Lite + Brite: 28 Bite-Sized Austin Events 5/8
Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the Lite + Brite newsletter.
How do you feel about art? Hopefully you like it, given that you subscribe to this newsletter and all. And if you do, then you’ve got a stellar week coming at you. Various galleries are taking over hotel guest rooms with ephemeral installations; artists throughout South Austin are opening their studios to the public; a big ol’ art fest is filling the halls of Dougherty Arts Center; art-touching is at last available to us all, and the so-called “Affordable” Art Fair is coming into town. (If you consider works that cost up to $12k to be affordable, that is so great for you, and also it sounds like you could be subscribing to our Patreon at a higher level! If you are anything like the rest of us, it’s still so worth going to this fair to see it all.)
Other forms of art happening this week include punning, storytelling, acting, zining (not a verb but whatevs), burlesquing, dancing, podcasting, and dressing up like a frog.
If you’re not already a subscriber to this newsletter and you want to be, click here. We do one newsletter a week, usually on Fridays, plus a bonus edition around the start of each month. If you enjoy this newsletter, please support us by contributing to our Patreon and by forwarding this email to your friends who enjoy things like listening to music and leaving the house sometimes.
Let’s do fun stuff!
—Leila + Brian
liteandbriteatx.com
EVENTS WE’RE EYEING
Friday 5/8
- Touch the Art Grand Opening at Almost Real Things Canopy
“Finally, you can touch all of the art on the walls” – couldn’t agree more - Frog Night at Tiny Minotaur
“Amphibian-themed costumes encouraged, but not required” - Friends Fair at venues throughout Austin
Galleries local + abroad curate hotel rooms with contemporary art - Bridgerdown at the Vortex
Commedia dell’arte troupe’s bloody take on Bridgerton - The Comedy Film Festival at AFS
“A film festival just for funny“ w/indie comedy films + video
Saturday 5/9
- Pun-Off World Championships at the Asian American Resource Center
Pun lovers nationwide flock to Austin to be crowned the punniest - Overheard on a Train on the metrorail
Participate in immersive theatre while exploring public transit - IMOLE: A Black Fae Day Celebration at the Carver Museum
Celebration of faeries + the Black diaspora w/story time, crafting, parade, costumes - Hyde Park Storytelling at Batch Craft Beer
Family-friendly storytellers ply their trade in a backyard w/ASL interpreter - Woodland Faerie Trail Grand Opening at Zilker Botanic Garden
Explore artist-crafted faerie homes throughout the park - Fae Fest at Ani’s Day + Night
Faerie-themed “immersive marketplace + festival” w/photo-ops + activities - The Butcher’s Masquerade at Tiny Minotaur
Dungeon Crawler Carl-themed party w/ “pet” beauty contest - Zine Release Pop-Up at Tomo Mags
Bilingual zine release at local magazine shop - Songs in the Reverie at Mesmerize
Intimate concert in an immersive art installation - Art-O-Rama at the Dougherty Arts Center
Street art party w/live art, exhibits, live music, magician, + activities - Nightshade at Elysium
The launch of a new goth/darkwave/industrial dance party - Texas Roller Derby at the Buda Thunderdome
Roller derbyists murderously smash their way through a banked track - Friends Fair at venues throughout Austin
Galleries local + abroad curate hotel rooms with contemporary art - Bridgerdown at the Vortex
Commedia dell’arte troupe’s bloody take on Bridgerton - The Comedy Film Festival at Coldtowne + Hyperreal Film Club
“A film festival just for funny“ w/indie comedy films + video - Art04 Studio Tour at spaces throughout south Austin
Artists w/studios in South Austin open their studios + share their work
Sunday 5/10
- The Comedy Film Festival at Coldtowne + Hyperreal Film Club
“A film festival just for funny“ w/indie comedy films + video - Art04 Studio Tour at spaces throughout south Austin
Artists w/studios in South Austin open their studios + share their work
Monday 5/11
- ATX Short Film Showcase at 29th St. Ballroom
The films are short, the filmmakers are Texan + of varying heights - (weekly thru 5/18) Kicking the Bucket Listening Club at Hampton Branch Library
Combine basket weaving, group audiobook listening, + end-of-life discussion
Tuesday 5/12
- Future of Downtown at the Paramount
Chat with + hear from local leaders on plans for downtown Austin
Wednesday 5/13
- Memory Static at Tiny Minotaur
Live taping of a podcast about millennial childhood films - Cine las Americas at various locations
View films of all kinds made by Latinx filmmakers from Texas + beyond
Thursday 5/14
- Far-Out Prom at the Far Out Lounge
80s prom w/live music, covers, DJs, photobooth, vendors - Circular Austin Showcase at the Cathedral
Local entrepreneurs pitch their sustainable businesses - Bite-Sized at Klerje Coffee
Short modern dance performances paired with light bites - Texas Burlesque Festival at Elysium + the Long Center
A big celebration of both traditional + boundary-pushing burlesque - Affordable Art Fair at the Palmer Events Center
Large-scale art fair focusing on affordable pieces for sale - Cine las Americas at various locations
View films of all kinds made by Latinx filmmakers from Texas + beyond
NHA278
Bots Night Out
This week the bots are out on the town, and to soundtrack their midnight journeys we’ve got a pack of heavily nocturnal tunes suitable for late night hjiinx including synthpop, electro, city pop, and a little synthy Dutch jazz.
