Hey, Round Rock! 👋 The Round Rock Diwali Festival turns 10 on Saturday: Centennial Plaza fills from 1 to 10pm with 60-plus acts, Indian street food, and a diya lighting led by the mayor. Mainly Art sets up downtown that morning, and garba runs both nights at the Sports Center.
Plus: a Palm Valley bakery run by a former nurse, a greenbelt-style dining walk breaks ground at The District, a 55+ home with solar panels and two Tesla batteries for $374,900 — and what told 1850s Round Rock the stagecoach had arrived. Let's dig in.
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🪔 Diwali Turns 10 Saturday
Saturday is the big one: the Diwali Festival's 10th birthday downtown, with an art market to start the morning and garba to finish the night.
Round Rock Diwali Festival · Saturday, Oct 24, 1–10pm · Centennial Plaza, 301 W Bagdad Ave
Ten years in, the festival brings more than 60 acts and 1,000-plus performers to the stage, 30-plus kinds of Indian street food, and art workshops and a painting competition for kids. At 6:50pm the mayor leads the diya lighting. A Bollywood fashion show follows at 7:20, then a free Bollywood dance workshop from Dance Up Austin, and DJ Rahul opens the dance floor from 9:15 to 10. Entry and parking are free. The organizers say the schedule may shift, so check the site before you go.
Mainly Art · Saturday, Oct 24, 10am–3pm · Downtown Paseo, 216 E Main St
Fifteen local visual artists set up next to the City Arts Center for the monthly market. It's free, and it wraps up as Diwali gets going, so you can do both. Park free in the City Hall or library garages.
Navratri, Weekend Two · Friday–Saturday, Oct 23–24, 7pm · Round Rock Sports Center, 2400 Chisholm Trail Rd
The Gujarati Samaj of Greater Austin's garba nights are back for a second weekend. Check-in opens at 6:30, and it starts at 7 sharp. Guest tickets are $25 a night ($18 for members), and kids 5 and under and seniors 65+ get in free with ID. They'll lend you dandiya sticks, parking is free, and there are prizes for the best dancers and the best dressed.
🔥 Food Spotlight: The Sweet Tooth Parlor
Diane Pakula has loved baking her whole life. She worked as a nurse, helped with her husband's company, and spent time helping out at other bakeries before she opened her own: The Sweet Tooth Parlor Bakery & Cafe, a family-owned shop on East Palm Valley that opened in 2021. Customers, she told KVUE, say it reminds them "of how bakeries used to be."
Mornings mean kolaches, pastries, and coffee or tea, with breakfast served until noon. After that the dessert case takes over: homemade chocolate chip cookies, frosted lemon cupcakes, pies, and cheesecake, all available all day.
The custom cakes are the big draw: birthday cakes, wedding cakes, and 4-inch smash cakes for first birthdays. Order them by phone, email, or in person, and call two to three weeks ahead (longer for elaborate designs). Cakes can be delivered for a fee.
Open Tuesday–Saturday, 8am–5pm.
📍 808 E Palm Valley Blvd, Ste 200 · (512) 861-5100
See the menu →
💸 Free Pumpkin Patch Passes & Monday Oysters
Two ways to save this week: one for the pumpkin patch, one for happy hour.
Round Rock Pumpkin Festival
Free admission for some — Fri–Mon, 10am–7pm, through Oct 31 — teachers always get in free, military and first responders get in free with ID, and so does anyone 65+ or 2 and under. Once you're in, the bounce houses, the Spooky Super Slide, and games like cornhole and axe throwing cost nothing.
📍 Old Settlers Park · See the details →
Salt Traders Coastal Cooking
Happy Hour — Mon 3:30–9pm; Tue–Fri 3:30–6:30pm — $1 off every oyster, $5 off the starters (the menu calls them "Beginnings"), and $1 off drinks. Monday's happy hour runs all night.
📍 2850 N I-35 · See the menu →
🗓 Events This Week & Just Ahead
Dolly on stage, two trick-or-treat afternoons, a costume morning for the little ones, and Rock House at Music on Main.
Forever Dolly
🗓 Thursday–Friday, Oct 22–23, 7pm
📍 Penfold Theatre, 2120 N Mays St, Ste 290
Yesenia McNett sings the music of Dolly Parton with a five-piece band. Tickets are through Penfold.
Hometown Lunchtime Parklet Shows
🗓 Thursday, Oct 22 and Tuesday, Oct 27, 11:30am–1pm
📍 Main Street parklets, downtown
Free midday sets: Candi and the Muthaload plays Thursday at Parklet #2, the Downtown Paseo Stage, and Woody Russell plays Tuesday at Parklet #3, in front of LampPost Coffee. Bring your lunch.
Trailside Market
🗓 Saturday, Oct 24, 9am–noon
📍 Memorial Park, 600 N Lee St
Local makers, baked goods, and specialty food and drinks along the creek. It's free, and it wraps up in time for Mainly Art and Diwali downtown.
Downtown Trick or Treat Trail
🗓 Saturday, Oct 24, 3–6pm
📍 Participating downtown businesses
An early run at trick-or-treating, shop to shop, on the same afternoon as Diwali. Bring a bag and make a day of it downtown.
Adaptive & Inclusive Trunk or Treat
🗓 Saturday, Oct 24, 4–6pm
📍 Ascension Seton Williamson, 201 Seton Pkwy
Round Rock Parks and Recreation's free trunk-or-treat for people with disabilities and their families, in the hospital parking lot. Bring your own bags.
