Entertainment

⚔️ Drunk knights | Sexiest chicken | Wine fest | Tango madness | Japan fair | Secret desert rave

Andrew Kiraly

09 Oct 2024 — 7 min read

Sworded affair: The venerable Age of Chivalry Renaissance Festival is pretty medieval in its own right: This year's event Oct. 11-13 at Sunset Park marks its 30th year of swashing buckles and serving up enormous turkey legs. But it's hardly remained stuck in the past — now there's even a mobile app to help you navigate the ever-growing festival's vendors, attractions, and guilds. (Just text "royalty" to 888111.)

IT'S A COMFORT FOOD kinda weekend with a fistful of seasonal fests returning to the valley, from Summerlin's signature art festival to Henderson's Aki Matsuri. Want decidedly out of your comfort zone? Shows boasting a big wtf? factor such as Mavericks and Abandon are back for more mayhem, too. Cheers! – Andrew Kiraly 🤍

Mavericks

It's back, only bigger, hotter, wetter, chickenier.

Ongoing ✦ The Plaza

➤ Also: California launches a Reggae Invasion Oct. 10 at The Usual Place ✦ Feelin' lucky, electropunk? Look up for Death From Above 1979 Oct. 10 at Swan Dive ✦ Abandon makes it hurt so good again Oct. 11 at Vegas Theatre Company ✦ Catholic Guilt's comedy has mass appeal Oct. 11 at Mom's Basement Theatre ✦ Heroes weave a musical web at Across the Spider-Verse Oct. 12 at The Smith Center ✦ Two options: My Body, My Choice or My Foot Up Your Ass! Oct 12 at the Double Down ✦ Dance with the dark at tropical goth cumbia bash Lujuria Oct. 13 at Sinwave ✦ Come hungry, leave queeny at Ginger Grant's Infamous Drag Brunch Oct. 13 at Dust ✦ Those with funny taste will savor Eat This Comedy Oct. 13 at Rebellion Pizza. ▼

Festival of Arts

Stroll, shop, and sip at Summerlin's signature fair.

Oct. 11-13 ✦ Downtown Summerlin

➤ Also: Three days of indie emo pomo oh-no at Best Friends Forever Oct. 11-13 at DLVEC ✦ Dine around and wine around at the USA Today Wine & Food Experience Oct. 12 Downtown ✦ Kitsch me if you can at Sin City Tiki & Vintage Marketplace Oct. 12 at Starboard Tack ✦ Crawl among the scrawls at Skye Canyon's Chalk & Cheers Oct. 12 ✦ "Art of the Classic Car" Oct. 12 at Downtown Summerlin sounds like a gas ✦ Hot jazz, cool evening, free show: Dixie Flats Oct. 12 at Bruce Trent Park ✦ Rainbow power prevails at the annual Pride parade Oct. 12 Downtown. ▼

Tango Lovers

Twenty dancers, two countries, infinite spice.

Oct. 13 ✦ UNLV

➤ Also: Esteban Ramirez melds poetry, piano, and poignant stories Oct. 11-13 at select valley libraries ✦ No joke: A tarot reader, a medium, and an astrologer walk into a bar Oct. 12 at The Composers Room ✦ Athena Jett's vocals take off Oct. 13 at Maxan Jazz ✦ Make your move before Six Dance Lessons shuffles off Oct. 11-13 at Las Vegas Little Theatre ✦ These wildly diverse wrestlers reveal their Cruel Intentions Oct. 13 at Swan Dive. ▼

Aki Matsuri

Forgot how / To write a haiku / But you get the idea

Oct. 12 ✦ Water Street Plaza

➤ Also: Celtic rockers Derina Harvey Band won't stop fiddlin' around Oct. 11 at Solista Park ✦ Get crafty with the kids at the Heritage Harvest Festival Oct. 12 ✦ The toy artists of SUPERPLASTIC aren't playin' around Oct. 12 at Slonina ARTSpace ✦ You're on a pupward trajectory at the Un-Leashed Pet Market Oct. 12 at UnCommons ✦ Shop small at the Black Owned Market Oct. 13 at Fergusons Downtown. ▼

_{Our Supporting Sponsors}

Vegas PBS ✦ The Writer's Block ✦ The Firm Public Relations & Marketing ✦ Inside Style ✦ Honey Badger Arsenal ✦ Pink Pelvis ✦ Piecing It Together Podcast ✦ A Public Fit Theatre Company ✦ Majestic Repertory Theatre ✦ UNLV Performing Arts Center

