April's Best Happenings

Top 10 things to do in April: Karaoke Underground, Texas VegFest, Dog Day Afternoon

Winter (if you dared to call it that) is over and spring has officially sprung in Central Texas. This month is not only abuzz with June bugs and blooming flora, but also a slew of festivals, outdoor activities and cultural events.

Hold on to your floppy hats, here are our top 10 picks for April activities in Austin.

Austin Beauty Week
April 1-7

To Austin women (and even some men), the first week in April means big savings in the beauty department. For seven consecutive days, participating local businesses such as Sono Bello, Wet Salon & Studio and Stella & Dot by Whitney Fields, among many others, offer dramatically discounted products and services. How discounted, you might ask? Try a stress fix massage from Hiatus Spa Retreat (regularly $109) for only $69 or 50 percent off Makeup Bar looks from Adore Makeup Boutique + Salon.

Boots, Burgers & Beers
April 4, 7:30 p.m.

Celebrate the April issue of Austin Monthly with a sampling of some of the best burgers in town. The event features meaty selections from the local joints Your Mom’s, The Peached Tortilla, East Side Showroom and Blue Star Cafeteria, as well as seasonal beer from Shiner Bock. For the more daring (and strong-stomached) burger-beer enthusiasts, there will also be a mechanical bull onsite. Local “celebrities” will judge the burgers while guests indulge in diversions from the Billiard Factory and The Traveling Photo Booth. To purchase tickets, visit the Boots, Burgers & Beer Eventbrite page.

Demetri Martin
April 4, 8 p.m.

If you like ‘The Daily Show,’ Comedy Central, and laughing, chances are you love — or will soon love — Demetri Martin. The comedian, actor, artist, musician, writer and humorist (phew!) is currently on tour in support of his second comedy album and returns to Austin on April 4 with a stage performance at the Scottish Rite Theater.

Texas VegFest
April 6, 11 a.m.

Veg-heads: pry yourself away from that wicked, homemade compost pile and get thee to the second annual Texas VegFest! This family-friendly event features live music, vendors, and, of course, plant-based foods, with a special focus on health, the environment and compassionate living.

Karaoke Underground
April 6, 10 p.m.

Scream, cry and croon your way through over 600 punk and indie classics with the April installment of Karaoke Underground. Seriously, you name it — anything from Cat Power to Guided By Voices and Black Flag — and they’ve got it. This month’s hootenanny returns to the Nomad Bar with video karaoke and the requisite selection of drafts, liquor, wine and food.

Austin Restaurant Week
April 7-10; April 14-17

Although Restaurant Week in Austin may be a far cry from that of similar events in New York or LA, the premise is all the same: some of the city’s top restaurants offer pre-fixe menus at a discounted price. Some of this year’s participating restaurants include Uchi, Uchiko, Olive & June, Salty Sow and Swifts Attic, among a selection of over 35 other local dining hotspots.

CultureMap Tastemaker Awards
April 11, 6:30 p.m.

Austin’s Daily Digital Magazine is a local arbiter of gastronomy, which just happens to be the focus of the 2013 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards. Guests will enjoy a sampling of complimentary bites and specialty cocktails in the company of the city’s best chefs and mixologists, in an event benefiting the Austin Food & Wine Alliance. At the end evening, the Tastemaker Awards ceremony will honor Austin’s best restaurant, chef, pastry chef, sommelier or beverage director, brewery and craft bartender.

KLBJ Dog Day Afternoon
April 13, 12 p.m.

There are few pleasures greater in this world than watching a gaggle of dachshunds race across a lawn. That is, besides watching a group of Chihuahuas do the same thing. Spectators at the annual KLBJ Dog Day Afternoon will delight in both, as well as a slew of kids' activities, dog-related vendors and animal rescue groups. Admission is free and friendly dogs on leashes are welcome.

Fun Party
April 19, 7:30 p.m.

Cindy St. John and Dan Boehl, hosts of the local literary series Fun Party, return to Tiny Park Gallery this month with a reading featuring the visiting poets Adam Clay, Ada Limón and Michael Robins. The series, which employs literature, art and film mediums, focuses on writers associated with small, independent press publishing. Readings such as Fun Party, along with the recent return of American Short Fiction, have helped to establish Austin as a new bastion for independent authors and artists.

