Best Things to do in Houston This Weekend — Concerts, Festivals and Oktoberfest

Houston weekends are packed full of events, but how many of them are truly worthy of your time? PaperCity’s new events calendar offers a curated look at all the best things to do in the area. But everyone can still use a guru — or two.

PaperCityWeekend Gurus Matthew Ramirez and Virginia Reynolds cull our calendar for your weekend must dos in this weekly series.

Oktoberfest Houston

If you hit up Karbach’s Oktoberfest kickoff event last weekend and are looking to switch things up a bit this weekend, then head to Buffalo Bayou this Friday, September 27 or (…and) Saturday, September 28 for Oktoberfest Houston. The two-day beer festival will be a serious party, with plenty of Polka music and dancing, fun and games, and obviously food and brew.

The number of participating vendors is nearly absurd. Nearly. Besides the classic Hofbräu, you can also sip on some Karbach, Buffalo Bayou, Under the Radar, 11 Below, among others. And snacks will include bites from Deutscher Fleischwagen (say that 10 times fast), pretzels, Italian ice, donuts. . . the list goes on.

Tickets start at just $15, with VIP tickets available.

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

Viet Cultural Fest

There’s no denying the strong Vietnamese influence here in Houston. Drive around, and you’ll find a Vietnamese restaurant or establishment on any number of street corners. Whether you’re craving a midday banh mi, have a hankering for some rich Vietnamese coffee, or need a super-late night snack (lookin’ at you, Mai’s), you can count on Houston’s cherished Vietnamese mainstays.

This Saturday, September 28, you can help celebrate Vietnam’s rich culture – perhaps even thanking the country for its indelible contributions to Houston – at the first-ever Viet Cultural Fest, presented by the Vietnamese Culture and Science Association. The festival will give you the chance to learn more about Vietnam through cultural exhibitions, traditional games, activities and performances. And yes, you can expect all that delicious Vietnamese food you know and love. So what reason is there not to go?

Tickets are just $7 when bought online, and are $10 at the door.

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

Weird Homes Tour

Last weekend things went modern, and this weekend things will get weird. That’s right, the Weird Homes Tour is taking Houston by storm yet again, with this year’s featured homes scheduled to be as cool and as weird as ever.

Houston seems to be the perfect setting for this nationwide tour, which is slated to hit New Orleans later this year, and Austin, San Francisco, Portland and Detroit in 2020. We take pride in our weird homes, like the ever-famous Beer Can House.

The eight homes featured on Saturday’s Weird Homes Tour will fascinate – maybe even inspire. You can pose for pictures in The Instagram House, discover hidden treasures at the Secret Garden Home, and marvel at the works of art in The Lester Marks Collection, owned by one of the country’s top art collectors, Lester Marks.

Tickets to see all eight homes on this one-day-only, self-guided tour are $45, with 10 percent of ticket proceeds going towards New Hope Housing.

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

Big K.R.I.T.

Hailing from Mississippi, Big K.R.I.T. ushered in a new wave of rappers from the south who mostly listened to and emulated other southern rap icons (UGK, Organized Noize, early T.I.) 10 years ago. They found a new crop of listeners eager to discover artists often forgotten about in the coastal-biased grand narrative of hip-hop.

K.R.I.T. himself has slowly become a respected southern star in his own right, and not just as an emulator or culture vulture. This is the result of a steady stream of good to great records, mixtapes, and singles, a workmanlike flow of production from an artist working on the same blueprint of another generation of southern rappers who had to work quietly and steadily to keep feeding a regional audience.

He’s long since gone from trying to sound exactly like Pimp C on record to his own unique, distinct southern charm. (See a wall-size mural of the man on San Jacinto next door to Barbarella for proof of a devoted southern fanbase.)

He’ll be at House of Blues Saturday, September 28. Doors open 7 pm; tickets $27.50.

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

Sheer Mag

Philadelphia rockers Sheer Mag have a sound immediately recognizable to anyone with an ear for rock music – late ’70s to mid ’80s pop rock akin to Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, even Skynyrd – but also unique, a throwback sound that dropped into the manic headspace of 2019 registers as utterly original.

Their record from this year, A Distant Call, pushes things further, as the band explores the sounds of that era’s AOR (think James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, um, the Eagles) to the pop goofiness of forgotten acts like the Bay City Rollers. Lead singer Tina Halladay commands the controlled chaos with a voice that vacillates from a guttural howl to tender.

To truly experience Sheer Mag, though, you have to see them live, which you can this Saturday, September 28, at the East End’s Satellite Bar. Doors open at 6 pm; tickets $13.

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.