Round Rock Pumpkin Festival
🗓 Friday–Monday, Oct 23–26, 10am–7pm
📍 Old Settlers Association grounds, Old Settlers Park
Thousands of pumpkins, a corn pit, pioneer cabins, fire trucks, farm animals, and funnel cakes. It's closed Tuesday through Thursday, and next weekend is its last.
Fall Fun Festival
🗓 Wednesday, Oct 28, 9–11:30am
📍 Old Settlers Park, 3300 Palm Valley Blvd
A free costume morning for toddlers and preschoolers. Bring a canned item for the Round Rock Food Pantry.
Music on Main: Rock House
🗓 Wednesday, Oct 28, 7–9pm
📍 Prete Main Street Plaza, 221 E Main St
The free fall concert series keeps rolling. Bring a chair or a blanket, and maybe a picnic; parking is free all over downtown.
Just ahead: Halloween lands on a Saturday, but downtown celebrates a day early. Hometown Halloween takes over the 100 and 200 blocks of East Main Street on Friday, Oct 30, 3–7pm, with trick-or-treating at downtown businesses, face painting, a balloon artist, live music, and train rides. It's free, and costumes are encouraged. The Pumpkin Festival closes for the season after Friday and Saturday, Oct 30–31. And Tio Toto plays the Thursday, Oct 29, lunchtime parklet show in the Griffith Building paseo.
📰 Community News & Headlines
Good things happening around town this week:
The District breaks ground on a greenbelt-style dining walk — Mark IV Capital broke ground Oct. 15 on six buildings totaling 41,525 square feet at The District, at I-35 and SH 45. They'll line a walkway inspired by Hill Country greenbelts, with room for 9 to 14 restaurants or other businesses. No tenants have been named, and completion is expected in early 2028. Read more…
Five startups join Round Rock's third gBETA class — The free, seven-week accelerator, run by gener8tor with the Round Rock Chamber, takes no equity and started its fall cohort Oct. 1. The five: PearUp (AI job matching for laid-off workers), Cocoo (an AI baby sleep coach), buggg (an app for seeing when your friends are free), LokiMesh (decoys that catch cyber intruders), and Unique Biosciences (a saliva test for gum disease risk). They pitch at a showcase Dec. 1. Read more…
Purr-fect Pets is moving downtown — Cathy and Michael Morin's AKC-certified dog and cat grooming shop, in Round Rock since 2017, moves Jan. 1 from 3701 Gattis School Rd. to 109 S. Sheppard St. Read more…
Pickle festival tickets are on sale — In A Pickle Festival returns to Old Settlers Park March 20–21, 2027 (Saturday 10–6, Sunday 11–5). Saturday's lineup so far includes a Pickled Pet Parade, a home canning contest, and pickle-eating and pickle-juice-drinking contests for kids and adults. The festival supports small businesses and Hunter Syndrome awareness. Read more…
Residents 60+ get into RRISD events free — The district's Senior Gold Card gives residents 60 and older, plus TRS-eligible RRISD retirees, free general admission for life to district-hosted games and theater, dance, and music performances (UIL playoffs aren't included). Sign up in person at the Lillie Delgado Administration Building, 1311 Round Rock Ave., with proof of age and of an address in the district. Read more…
🏡 Real Estate Corner
Thinking about buying, selling, or simply curious what homes are selling for around town? Our Real Estate Corner highlights notable local listings, market insights, and trends shaping the Round Rock housing market.
5217 Lusso Trl, Round Rock 78665
$374,900 · 2 bed · 2 bath · 1,468 sqft
Solar panels on the roof and two Tesla batteries, which the listing says keep utility bills low and provide backup power when the grid doesn't. The roof itself is new as of spring 2025. This 2019 house sits in Heritage at Vizcaya, a 55+ neighborhood near TX-130, and it's all on one level with no interior steps. The open living and dining area has wood floors, and the kitchen has granite counters, an island with bar seating, white cabinets with pullout drawers, and a pantry. The primary suite has a dual vanity and a walk-in closet; the second bedroom works as a guest room or office. Out back, the fenced yard has a stone wall along one side, low-maintenance landscaping, and a big covered patio. HOA dues are $180 a month, and the neighborhood has walking trails, a fitness center, bocce and pickleball courts, and a heated pool.
Market note: Round Rock's median sale price was $384,817 in September, down 0.69% from a year earlier, according to Redfin. On the same street, 5112 Lusso Cv, also two bedrooms, sold for $424,900 in April.
See the listing →
🪨 Poll of the Week
In the 1850s, when a stagecoach pulled up to the Harris Stagecoach Inn on Brushy Creek, what let the whole town know it had arrived?
That's a wrap for this week. If you make it to Diwali Fest on Saturday, hit reply and send us a photo of the diya lighting. And if you have a go-to order at The Sweet Tooth Parlor, tell us what it is. See you next week! 👋
-Doing Round Rock Team
🪨 Trivia answer: The Harrises' geese! John J. and Susie Anna Harris built their stagecoach inn on Brushy Creek between 1848 and 1853, out of limestone quarried from the hill it stood on. When a coach rolled in, the honking geese drew townspeople to the inn. The geese earned their keep, too: their feathers filled the inn's beds and pillows. In 2018, to make room for RM 620 improvements, the inn was moved to a new site along Brushy Creek on Chisholm Trail. Read more →
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