Ohio State comes to Austin, and Levitation takes over Red River.

Labor Day is behind us and the city goes straight into its biggest week of the fall. Ohio State comes to DKR on Saturday night at 6:30, which is the kind of home game that reprices every hotel room inside the loop, and Levitation runs Thursday through Sunday across Radio/East, Stubb's, Mohawk, Hotel Vegas and a handful of others with American Football, Bikini Kill, Sleep and Molchat Doma on the bill. Those two things share a Saturday night and about four square blocks, so read the tip at the bottom before you make a plan. Austin Restaurant Weeks has one week left, Austin FC is home Wednesday, and Chance the Rapper closes it out at Moody Amphitheater next Sunday. Tonight is the last quiet night you get for a while.

The marquee

• Sat Sep 12, 6:30 PM · Resale only, and priced accordingly
  Texas vs Ohio State
  Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, 405 E 23rd St
  The biggest regular season home game on the schedule, under the lights, with a night kickoff that turns the whole day into a tailgate. Season tickets sold out in the spring, so anything available now is secondary market at a number you will not enjoy. If you are watching from a bar instead, get there by five, because every screen south of campus will be spoken for by six.
• Thu Sep 10 through Sun Sep 13 · Four-day passes sold out, three-day Radio/East passes around $185, single shows available
  Levitation
  Radio/East, Stubb's, Mohawk, Hotel Vegas, Elysium, 13th Floor and more
  Austin's psych festival in its original multi-venue shape, which is the good version: twenty-plus individual shows across Red River and the east side, and you build your own schedule night to night. American Football, Bikini Kill, Sleep, Molchat Doma and Die Spitz are the names carrying it. Single-show tickets are the smart buy if you only want two or three sets, and they are still out there.
• Sun Sep 13, evening · From $45
  Chance the Rapper
  Moody Amphitheater, 1401 Trinity St
  A tenth anniversary run for the record that made him, outdoors at Waterloo Park on the first Sunday that might actually feel like September. Lawn tickets are the right call. It also lands on the last day of Levitation, so downtown stays busy right through the end of the week.

Sunday · Tonight

• Tonight, evening · From $60
  Brandi Carlile, The Human Tour
  Moody Center, 2001 Robert Dedman Dr
  Holiday weekend Sunday in an arena, which means you can stay for the encore and still function tomorrow. Worth the upper bowl if you have not committed yet.
• Through the afternoon · From $75 for race day
  Lone Star Le Mans, the six-hour race
  Circuit of the Americas, 9201 Circuit of the Americas Blvd
  Six hours of running that wraps this afternoon. If you are heading out now, take 71 and expect the return trip to be slower than the drive down.
• 4:00 PM · Free
  Chicken Shit Bingo
  Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon, Brentwood
  The reliable Sunday. Inside by 3:30 if you want a seat, and the last calm one before Saturday.
• Open until 10:00 PM · $5
  Evening swim at Barton Springs
  Zilker Park
  Sixty-eight degrees, as always. The post-holiday crowd thins out after seven.

Monday–Wednesday

• Through Sep 14 · Fixed price menus
  Austin Restaurant Weeks, final week
  More than 100 restaurants, citywide
  Last call on the prix-fixe run, and Monday through Wednesday is where the tables still are. Book the room you have been curious about rather than the one you already like, because this is the week the risk is cheap.
• Mon Sep 7, 8:00 PM · $20
  Bob Schneider's Lonelyland
  Saxon Pub, 1320 S Lamar Blvd
  Third decade of the same Monday. Arrive by 7:30 for sightlines.
• Tue Sep 8, 8:00 PM · No cover
  Two-step lessons at the White Horse
  500 Comal St, East Austin
  Free lesson, no partner required, band on right after. Go this week, because next Thursday through Sunday the east side belongs to Levitation.
• Wed Sep 9, evening · From $35
  Austin FC vs Colorado Rapids
  Q2 Stadium, 10414 McKalla Pl
  A midweek home date, which is the cheapest Austin FC gets and the easiest to park for. The Orange Line still beats driving up Burnet.
• Nightly, 9:30 PM · $10 or less
  Jazz at the Elephant Room
  315 Congress Ave, Downtown
  The basement stays the underrated room, and this is the last week it will be quiet down there.

Thursday–Friday

• Thu Sep 10, from 3:00 PM · Single shows from around $30
  Levitation, opening night
  Radio/East, 3504 Montopolis Dr, plus Red River venues
  Thursday is the least crowded night of the four and the easiest to walk into on a single-show ticket. Check which venue your set is at before you leave, because Radio/East and the Red River rooms are a fifteen minute drive apart, not a walk.
• Fri Sep 11, evening · Varies by show
  Levitation, Friday across Red River
  Stubb's, Mohawk, Elysium, 13th Floor
  Friday is when the Red River block does the heavy lifting and you can genuinely venue-hop on foot. Two sets in one night is realistic, three is ambitious.
• Fri Sep 11, dinner service · Fixed price
  Restaurant Weeks, last Friday
  Citywide
  The final Friday of the run, and the one that books out. If you want a Friday table, reserve it Monday.
• Fri Sep 11, 9:00 PM · No cover
  Friday honky tonk at the White Horse
  500 Comal St
  Three bands, no cover, and the correct free answer in a week where everything else has a ticket price attached.

