Earth Day, Record Store Day, and More Recommended Events

SFC’s Farm to Plate Foodathon

Thursday 18, Springdale Station

Back in the day, Austin was known for its one-course meals: rice and beans at Les Amis, carne guisada at Jorge’s, chopped beef sandwich at Sam’s BBQ. But you know what has seven times more courses than a one-course meal? A seven-course meal! So join the Sustainable Food Center’s Farm to Plate chow-down this weekend to sample some of our city’s new and improved cuisine, prepared by chefs from Olamaie, Nixta Taqueria, KG BBQ, and other top spots. It will be a four-hour affair, there will be booze, and the $425 admission fee will benefit SFC’s continuing quest to transform our local food system.   – Brant Bingamon

Regular City Council Meeting

Thursday 18, Austin City Hall

City Council returns to the dais at their usual 10am start time to take up a relatively brief agenda. But Council members are bringing important items for a vote, including one from Council Member Alison Alter that directs the city manager to “prioritize funding” for a program aimed at transforming the way the Austin Police Department responds to sexual assaults. Alter also has an item on the agenda that could reduce fees associated with city pools and other aquatic facilities, especially for people earning lower incomes.   – Austin Sanders

Total DOMination x Slam Portal: Food Fight

Saturday 20, Hi-Sign Brewing

Years from now, your great-grandchildren will ask: Where were you during the great food fight of 2024? Don’t you want your answer to be a good one? Partnering up once more are host Lucy Fur and wrestling promoters Slam Portal for a special edition of their usual drag wrestling show. While Lucy emcees alongside ring-girl Baldie Loxx, there’ll be smackdowns aplenty featuring in-ring grotesqueries you can’t even imagine. Just try! You can’t! But what really gives this foodie frenzy its five-fork rating (Anyone else a member of Spoon Man Nation out there?) is that all the ticket-price proceeds go to local org Free Lunch, a collective of creatives providing well-cooked meals to the Esperanza Community.   – James Scott

Field Guide Festival

Saturday 20, Fiesta Gardens

Plenty of food festivals will throw James Beard honorees and Top Chef alums at you, and Saturday’s Field Guide Festival is no exception; see: Edgar Rico (Nixta Taqueria), Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel (Birdie’s), Jo Chan (Bureau de Poste), and Amanda Turner (Olamaie), among others. But the guiding light of this three-year festival – to celebrate local farmers – is what elevates it from merely delicious to genuinely nourishing. Expect bites from more than 50 chef-farmer collabs, live music, live-fire demos, a vegetable omakase experience, and symposium conversations on sustainability and seasonality.   – Kimberley Jones

Record Store Day

Saturday 20, Independent Record Stores

Though these days it comes twice a year thanks to shopping bonanza Black Friday, the OG celebration of the independent record store has long taken place in April. Launched in 2007, Record Store Day riles up audiophiles with a slew of limited edition releases. This year, participating locals include Willie Nelson, who reissues Phases and Stages for its 50th anniversary and presses “Long Story Short,” his star-studded 90th birthday concert from last year, into a live album. From New Jersey, the Roches’ 1979 debut receives its first US reissue in 40 years. Zooming out, Record Store Day ambassadors Paramore tap David Byrne for a split single in which the artists cover each other’s biggest hits.   – Carys Anderson

Keep Austin Beautiful Day

Saturday 20, various locations

Is Austin beautiful? The near-million of us who call it home certainly think so. Let’s keep it that way! Keep Austin Beautiful, with a vision “for Austin to be the cleanest, most beautiful community,” focuses its efforts on reducing waste and keeping green spaces and waterways clear and clean. So every year during Earth Month, KAB mobilizes thousands of volunteers to remove litter from dozens of shared spaces spanning every City Council district. It couldn’t be easier to sign up for a shift – just hop on the web and find a place or project near and dear to your heart, then join like-minded neighbors for a morning of service to Mother Earth.   – Kat McNevins

Preservation Austin Historic Homes Tour

Saturday 20 - Sunday 21, various locations

You know how everyone’s always saying Austin was so much cooler 10 years before you got here? Now you can visit the magical before-times that only exist in legend by touring over a century’s worth of Austin’s architecture, history, and culture via Preservation Austin’s 31st annual homes tour. This fundraiser for the nonprofit will feature five cool homes each day from 10am to 5pm, spanning styles from the humble log cabin to the charming midcentury marvel. A peep at the preview photos reveals they’ve got some real stunners on display this year.   – Kat McNevins

Beginner’s Guide to Hydroponics Workshop

Sunday 21, Austin Creative Reuse

Austin Creative Reuse has long provided a haven for Austin artists to transform discarded objects into creative projects. Now, they’re hosting a workshop on how to transform a cup of water into a thriving ecosystem. Taught by Austin Davenport – a community gardener, volunteer farmer, and aspiring agroecologist whose résumé includes tomato-growing workshops, mushroom cultivation, and planting for pollinators classes – the class will include the basics of setting up a hydroponic system, choosing the right plants, and maintaining a healthy growing environment. Plus, they’ll send you home with a Mason jar and a lettuce or basil plant to kick-start your water garden.   – Lina Fisher

Green Market

Sunday 21, the Little Gay Shop

Earth Month is nearing its end, and Earth Day is just around the corner: Have you done your part to go green? And speaking of green: 4/20 is also due to be celebrated. So head down to TLGS to check out what Eastside Pop Up and Redeemer Small Batch have concocted for their Green Market. They’ve promised over 20 Earth-conscious, canna-friendly, and plant-forward vendors, and have hinted at a tie-dye station. It’s free, all-ages, and even pet-friendly, being outdoors. Here’s hoping for a sunny Sunday!   – Kat McNevins

Bebesota Brunch: Bad Bunny vs. Selena

Sunday 21, Taquero Mucho at the Domain

The best girls – and boys – will be pitting queen against king in this showdown drag show. On Team Selena are the lovely Amber Nicole Davenport and Beauty, representing the Queen of Tejano just after her birthday. Honoring Puerto Rican pretty boy rapper Bad Bunny is the handsome duo of Randy Lopez and Luiz Fatale. Side note: Did y’all know Bad Bunny wrestled for WWE? He took out Dolph Ziggler in a 2022 Royal Rumble! While that smackdown was pretty good, brawny beat-em-ups got nothing on the intensity of a drag brunch head-to-head. Show up early to grab a seat and marg; it’s gonna be a good show.   – James Scott

Shred It!

Monday 22, Frost Bank Stassney

According to IdentityTheft.org, fraud and identity theft cases have nearly tripled over the last decade. One way to protect yourself from such a fate is to shred sensitive documents you no longer need, and Frost Bank comes in clutch with professional shredding services that can knock out up to 10 boxes or bags of yours – for free! With your busy lifestyle, you don’t have time to feed paper to a shredder all day, so let Shred-It do that for you. But just paper, OK? And no moldy or wet stuff. Or X-rays, pill bottles, CDs ... you get the idea.   – Kat McNevins

Friends Trivia

Tuesday 23, Waterloo Ice House Southpark Meadows

Get over your fake hate and your “I preferred Seinfeld” posturing. Friends was and remains the biggest sitcom for Gen-Xers as they realized that no one told them life would be this way (clap clap clap clap). It doesn’t matter if you left a guy at the altar, threw a girl’s wooden leg in a fire, or live in a box, as long as you know your chick and duck from your chick dip you’re welcome at this night celebrating supposably the funniest show of the 1990s. Could there be a better night out?   – Richard Whittaker