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Sometime in September a neighbor sends the group text about the block party. People claim folding tables, somebody offers up a smoker, and a kid chalks a hopscotch grid across the cul-de-sac. Most streets never plan the hours before the grill gets going, and when it hits 97 degrees everybody drifts home by three.
This guide covers five places around Dallas-Fort Worth where a group of neighbors can spend a September Saturday together. They run from a lake morning in Little Elm to an improv show in Bedford, and a GetOut membership for Texas DFW covers every one of them. It costs $74.95 a year per person and includes 73+ venues around the Metroplex.
Why DFW Neighborhoods Plan Block Parties in September
Texas holds National Night Out on the first Tuesday of October, since an August evening outside here means standing in triple-digit heat. This year it lands on Tuesday, October 6, 2026. Neighborhoods all over Dallas throw block parties and cookouts that night, and the suburbs do too.
So the planning happens now. Some cities want you to sign up early. Flower Mound, for one, stops taking block party registrations at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 30. The Saturdays left in the month are when your street figures out who's bringing the ice and who's picking up the barricades. Get everyone together on one of them and by the night of the party the new family two doors down will already know whose kid is whose.
How to Plan a Block Party Day Around a Group Outing
Keep it simple. Most streets do best with an outing that wraps up by early afternoon, which gives everyone time to go home and rest before the party starts around sundown.
Two things about GetOut matter when you're organizing a group. Each membership belongs to one person, and the GetOut FAQ suggests getting a pass for each family member, so a household of four will need four. Every venue also sets its own limit on how often you can visit. You'll see it listed under each venue in the GetOut app, and if some of your neighbors have never opened the app before, send them our walkthrough on how to use your GetOut membership. Look before you send the invite so nobody gets to the door and finds out they already used their visit.
5 Group Hangout Ideas for DFW Neighbors This September
1. The Cove at The Lakefront, Little Elm: A Lake Morning Before the Street Party
Where: 417 Lakefront Drive, Little Elm, TX 75068 GetOut visits: 1x yearly
If your street has lots of little kids, start at The Cove. It's a 42,000-square-foot water park in Little Elm that stays open all year, with a zero-depth splash area for toddlers and a FlowRider Double where older kids can try to surf. The teenagers will wipe out in front of the whole block and ask to go again.
On Saturdays it's open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., so your group can swim through lunch and still get home with plenty of time to set up tables. Little Elm has built up its shoreline into an area it calls The Lakefront, and there are places to eat close by when everybody gets hungry.
Before you go: The Cove is a no-spectator facility. Every guest needs a membership or a day pass, and that includes the neighbor who plans to sit in a lounge chair the whole time. Everyone fills out a waiver, and a legal guardian signs for anyone under 18. Bring one adult for every three kids age 6 and under. They cap how many people can come in, so a big group should get there close to opening.
2. Alley Cats, Arlington: Where to Go When It's Too Hot or Raining
Where: 2008 W Pleasant Ridge Rd, Arlington, TX 76015 GetOut visits: 1x monthly
Storms roll through North Texas on short notice in the fall, and your street needs somewhere indoors it can move to fast. Alley Cats in South Arlington holds a big crowd. Inside you'll find 24 bowling lanes and a two-story laser tag arena, along with batting cages, a climbing wall that's two stories tall, a pair of arcades and 54 holes of putt-putt. The staff books groups anywhere from 10 people up to 500, which should cover even the most ambitious HOA.
Your GetOut visit here resets every month, and neighbors get the most out of that. A street that comes in September can come back in October, and the kids who met in the laser tag line get to see each other again. ZingerZ, the last stop on this list, used to put on its Saturday 7 p.m. shows inside Alley Cats before it moved to Bedford. A few other DFW venues on the pass reset monthly as well, and our guide to active Friday nights in DFW with kids lays out a rotation built around them.
Before you go: The Alley Cats brand runs centers in Hurst and Burleson on top of the one in Arlington, so check the GetOut app for which location your visit covers before everyone gets in their cars. The Arlington building sits near The Parks Mall, about 12 minutes from AT&T Stadium, and traffic backs up on Cowboys home game days.
3. WhirlyBall Texas, Hurst: Odd Houses vs. Even Houses
Where: 147 E Harwood Rd, Hurst, TX 76054 GetOut visits: 1x yearly
Put the odd-numbered houses on one team and the even-numbered houses on the other. WhirlyBall mixes lacrosse and basketball, and you play it sitting in a bumper car, scooping up the ball with a handheld basket and throwing it at a target above the court.
Teams play five on a side and each game lasts eight minutes, so a group of 20 can rotate through a lot of matchups in one afternoon. Whoever's sitting out can wander over to Laser Whirld, a two-story laser tag arena in the same building, or kill time in the arcade.
Before you go: Players have to be at least 9 years old and 4 feet tall, so younger siblings will be cheering from the side. WhirlyBall doesn't have its own kitchen and has let groups bring food in or work with local caterers. Call and check the current policy before you pack up the leftover brisket.
4. Corky's Gaming Bistro, Grapevine: Game Night Before the Game Night
Where: 3520 Grapevine Mills Blvd N, Grapevine, TX 76051 GetOut visits: 1x quarterly
Streets with more teenagers and grown-ups than toddlers should head to Grapevine. At Corky's you can throw axes at targets set up with digital games and automatic scoring, spend time in the golf suite, try Krazy Darts or take on an escape room. They have four themed escape rooms, and one round will show you which neighbor stays calm with the clock running down.
Anyone who'd rather skip the axes can go to the arcade. The venue says it has about 42 games, 13 of them pinball machines, and the rest are retro titles that anyone who grew up on Galaga will recognize. There's a full bar plus a menu of burgers, tacos and pizza, so the group can eat without making a second stop.
