The whole city plays on Tuesday, and Fantastic Fest finally lets go.

Fantastic Fest has four days left and then South Lamar goes quiet again, which is the only reason this week has room for anything else. It has plenty. HAAM Day lands Tuesday with more than 400 local musicians playing over 250 free sets across 120-plus venues, from Stubb's down to grocery store patios, and it is the single best argument anybody makes for this city all year. Moody Center takes Weird Al on Tuesday and Rod Wave on Wednesday, Rise Against and Alkaline Trio share the Waterloo Park lawn Wednesday, and the Big Queer Weekend opens Thursday with four days of film and parties. Saturday the Longhorns play at Tennessee at 11:00 in the morning, so plan brunch around a television. Then Art City Austin's Fiesta closes the week at the MACC on a pay-what-you-can ticket.

The marquee

• Tue Sep 22, 6:00 AM to midnight · Free, donate at any stage
  HAAM Day
  120-plus venues across the metro
  Four hundred musicians, more than 250 sets, one Tuesday, and every dollar goes to healthcare for the people playing. It runs from breakfast through last call at places that do not normally book live music, which is how you end up watching a proper band in an H-E-B produce aisle at two in the afternoon. Pick a neighborhood rather than a lineup and let the day happen to you.
• Through Thu Sep 24 · Individual tickets released each morning
  Fantastic Fest, final four days
  Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar and Mueller
  The back half of the run is when the secret screenings surface and when badge holders start burning out, which means tickets loosen up for everybody else. Monday and Tuesday matinees are the easiest walk-in of the festival. Closing night Thursday is the opposite, so decide now which one you are chasing.
• Sat Sep 26 and Sun Sep 27 · Pay what you can, $0 to $15
  Art City Austin's Fiesta
  Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St
  Austin's longest-running arts festival, now past 75 years, back in the renovated MACC with more than 40 artists in the market and two days of music that runs from mariachi and folklórico through cumbia and jazz. Riders Against the Storm and Bidi Bidi Banda headline, which is a Selena tribute and a hip-hop set on the same bill and somehow the right call. Pay what you can means exactly that, cash or card at the gate.

Sunday · Tonight

• Today, daytime hours · Free
  Austin Museum Day
  Museums and cultural sites citywide
  Free admission at dozens of museums for one day only. Pick two that sit near each other and start with the smaller one before the line forms, because crossing town four times is how people turn a free day into a wasted one.
• Today, all day · Individual tickets released daily
  Fantastic Fest, middle Sunday
  Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, 1120 S Lamar Blvd
  The easiest day of the run to walk into something you have never heard of. Check the release at breakfast and take whatever is left at two in the afternoon.
• Tonight, after dark · From $25
  Carried By The Winds, closing performance
  One Texas Center, 505 Barton Springs Rd
  Last night of Blue Lapis Light's aerial run off the side of the building. Dress for standing outside on pavement for an hour, and the darker the sky the better the piece reads.
• 4:00 PM · Free
  Chicken Shit Bingo
  Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon, Brentwood
  Inside by 3:30 for a seat. Unchanged, as always, by whatever else the city is doing.

Monday–Wednesday

• Mon Sep 21, 6:00 to 11:00 PM, nightly through Oct 31 · From $12
  Pumpkin Nights opens
  Pioneer Farms, 10621 Pioneer Farms Dr
  A half-mile walk through nine lit pumpkin lands built from more than 10,000 hand-carved pumpkins, with a fire show and food at the end. Opening week is the cheapest and the emptiest it will be all season, and by the second week of October the parking situation out there turns into its own event.
• Mon Sep 21, 6:00 PM · Free
  Yoga & Sound at Waterloo Park
  500 E 12th St
  A rotating series of vinyasa, gentle yoga and sound baths on the lawn, running every Monday into November. Bring a mat and water. All levels, and they mean it.
• Tue Sep 22, all day · Free
  HAAM Day
  Citywide
  See the marquee. Read the tip at the bottom before you try to plan it, because the schedule is the hard part.
• Tue Sep 22, 7:00 PM · From $38
  "Weird Al" Yankovic, Bigger and Weirder
  Moody Center, 2001 Robert Dedman Dr
  The cheapest arena ticket in Austin this week and the one most likely to send you home happy. He is playing material he has never done live, which for a catalog this deep is a real promise. Bring the kid who just discovered him on the internet.
• Wed Sep 23, 6:30 PM · From $88
  Rise Against with Alkaline Trio
  Moody Amphitheater, 1401 Trinity St
  Outdoors at Waterloo Park behind the Ricochet record, with Alkaline Trio opening, which is a bill assembled specifically for people who were seventeen in 2004. The 6:30 start is early, so leave work on time.
• Wed Sep 23, 8:00 PM · From $94
  Rod Wave with Fridayy
  Moody Center, 2001 Robert Dedman Dr
  Touring Don't Look Down, and the second Moody Center show in two nights. Two arena shows plus an amphitheater show inside 48 hours means Robert Dedman Drive and Red River are both a problem. Take the Red Line if you can.

Thursday–Friday

• Thu Sep 24 · Individual tickets released daily
  Fantastic Fest, closing day
  Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar and Mueller
  Eight days end here. The closing film is the hardest ticket left, and the crowd that has been inside a theater since last Thursday is at its strangest and most committed. Worth going just for the lobby.
• Thu Sep 24 through Sun Sep 27 · From $44
  The Big Queer Weekend with aGLIFF
  Galaxy Theater, 6700 Middle Fiskville Rd
  Four days of independent queer film with visiting filmmakers, plus drag, live music, a maker market, a brunch and a pool party. It is a film festival that understood it was also a party, which puts it a step ahead of most of them.
• Thu Sep 24, 8:00 PM · From $22
  Freya Skye
  Moody Amphitheater, 1401 Trinity St
  Debut EP release show, outdoors, twenty-two dollars. The lowest-risk ticket of the week and the kind of show you get to say you were at.
• Fri Sep 25, 8:00 to 9:30 PM · From $25
  Still. Here. Now., Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre
  George Washington Carver Museum, 1165 Angelina St
  Live dance built around saxophonist Charles McPherson and a small band, in the Carver's theater, which seats few enough that there is no bad row. Two nights only, and Friday is the one with room.
• Fri Sep 25, 9:00 PM · No cover
  Friday honky tonk at the White Horse
  500 Comal St, East Austin
  Three bands, no cover, tacos out back. The reliable Friday, and after a week of arena shows it will feel like a correction.