Austin Food & Wine Festival
April 26-28

For two days in late April, foodies will descend on our fair city to indulge in the annual epicurean adventure that is the Austin Food & Wine Festival. Top chef talent, sommeliers and winemakers converge with Austin's emerging gourmet scene for cooking demos, wine and cocktail seminars, tasting lounges and pavilions, and, of course, all out noshing.

KLBJ Dog Day Afternoon

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Genie Is Out of The Bottle

Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick starts quest to ban all forms of THC

The THC limit in medical cannabis products is also increasing.

Photo courtesy of TOCC

A ban on THC would not be popular.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is launching a quixotic quest to ban legal THC: According to a release, Patrick is pushing legislation that would ban all forms of consumable Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from being sold in Texas.

He's promoting Senate Bill 3, which would be carried by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, and would ban all forms of THC.

Patrick is unhappy with House Bill 1325, introduced by Rep. Tracy King, D-Uvalde, to bolster agriculture in Texas. It was passed by the Texas Legislature in 2019.

Part of that bill allowed for the commercialization of hemp, which included un-removable non-intoxicating trace amounts of Delta 9 THC.

“Dangerously, retailers exploited the agriculture law to sell life-threatening, unregulated forms of THC to the public and made them easily accessible," Patrick says in his release. "These stores not only sold to adults, but they targeted Texas children and exposed them to dangerous levels of THC."

"Since 2023, thousands of stores selling hazardous THC products have popped up in communities across the state, and many sell products, including beverages, that have three to four times the THC content which might be found in marijuana purchased from a drug dealer," he says.

It seems like the genie is out of the bottle: According to the Baker Institute, hemp in Texas is booming: From 2020 to 2023, sales of hemp-derived cannabinoids increased by 1283 percent, reaching a value of $2.78 billion last year.

And efforts to reel it back in are basically doomed, they say.

"While prohibition may seem like the simplest response, it is almost certain to fail — both in eliminating widespread access to hemp-derived cannabinoids and in protecting the public," they say.

"As of April 2024, Texas had over 7,000 registered hemp dispensaries," they note. "More than 50,000 Texans are estimated to be employed through the hemp sector. A state ban would ruin this industry, but it would not reduce consumer demand for hemp-derived cannabinoids. Instead, consumers would turn to the illicit hemp market that would inevitably form in the wake of state prohibition. Products sold today in state-registered shops would still be available through underground supply networks that would reap billions in tax-free profits."

They say that "a broad ban, even a poorly enforced one, would harm consumers more than the state’s current system."

Meanwhile voters are supporting marijuana decriminalization efforts such as the one recently approved by the city of Dallas, as well as Austin, Denton, Elgin, Killeen, and San Marcos.

Catina Voellinger, Executive Director of Ground Game Texas, a Texas group that has been advocating for decriminalization of marijuana, says in a statement that the legislation would turn back the clock to a more repressive time.

“Instead of banning THC, lawmakers should focus on legalizing marijuana statewide, which would allow for cannabis to be safely regulated, and would prevent countless residents from being harmed by unnecessary arrests and prosecutions for possessing something that is already legal in 24 states," Voellinger says. "We’ve seen repeatedly that this is what Texans want – our marijuana decriminalization ballot initiatives in Dallas, Lockhart, and Bastrop won overwhelmingly this November.”

Daryoush Austin Zamhariri, Executive Director of Texas Cannabis Collective, a group working to change cannabis laws, calls Patrick's endorsement of legislation that would ban all consumable THC products in Texas "tremendously out of step with the overwhelming majority of Texans."

"Poll after poll has shown the citizens of Texas support legalizing cannabis and ending the failed policy of cannabis prohibition," Zamhariri says. "These attitudes have manifested in several campaigns to progressively decriminalize marijuana possession in cities across the state with bipartisan super majority votes through local ballot initiatives. We oppose SB 3 and look forward to working with our coalition partners at the 89th Legislature to bring common sense cannabis reform to the entirety of Texas.”

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