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(Round Rock Express/Instagram)
🗓 Friday
✊🏿 Juneteenth 2022
Travis County is hosting a free Juneteenth gathering filled with food trucks, dancing and activities for all ages in celebration of freedom. The theme is “Homecoming: Meet us at the gathering spot."
10 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday | 📍 Lower level parking garage, 800 Lavaca St.
⚾ Round Rock Express vs. Sugar Land Space Cowboys
Start your weekend at the ballgame! This week Round Rock takes on the Houston-area Sugar Land Space Cowboys at home. Tickets start at $12 and there will be fireworks after the game.
7:05 p.m. Friday | 📍 Dell Diamond, 3400 E Palm Valley Blvd.🗓 Saturday
👟 Konnect grand opening
Sneakerheads listen up—Music Lane is getting a new fashion boutique, Konnect, by former Longhorn and Gamers First founder Kenny Vaccaro. The boutique will rotate designer brands and luxury shoes.
10 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday | 📍 The Kollective, 200 Academy Dr.🍖 Freedom Fest 2022
Honoring the historically Black holiday of Juneteenth, this year’s Freedom Fest will feature a barbecue competition, sling-shot showcase, a performance by the Soul of our City musicians, local food trucks and children’s activities. Best of all, the event is completely free.
1-4 p.m. Saturday | 📍 Colony Park District Park, 7201 Colony Loop Dr.🛍 Pride Month pop-up market
Contracommon and The Little Gay Shop are teaming for a quick pop-up showcasing LGBTQ+ and BIPOC artists. The market was curated by Molly Sydnor to go along with her exhibition, Hysteria.
3-6 p.m. Saturday | 📍 Contracommon, 12912 Hill Country Blvd.🌈 Under the Neon Rainbow Prom
The Austin Motel is inviting everyone to dance under its neon lights, pose and relive prom with festive cocktails and Hot Dog King on site. Winner of the Prom Star parade will win a membership to the Austin Motel Swim Club. Tickets are $25 per person.
6-10 p.m. Saturday | 📍 Austin Motel, 1220 S Congress Ave.
🗓 Sunday
🚗 Round Rock Car Show
Catch some classic, collector, antique, sports cars and more at the monthly Round Rock Car Show. The event is free and open to all ages.
10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday | 📍 Old Settlers Park, 2002 Harrell Pkwy.🎙 Vixens of Volstead drag brunch
Join May Magdalene, Mars and Veronica Valentine and special guests for a lively drag brunch you won’t soon forget on the patio at The Volstead Lounge. This event is 21+ and don’t forget to tip your queens!
1 p.m. Sunday | 📍 The Volstead Lounge, 1500 E 6th St.Popular
(Terry Black's Barbecue)
Austin and fellow Texas cities unsurprisingly dominated a new list ranking the top U.S. cities for barbecue.
In a ranking by Clever Real Estate, the capital city ranked No. 2, only beat out by San Antonio. San Jose, California; Nashville, Tennessee; and Las Vegas, Nevada all rounded out the top 5 with Dallas at No. 12 and Houston at No. 18.
The ranking used different metrics to curate the ranking, including restaurants per capita, average Yelp rating and major barbecue events.
Central Texas is a hotbed for famous barbecue joints. Places like Franklin Barbecue promise a line almost year-round and others like Leroy and Lewis Barbecue offer a new school take on the classics.
According to the report, Austin had the second-highest average Yelp rating for BBQ restaurants (4.2 stars out of 5) and scored a 95 out of 100 in our Google Trends metric, which measures how often people search the web for BBQ-related terms. It also had more than double the average amount of barbecue joints per city studied.
From left to right, Peter McConville, Abdullahi Salah and Pasha Krechetov. (Thepetermc/Instagram)
After more than 7,200 miles, 120 hours in the car and spending $12,000 on food, gas and airfare, Austinite Peter McConville now holds the world record for fastest visit to all 50 states.
McConville, along with friends Pasha Krechetov and Abdullahi Salah, completed the trip in five days, 13 hours and 10 minutes for his YouTube channel. The previous record, five days, 16 hours and 20 minutes, was held by Thomas Cannon and Justin Morris.
The trio started in Vermont on May 13, snaked through the continental U.S., hopped on a plane from Washington to Alaska, then Alaska to Hawaii, completing the trip to a round of applause on the plane for breaking the record.
“It finally started to hit me that not only were we really going to break this, but even with all the tiredness and the discomfort, this is definitely one of the best experiences that I have ever had,” McConville said in the video.
Their trip will not be recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records, as McConville explained that cannonball runs are no longer accepted for being “too dangerous” in 1996. The group’s achievement will be recorded by the All Fifty States Club.
Along the way, they visited landmarks like Times Square, Mount Rushmore, Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate a.k.a. the “Bean” in Chicago, Bonneville Salt Flat and the Grand Canyon.
However, the rest of their trip was spent cutting bathroom, food and gas breaks to as short as possible. The trio was only able to shower once during the entire journey to make it.
After taking home the gold, McConville and his friends spent two days living the island life before heading back home.
"This is by far the hardest, craziest video I've done," McConville said. "I've always wanted to break a world record."
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