Old Settlers Music Festival

Spring could be our favorite time of year in Texas - the weather is great, the grass is green, the bluebonnets are stunning, and there is music in the air.  March to May is loaded with some outstanding outdoor music festivals with a wide variety of different types of music - in fact, over the next 7 weeks we are planning on attending 5 multi-day music festivals.   That's the good news, that bad news is I'll need to spend a lot of time in the gym after sitting in my lawn chair, drinking beer, playing dominoes, and enjoying some great music for several days!

If you like music, here are some that we are attending and some others that we wish we had the time to attend:.  

• Merle's at Outlaws & Legends

  Crawfish & Cowboys - March 22nd & 23rd- Lake Livingston - how can you beat crawfish and Cajun music with Wayne Toups, camping, red dirt country music with one of the best (Stoney LaRue), and more fun on the banks of Lake Livingston
• Outlaws & Legends - March 22nd & 23rd - Abilene - wow, Merle Haggard, Randy Rogers Band, Gary P Nunn, Lee Roy Parnell, and more  
• RiceGrass Festival - March 29th & 30th - Fischer - an old timey and bluegrass hootenanny in the historic Fischer Dance hall with free camping across the street 
• Thomas Michael Riley's Music Festival - April 11th to 14th - Luckenbach - it doesn't get much better than 3 days of music in good 'ole Luckenbach where "everybody is somebody," the music is outstanding, and the fans are fun  
• Old Settlers Music Festival - April 18th to 21nd - Driftwood - break out the tie- die shirts and dress like a hippie for 4 days of fun, camping, and music from some of greatest performers of Americana roots music
• Larry Joe Taylor's 25th Annual Texas Music Festival - April 23rd to 27th - Stephenville - one of the longest and biggest Texas country music festivals (parties) with over 40 bands, two stages, camping, lots of beer drinking and good times 
• Cherokee Creek Music Festival - May 17th & 18th - Cherokee - a stunning setting, music from some of the best musicians around the United States, camping, BYOB, and fans who love good music   

Some other fun music festivals in 2013 we plan to attend include Tommy Alverson's Family Gathering, Woodie Guthrie Folk Festival, Larry Joe Taylor's Rhymes & Vines, Rice Festival, and UTOPiAFEST. To learn more about most of the above, check our our Texas Music Festival Reviews.   

Texas Outside's Upcoming Events Calendar has a rolling three month calendar loaded with fun events throughout the year.  

Be adventurous and set some new goals to try at least 4 out-of-the-box new and exciting  fun adventures:   

Try Sky Diving

• enter a mud or obstacle course race 
• try a climbing wall then get outside and try one of the best climbing locations in Texas 
• don't just take the normal cave tour, try the adventure cave tours where you can rappel, climb through some narrow passageways, and explore sections of the cave not open to the general public
• get airborne on a balloon ride, parasail, or sky dive
• fly through the trees and over ravines on a zip line or try a challenge course to test your nerves and agility
• go horseback riding on the beach or through the woods
• learn to kayak and try one of the Texas Paddling Trails 

You'll find these and lots more adventures on the Fun Stuff Home Page.

We would like to thank all of you for visiting Texas Outside and making 2012 another record year.  In 2012 Texas Outside had over 153 million hits, 32 million page views, and 3.1 million unique visitors looking for fun things to see and do in Texas plus we maintained our ranking as the "#1 Outdoor Recreation Website in Texas" and GoProRanking gave Texas Outside a "Gold Certified Award" and added us to their  "Domain Hall of Fame" because Texas Outside has more visitor traffic than 99% of other websites they index.  Thanks again to each of you for helping make that happen!   

The last six months have been really busy with a trip to the Rio Grande Valley, some time in San Antonio reviewing the Alamo Golf Trail, checking out and reviewing some new RV parks, visiting and writing about some new attractions and museums, trying to improve the golf game by playing several new courses (didn't help!), adding lots of newcontent and new pages on Texas Outside, filling up at way too many gas stations and racking up the miles on the new motorhome and Jeep, and lots more fun stuff.  You can learn about all of this and more on a monthly basis by visiting our What's New Page.  We are also trying to Tweet and post to Facebook more often, so check them out also.  And we may finally get our Best of Texas Blog functioning! 

Some of what we've got planned for the next few months includes:

• five multi-day music festivals 
• a few days at Lake Murray celebrating Easter with the family
• a visit to Lakeway Resort and Tapatio Springs (which has recently been purchased and renovated by George Strait)
• plans to check out and review two new golf stay and play packages   
• we've committed to reviewing at least 5 new lakes, several new campgrounds, and lots of new golf courses  
• play and review one of the Colorado Golf Trails and hopefully spend a week in Bend Oregon golfing, rafting, biking, and more
• convince my wife to try sky diving with me, check out the new indoor sky dive in Dallas, and try a new secret adventure that I can't yet talk about  

See you around!  Let us know about your new adventures and fun things to see and do in Texas - send us an email.