Next Saturday

• Sat Sep 26, 11:00 AM · Free if you own a television
  Texas at Tennessee
  Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, on ABC
  An 11:00 kickoff in one of the loudest buildings in the sport, which means breakfast tacos and a beer before noon. Get to a bar by ten if you want a table, because a morning road game fills rooms faster than a night home game does.
• Sat Sep 26 · Pay what you can, $0 to $15
  Art City Austin's Fiesta, day one
  Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St
  See the marquee. Saturday is the fuller of the two days for the art market, with more than 40 artists selling, and the lakefront lawn out back is the best part of the renovated building.
• Sat Sep 26, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM · Free
  SFC Farmers Market at Republic Square
  422 Guadalupe St, Downtown
  Peppers, fall greens and the first decent citrus. Wide open before eleven, and it closes in time to get you to a television for the second half.
• Sat Sep 26, 8:00 PM · From $25
  Still. Here. Now., closing night
  George Washington Carver Museum, 1165 Angelina St
  Second and last performance. If Friday sold out, this one will too, so buy ahead rather than driving over.
• Sat Sep 26 · From $44
  Big Queer Weekend, Saturday programming
  Galaxy Theater, 6700 Middle Fiskville Rd
  The heaviest film day of the four, with filmmaker conversations between blocks and the party programming running late. Single-day access beats a full pass if you only have the one day.

Next Sunday

• Sun Sep 27 · Pay what you can, $0 to $15
  Art City Austin's Fiesta, day two
  Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St
  The calmer day, with the dance programming weighted toward the afternoon. Bidi Bidi Banda closing out a Sunday on the water is a good way to end a September.
• Sun Sep 27, matinee and evening · From $28
  Come From Away, final performance
  Zach Theatre, 202 S Lamar Blvd
  Last day of the run we flagged two weeks ago. A show about strangers taking in 7,000 stranded people, scored like a Newfoundland kitchen party, and Zach's room is the right size for it.
• Sun Sep 27, 4:00 PM · Free
  Chicken Shit Bingo
  Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon, Brentwood

What we're drinking this week

• · $8
  The Hard Sell at Nickel City
  1133 E 11th St
  A Topo Chico highball and a shot of Cynar, which is the house order and the reason the bar has a reputation. Get it on HAAM Day when the east side is full of people who just watched a free set.
• · $7
  Sour mash beer at Blue Owl Brewing
  2400 E Cesar Chavez St
  Every beer they make is sour-mashed, including the ones that do not taste sour, which is a harder trick than it sounds. The Thursday paint night crowd clears out by eight if you want the patio.
• · $9
  Michelada at Cosmic Coffee + Beer Garden
  121 Pickle Rd, South Austin
  Shade, koi ponds, food trucks and a bar that takes the michelada seriously. Monday morning there is a book fair on the patio, so you can justify arriving at ten.
• · $15
  Old fashioned at Small Victory
  108 E 7th St, Downtown
  Upstairs, quiet, forty-odd seats, and a bartender who will not rush you. The right place to land after a Moody Center show when everyone else is fighting over Rainey.

Free this week

• Tue Sep 22, all day · Free
  HAAM Day
  120-plus venues citywide
• Mon Sep 21, 6:00 PM · Free
  Yoga & Sound at Waterloo Park
  500 E 12th St
• Wed Sep 23, 6:00 to 7:30 PM · Free
  Music on the Trail
  Rainey Street Trailhead, Cummings St

From the archive

HAAM Day turns 120 rooms into stages for one Tuesday, and about half of them are places that book live music every other week of the year too. If you spend Tuesday discovering that you like standing in a small room while a band plays, our guide to the city's live music rooms tells you where to go on the other 364 days: which stages have a sightline, which ones have a real sound system, and which ones are worth the cover. Open it Tuesday night while the feeling is still fresh.

Looking ahead

• Early October · Wristbands still on sale
  ACL Fest, weekend one
  Zilker Park
• Through Oct 31 · From $12
  Pumpkin Nights, nightly
  Pioneer Farms, 10621 Pioneer Farms Dr
• Through Nov 8 · From $16
  Fall Festival at Sweet Eats
  14400 E State Hwy 29, Georgetown

ATX Weekly tip

HAAM Day defeats people who try to plan it like a festival. There is no wristband, no grounds and no printed schedule you can carry, just 250 sets scattered across a metro area in one 18-hour day, and the full lineup goes up on myhaam.org the week of. Pull it up Monday night, pick one neighborhood, and build a three-stop walk inside it rather than a six-stop drive across town. The daytime sets are the secret: 10 AM to 3 PM you get real bands playing to twenty people in coffee shops, grocery stores and office lobbies with nobody in your way, while everyone else waits for the evening slots at Stubb's and Mohawk. Carry cash, because the donation buckets are how the whole thing funds healthcare for the musicians, and card readers at a produce aisle stage are not a given.

A Tuesday that turns the entire city into a venue, a film festival exhaling after eight days, and an arts festival that has outlasted almost everything else here. September finishes strong. See you out there. — The ATX Weekly Editors