Next Saturday

• Sat Sep 12, 6:30 PM · Resale only
  Texas vs Ohio State
  Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium
  See the marquee. A 6:30 kickoff means campus is unusable from mid-afternoon and stays that way until close to eleven.
• Sat Sep 12, daytime · Free
  Viva Mexico
  Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St
  The MACC's Mexican Independence Day celebration, with live music, folklórico, and food, on the lawn by the lake. Free, family-friendly, and finished well before kickoff, which makes it the easiest thing on Saturday to actually get to.
• Sat Sep 12, afternoon into late · Varies by show
  Levitation, Saturday
  Radio/East and Red River venues
  The heaviest night of the festival, sharing a city with a night football game. If you have tickets to both, you are choosing one. Pick the one you cannot see again.
• Sat Sep 12, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM · Free
  SFC Farmers Market at Republic Square
  422 Guadalupe St, Downtown
  Fall greens are in properly now and the melons are on their way out. Morning is wide open before the day turns into a traffic problem.
• Sat Sep 12, from noon · No cover
  Meanwhile Brewing, gameday yard
  3901 Promontory Point Dr, South Austin
  If you are watching rather than attending, this is the version with room to move, shade, three food trucks, and no downtown parking math. Get a table before four.

Next Sunday

• Sun Sep 13, evening · From $45
  Chance the Rapper
  Moody Amphitheater, 1401 Trinity St
  See the marquee. Waterloo Park on a Sunday evening in mid September is close to the best outdoor room in town.
• Sun Sep 13 · Varies by show
  Levitation, closing day
  Radio/East and Red River venues
  Sunday is the wind-down and the shows start earlier. It is also the day single tickets are easiest to find.
• Sun Sep 13, 4:00 PM · Free
  Chicken Shit Bingo
  Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon, Brentwood

What we're drinking this week

• · $8
  Ranch water at Nickel City
  1133 E 11th St
  Tequila, lime, Topo Chico, nothing else, and the only reasonable order in a week with this much walking in it. The kitchen window runs late, which matters on a Levitation night.
• · $10
  Sangria swirl at Polvos
  2004 S 1st St
  A frozen margarita with sangria poured down the side, and the reason the patio has a line at two on a Saturday. One is a decision, two is a Sunday you have given away.
• · $7
  Pint in the yard at Meanwhile Brewing
  3901 Promontory Point Dr
  Enormous lawn, real shade, food trucks, and screens up on gameday. The most forgiving place in town to watch a night kickoff with people who care at different levels.
• · $5
  Cold brew at Fleet Coffee
  2427 Webberville Rd
  A tiny east side window that pulls a better cup than places four times the size. Convenient on a Levitation morning when you need to be a person again.

Free this week

• Sat Sep 12, daytime · Free
  Viva Mexico at the MACC
  600 River St
• Tue Sep 8, 8:00 PM · No cover
  Two-step lessons at the White Horse
  500 Comal St
• 5:00 to 8:00 AM and 9:00 to 10:00 PM daily · Free
  Barton Springs free hours
  Zilker Park

From the archive

This is an expensive week if you let it be one. Between a resale-only football ticket, a festival wristband and a Restaurant Weeks dinner, you could spend a month's fun budget by Saturday night. Our fifty dollar weekend guide is the counter-programming: where to eat, drink, swim and hear live music across two days without going past fifty dollars a person, all of it still true in September. Worth having open on your phone this week in particular.

Looking ahead

• Sat Sep 19, 7:00 PM · Resale only
  Texas vs UTSA
  Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium
• Wed Sep 16 · Mostly free
  Diez y Seis, Mexican Independence Day
  Citywide, and the east side in particular
• October · Wristbands on sale now
  ACL Fest, weekend one
  Zilker Park

ATX Weekly tip

Saturday night is the worst traffic night Austin has had all year, and it is entirely self-inflicted. A 6:30 kickoff at DKR puts a hundred thousand people on campus through eleven, Levitation is running Red River and the east side at the same hours, and both empty into the same handful of streets. Do not plan to do one thing and then the other. If you are going to the game, park south of the river and take the Red Line to campus, or set a rideshare pin on Dean Keeton rather than the stadium address, and understand that surge after a night game runs until midnight. If you are doing Levitation on Red River, walk in from the west or take the bus, because every garage between 6th and 12th will be holding football parkers who arrived at three. And if Radio/East is your venue, treat it as a separate trip entirely, since it sits across the river in Montopolis and nothing about the downtown plan applies to it.

One week, a top-five opponent under the lights and four nights of psych rock a mile apart. Pick your Saturday early and let the other one go. See you out there. — The ATX Weekly Editors