Things to Do in Bryan

The tri-day festival starts at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 29, packing The Domain with more wines, brews, tunes, artisans, and food than New Orleans, Santa Fe, Napa Valley, and Munich smashed together at high speed and compressed into a super-dense, marble-sized pellet. Check out the scheduled band list for all the info on your favorite strummers, including Rob Baird, Micky and the Motorcars, Texas Renegade, and more. The festival also offers plenty of food vendors, artisans, and craftsmen for items ranging from wood designs to gourmet pizzas.

Austin Children's Theater's executive director, Talena Martinez, knows how to inspire kids: not only do her national credits include youth productions of Jekyll & Hyde and Les Misérables, she has also staged Shakespearean and musical pieces at the Scotland Fringe Festival. Together, Talena and her talented staff of artists nurture the natural talents of kids of all abilities who are eager to explore musical, dramatic, and European theater.

Programs—which range from the intensive Conservatory of Theater to a full roster of summer camps—can help impart a variety of skills, including increased self-esteem, a healthier body image, and stronger performance abilities of future Tony Award winners while ensuring inspirational fodder for acceptance speeches.

Aside from a coat of green paint on the outside, Capitol City Crawler’s fleet of eco-friendly buses don’t look like all that different from other buses on the road. Look inside, though, and you’ll find what is essentially a club on wheels. There’s seating for 24 passengers, and the seats are arranged against the walls so there’s plenty of room for dancing, too. Each bus comes equipped with a bar, a thumping sound system, LED lighting, and an inflatable doorman. The buses are popular for bachelor and bachelorette parties, but they’re also suitable for kids’ birthday parties, brewery tours, and wine-tasting tours in the Hill Country.

Penfold Theatre Company takes offense to the notion that the best theater comes from New York. In every successful season, the Round Rock stock of actors and artists give the Great White Way a run for its money with inspired productions. Hatched in the summer of 2007—after an 18-hour road trip led its founders to the dramatic potential of the hills of north Travis and Williamson Counties—Penfold quickly blossomed into a community jewel and a critics’ darling. Winner of the Austin Critics Table Award for Best Musical Production for the third year in a row, the troupe embarks on a new season filled with comedy, drama, and music—all while breeding new stocks of young thespians in their Penfold Players acting classes and summer camps.

PaintMe Pottery Studio hosts pottery classes, deals in original creations, and takes orders for custom clayware. Many studios let guests paint prefabricated items, but the staff at PaintMe provide clay and instruction for customers to create their own pieces. They then assist in firing the original artworks in a kiln, before returning them to their creators for painting.

After 22 years in the air force, Water 2 Wine–founder John McFadden established his first custom winery in San Antonio seven years ago. Already the business has spread as far as Milwaukee to the north and Denver to the west, bringing the country's vinophiles more than 100 wines, each of which are fermented on site and available for tastings every day. Those who want to get more involved in the crafting process may sign up to make their own wine and steep themselves in each step of the operation, from selecting the grape varieties, beginning the fermentation process, withstanding a wait of about 45 days, and finally christening their creation by smashing a tiny boat against the bottle. All custom-made wines are plastered with personalized labels made from one of Water 2 Wine’s templates or images that customers design from the ground up.