Before you go: Your GetOut visit resets every quarter, so the neighbors can turn Corky's into a once-a-season thing and come back in winter. Ask Corky's about age rules for the axe lanes before you bring younger kids, and look in the app to see what your visit includes. It's right at Grapevine Mills if part of the group would rather go shopping.
5. ZingerZ Comedy Club at ONSTAGE in Bedford: A Show the Whole Block Can Watch
Where: ONSTAGE in Bedford, 2400 School Lane, Bedford, TX 76021 GetOut visits: 1x yearly
Save this one for the Saturday after the street party, or use it as a quieter kickoff. ZingerZ does clean improv comedy along the lines of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" The performers build scenes out of what the audience shouts out and pull people up on stage with them. Your neighbor who keeps the HOA spreadsheet might end up acting out a scene about a haunted drive-thru while the kids on your street watch from the second row.
ZingerZ teamed up with ONSTAGE in Bedford and now works as the theater's in-house clean improv club, with shows on select Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. ONSTAGE performs inside the Old Bedford School, which went up in 1914.
Before you go: Shows only happen on some Saturdays, so check the ZingerZ calendar and redeem your visit in the GetOut app before you send the invite. Bedford sits in the Mid-Cities between Dallas and Fort Worth, which keeps the drive fair for neighbors coming from either direction.
Four Saturday Plans You Can Copy
For streets with young kids: Meet at The Cove at 10 a.m. and swim until about one. Everybody heads home to nap, and tables go up at 5 p.m. once the pavement cools off.
For the competitive ones: Get to WhirlyBall in Hurst around noon and play the odd-versus-even series. The losing side has to run the cornhole bracket at the street party that night.
When the forecast turns: A storm cancels the street party at 2 p.m. Send one text with the Alley Cats address and move everyone indoors. Since the visit resets monthly, you can use the same plan for the October 6 party if the weather goes bad again. Smaller streets can also sit out a storm around a board game table, and our camp-to-class guide for DFW families covers Texas Tabletop Society in Frisco.
When it's mostly grown-ups and teens: Throw axes at Corky's in the afternoon, grab dinner in Grapevine, and drive over to Bedford for the 7:30 ZingerZ show if one is scheduled that night.
Block Party Tips for Dallas Neighborhoods
Register early. Lots of DFW cities make you apply to close a street or sign up your party weeks ahead of National Night Out, and your city's website or police department's community page will list the deadline.
Late September here can still climb past 90 degrees. Put the canopies up before anybody carries food outside, and freeze water bottles the night before.
Put everything in one group chat and pin it. That message should hold the venue, the time and the meeting spot, and any neighbor who still needs a membership can buy one in a few minutes. Streets change from year to year, too. If the family who hosted last fall's party has since moved to North Carolina, a GetOut North Carolina membership makes a good going-away gift, and you'll find gift options at checkout.
Ask someone to own the playlist. It saves an argument at 8 p.m.
What a Neighborhood Membership Saves
At The Cove, youth and senior tickets have run $15 on weekdays and $18 on weekends, and adults pay more than that. Take 20 people from your street to two or three of these places this fall and the prices at the gate pass what the memberships would have cost. We priced out a full fall of Saturdays in our guide to budget-friendly DFW weekends if your street wants to see the numbers.
A GetOut Texas DFW membership is $74.95 per person for 12 months, compared with a $93 value, and covers 73+ venues. The membership page says it pays for itself after two or three visits, and you get 120 days to try it risk-free. LEGOLAND Discovery Center and SEA LIFE Grapevine come as a paid add-on you can pick at checkout.
When the Block Leaves Town for Fall Break
Fall break pulls a lot of DFW families out of the Metroplex in October, and sometimes half the street ends up on the same stretch of Gulf beach. Families who make the drive to Destin can use the GetOut Florida Emerald Coast membership, which has its own venue list for that part of the Panhandle. If your group would rather fly somewhere for a long weekend with the kids, GetOut Las Vegas covers family attractions off the Strip, and we rounded up 11 hidden family spots in Las Vegas to help you pick.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are good group activities in Dallas for adults and kids? Alley Cats in Arlington works for almost any age, with bowling, laser tag and mini golf under one roof. Families with swimmers do well at The Cove at The Lakefront in Little Elm, and ZingerZ Comedy Club in Bedford puts on clean improv that kids and grandparents can watch together. GetOut includes all of them.
What can we do if our block party gets rained out or it's too hot? Move everyone to Alley Cats, WhirlyBall Texas or Corky's Gaming Bistro. They're all indoors and all set up for big groups.
When is National Night Out 2026 in Texas? Tuesday, October 6, 2026. Texas moved its date to October because of the summer heat.
Does one GetOut membership cover my whole family? Each membership covers one person, so every member of your family needs their own.
What's a fun group activity in DFW for teens and adults? Try WhirlyBall in Hurst if your group likes team games. Corky's Gaming Bistro in Grapevine has axe throwing, escape rooms and a retro arcade.
Can we go back to the same place with our neighbors every month? You can at Alley Cats, which resets monthly on the GetOut pass. Corky's resets every quarter, and The Cove, WhirlyBall and ZingerZ each give you one visit a year.
How do I use GetOut at a venue? Open the GetOut app, pick the venue and show your phone at the counter.
Does GetOut work outside Dallas-Fort Worth? GetOut runs memberships in markets all over the country, including Indiana and Washington. Each market is its own membership with its own list of venues, and you use the same GetOut app everywhere.
Get the Block Together
Pick a Saturday before October 6 and send the group text tonight. You can get your GetOut membership for Texas DFW and browse all 73+ venues across the Metroplex.