Weekly Events Calendar, April 24-30, 2023

Each week, Oklahoma Today staffers comb through their calendars to find a handful of great events happening across the state. Get out! See Oklahoma! And be sure to let us know what you find, either here or on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @oklahomatoday.

Engines won't be the only things smoking at the Watonga Bikes & BBQ Rally. Photo by Robert Owen Wahl

Get your motor running. Head out on the highway. And don't bother packing lunch, because visitors to the Watonga Bikes & BBQ Rally shouldn't fill up anything but their gas tanks in advance. First, eyeball some hogs at the Show and Shine outdoor bike show where motorcycles of various vintages will be parked for peepers to enjoy. Then get your recipes for barbecue chicken and ribs ready to compete with other flavored smoke enthusiasts for cash prizes up to $500. April 28-30. Admission, free. watongabikesandbbq.com

Readers of events calendars, including this very post, can pretty much guess what will be showing up at almost every festival: live music, vendor booths, and that mainstay draw for the masses, food trucks. Some might even argue that food trucks are why they go to festivals in the first place. Enter the Jenks America Food Truck Festival, where Tulsa-area food trucks will gather for a celebration of their rolling restaurants as guests explore Main Street Jenks. And, in true festival fashion, there will be both live music and vendors for all to enjoy. April 29. Admission, free. members.jenkschamber.com

Embrace the big hits and bigger hair of a bygone era when the 80s Prom returns to Tulsa. Photo courtesy 80s Prom

As adults of a certain age can attest, the 1980s happened, like, just the other day. You remember! Or maybe you don't, if you were somehow born in the futurescape of 1999. But even though the decade of Ronald Reagan was just a few minutes ago, the '80s Prom at Cain's Ballroom is celebrating twenty years of Members Only jackets, aggressively large bangs, and the timeless music of Air Supply. Get your prom photos made in that electric lime green sequined tuxedo, try your luck in an '80s costume contest, dance all night to the songs that are now being played on the oldies radio stations. April 29. Tickets, $20-$50. 80sprom.com

With ample sunshine year round, Oklahoma's buildings across the state have become outdoor art galleries thanks to a proliferation of murals. See the enormous canvases be transformed during Mural Fest 66 in downtown Miami. Oklahoma artists and others from the region will convene in this Mother Road destination to celebrate the birth of ten new murals. April 29. Admission, free. facebook.com/MuralFest66

See the birth of a new masterpiece as a artists flood into Miami for Mural Fest 66. Art by Christopher Mantle

Readers will be forgiven for thinking that the word regatta applies only to yachts and other luxury crafts. It carries such regality that it's easy to overlook that a regatta is any sporting event with boat races. The Pennington Creek Canoe & Kayak Regatta puts paddles to the pond, er, creek for fun before the races begin in earnest. Cheer on competitors in the men's and women's 100 paddle races in lovely Tishomingo and dream of merrily row, row, rowing yourself down the stream next year. April 29. Admission, free. facebook.com

Written By

Greg Elwell

Greg Elwell served as research editor and web editor of Oklahoma Today from 2018-2023. He also has worked for newspapers, medical research organizations, and government institutions.