triangle mind-trip of hilarious gags and delightful coconut twang tunes, the tiki crew represents a welcome scene for those who like the concept of Jimmy Buffett, but not the music, or those who want to say aloha to the stroke of midnight while in a slow conga line.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 8pm
    Kinda Tropical

  • Community

    Out of Town

    River of Lights

    Stroll along the riverside park and bask in the glow of colorful holiday lights.
    Through Sat., Jan. 1  
    info
    Bastrop

  • Qmmunity

    Nightlife & Parties

    The H.B.I.C. Ball

    A ball taking a nostalgic look back at reality TV like My Super Sweet 16, The Girls Next Door, America's Next Top Model, and more.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 9pm. $10-15.  
    Facebook
    Swan Dive

  • Arts

    Theatre

    The Mutt-Cracker (Sweet!)

    The irrepressible Darren Peterson and Circus Chickendog return to the Vortex with their family-friendly circus extravaganza, featuring all manner of delightful antics with a crew of talented rescue dogs and a talking scarlet macaw. Written and directed by Melissa Vogt, with Tyler Mabry’s live original score including bits of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.
    Dec. 18-23: Sat.-Sun., Wed.-Thu., 4:30 & 6:30pm. Dec. 28-Jan. 2: Tue., 4:30pm; Wed.-Thu., 4:30 & 6:30pm; Fri., 4:30pm; Sat., 6:30pm; Sun., 4:30pm. $15-35.  
    Click Here for Tickets & Details
    The Vortex

  • Community

    New Year's Guide

    The NYE Bunny Hop

    A groovy, psychedelicious night with DJ Arlini Martini spinning her favorite soul, garage, and New Wave 45s while you dance in the new year.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 9pm. Free.  
    info
    Drinks Lounge

  • Film

    Special Screenings

    The Wizard of Oz (1939)

    Evergreens: There's no place like home.
    Fri., Dec. 31, 4:30pm  
    get tickets
    AFS Cinema
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