Five Free Shows at Miller Between Now and Labor Day Weekend

Miller Outdoor Theatre has five performances in the next ten days and every one of them is free. Tonight, August 28, Classic Albums Live performs Led Zeppelin IV at 8. Saturday the 29th is Cirque-tacular: The Art of Circus, also at 8. Then Sounds and Stories from Space City, produced by WindSync, at 11 in the morning on September 2; WindSync and Musiqa together on September 4 at 8; and Baroque to Boleros from the Mercury Chamber Orchestra on September 5 at 8. The hill is open seating. Covered seats need a free ticket, released on Miller's website at 10 AM the day before and gone once they run out. Shows go on rain or shine. I grew up in Houston, and Miller has been free that whole time.

Downtown, the Houston Mariachi Festival runs three nights at the Brown Theater in the Wortham Center. Friday the 28th at 7 is the University of Houston Mariachi Pumas with a high school all-star group. Saturday the 29th at 7 brings Mariachi Imperial de América and Mariachi Las Chabelitas; that's the festival's formal night and the audience dresses for it. Sunday the 30th at 3 closes with UTRGV's Mariachi Aztlán and Ballet Folklórico. Tickets start at $29.

Tonight at 7:30 there's also a free Bat Chat at the Waugh Drive Bat Bridge, run by Buffalo Bayou Partnership. The Cistern is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 to 7, at 105-B Sabine, with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Undercurrents installed through January; reservations are recommended. If one of these puts you somewhere you're curious about, text me at 281-818-8177 and I'll walk you through what that area has been selling for.