THE CH33SE 🧀

🌶️ The Dish List

You'll be seeing (and sipping) red at this Oct. 12 cab tasting at Rio's Wine Cellar ✦ Blessed be the flavors at Taste of St. Viator Oct. 12 ✦ Spice it up at this Oct. 13 chili cook-off and craft beer release at CraftHaus ✦ Henderson gets extra cheesey when Good Pie opens Oct. 13 ✦ Booze Yoga? It's not a stretch Oct. 13 at Khoury's Fine Wine & Spirits ✦ Anima showcases the high-altitude wines of Mount Etna at this Oct. 14 pairing dinner ✦ Steins, schnitzel, and strudel are on the menu at this Pub 365 Okbtoberfest dinner Oct. 16 ✦ Connoisseurs of cauldron delights will savor Winnie & Ethel's "Haunted Home Means Nevada" Supper Club Oct. 25 ✦ The accent is on vibrant regional wineries at Border Grill's Mexican Food + Wine Festival Oct. 25 ✦ Eat your fears at House of Blues with additional Haunted Brunch dates through Oct. 27 ✦

✒️

Did someone finally do it? Did someone finally write The Great Vegas Novel? Ooh, I'm gonna find out on Oct. 11 at The Writer's Block when I snag my copy of Doug Unger's Dream City and consume it in a nitpicky frenzy of seething, gelid envy. (Disclosure: Doug is my friend and former writing teacher, though I must pre-emptively state in his defense that he is not in any way responsible for my rococo jank prose style.) My mordant preoccupation with "the Vegas novel" and written representations of my hometown have led me through dark delights and shrieking disappointments (including, in all fairness, lolz my own) — which is also the thrust of this Oct. 19 Las Vegas Book Festival panel.

🪑 Give Me Design

Looking for stylish home decor on the cheap? Sure, you could wade through the valley's suburban garage sale purgatory of Hummel knockoffs and inexplicably framed Scarface posters, or you can hit InsideStyle's huge warehouse sale Oct. 19-20. The art alone has me mentally reshuffling my living room for more wall space.

🏜️ Dust Buddies

I hear it's kinda like Burning Man with (serrated steampunk) training wheels: Sound Solstice Oct. 12 is a sporadic, quasi-elusive lakebed rave just outside Boulder City with bass-heavy DJs, performance artists, multiple stages, and Mad Max rager vibes but also a nominal touch of vague, responsible spirituality.

🚂 Get Ghosted

The October calendar is scaring up more Halloween treats for all ages: The notably "non-scary" Boulder City Halloween Express screams non-scarily into action Oct. 11, complete with costume contest and dance party ✦ Get possessed by rummy spirits at The Golden Tiki's Ghost Stories series kicking off Oct. 9 and running every Wednesday in October, with spooky tales and paranormal conjurings by Will Bradshaw ✦ Get down with the killer clown at Piecing It Together's screening of Terrifier 3 Oct. 12 at Downtown Cinemas ✦ Perhaps the freakiest thing about the Sin City Halloween Ball Oct. 26 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is that it's presented by Chaturbate.

👘 Robery in Progress

Kimono? More like kimo-yes! 🙄 This somewhat completely random and charmingly named 2024 Autumn Enjoy Kimono Expo Oct. 13 at Ninja Karaoke promises more than 1,000 kimonos, yukata, and hakama on display and for sale. I'm a convert: My slothy chillwich Sunday laze vibes went x 1,000 ever since I scored a kimono years ago.

♟️ If Rooks Could Kill

As an enthusiastic but hopelessly blunder-prone woodpusher myself, I'd be remiss not to mention that National Chess Day is Oct. 12. Las Vegas doesn't have a fully fledged chess club per se, but there are plenty of spots to find chess mates to checkmate: Consider the Southern Nevada Chess Club in Chinatown for regular rated games and tournaments, the Casual Chess Club for free, unrated games on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and the monthly Go Gettahz at Ninja Karaoke Downtown, where DJs and hip hop artists perform during matches.

🧙‍♂️ Gee, Wiz

Just bought my tix to Opera Las Vegas' Saturday showing of Again and Again and Again, sold on nothing more than the fact it sounds so absolutely bonkers: Based on the "classic meta-theatrical fantasy" L’Illusion Comique, the one-hour comic opera is a mind-melting, time-transcending trip in which a father searches for his estranged son with the help of a mad wizard's fantastic, wholly impossible visions. This world premiere is happening Oct. 11-13 at The Space.