Tracklist
Ronald Langestraat – Pandora’s Box
Data Drama – Close Your Eyes (JAI Edit)
Flash & the Pan – Midnight Man
Makoto Matsushita – One Hot Love
Life Force – Invitation (Danergy)
Deekay Jones – New York New York
Toto Coelo – Girls Night Out
Badou – Zena (dub)
Das Komplex – Pillow Stories
Noël – I Just Want to Be Seen with You
Choir Boy – I’ll Always Let You Down
No Humans Allowed is Brian Blackout’s award-winning, weekly robots-themed radio show on internet station KPISS.fm. Machine vibes 4 machines. Songs for robots, androids, mandroids, cyborgs, AIs, cylons, skinjobs, roombas, wifi routers, smart devices, anything colored Bondi blue, and virtual assistants. Humans not required. Broadcasts live every Wednesday at 6pm CT on kpiss.fm, with over 200 episodes now streamable in the archives on topics like and Beach Simulations, Roomba dance parties, undersea adventures + Cyber Texas.
PATREON THANKS
A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers Liz, Melissa Dunn, Kat, James Gray, Emily Heddleson, Andrew Creswell, Robert B., Roman Gonzalez, Nick Ivons, Molly Fonseca, Lilly Ettinger, Michael Sales, Zach, Gino Scaramuzza, Erica Speegle, Thomas Refferson, Bones Malones, Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, Alexander Freed, and Kristen Backor. We’re deeply grateful for your support, which allows us to do things like “pay our Beehiiv fee” and “spend hours researching Austin events when technically we should be working.”
If you’d like to support us on Patreon and get access to exclusive member-only benefits, you may do so here.
SOCIALS
Recent weeks found us attending a dance party in a storage unit, marching in a Greek mythology-themed Halloween parade thrown by a bat crew and a rat crew, and watching a troupe of gigantic leftist puppets from New England. Follow Lite + Brite on Instagram to keep up with our adventures. We’re now on Bluesky too. Yay federation! And come chat with us and the rest of the L+B community on our Discord server (where we sometimes post stuff early too).
ABOUT US
How do we choose which events to feature?
Honestly, it’s pretty random. We might include anything in Austin that we, personally, would conceivably want to go to, generally excluding normal concerts, comedy shows, and movie showtimes because there are many other good resources for finding those. (We especially recommend Showlist and Side by Sideshows for live music, The Darker Side of Austin for goth and metal stuff, Concept Animals’ ATX Art for You for gallery openings + artist talks, ATX Theatre for plays, and the 60+ Weirdest Things in Austin for exactly what it sounds like). This list is by no means exhaustive; it’s just stuff that caught our eye this week. If you have an event that you want us to consider including, send it over.
Who are we?
We are Leila + Brian. We make this newsletter. We do our own events, most often No Lights No Lycra, + also BYOT, a party where we share very good YouTubes (here’s a playlist from the last one). We go very hard seeing bands at SxSW (here are playlists of our favorites from 2026). We once got called “local Austin couple” by KXAN. We do some other stuff here and there. We love going out to creative events in Austin, and we want you to join us. Visit us at liteandbriteatx.com, and support us on Patreon if you like what we do.