San Antonio - Category of Things to Do

With its abundance of picturesque settings, San Antonio is a great city for festivals . The year's biggest event is April's ten-day Fiesta San Antonio ( www.fiesta-sa.org ), marking Texas's victory in the Battle of San Jacinto, with parades, cookouts and Latin music concerts filling the streets. Also in May is the Tejano Conjunto Festival at Rosedale Park and at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center on Guadalupe Street (tel 210/271-3151, www.guadalupeculturalarts.org/tcf.html ), west of downtown, which celebrates the German-Mexican country music of south and central Texas. During June's Texas Folklife Festival at the Institute of Texan Cultures, ten stages reflect the state's huge diversity of music, ranging from gospel to Lebanese. Finally, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo ( www.sarodeo.com ) in early February celebrates cowboy and King of the Hill culture with two weeks of rodeo events and country music.

Check the free weekly Current ( www.sacurrent.com ) for gigs, films and events. The live jazz and flamenco in the restaurants along the River Walk tend to be rather sanitized, while N St Mary's Street (just beyond the bus station toward the art museum) is the main strip for college clubs and bars. The outdoor Arneson River Theatre , opposite La Villita, where the river separates the audience from the stage, hosts Mexican folk music and dance during the summer. The outlying areas hold some great old country dance halls , the best of which is Greune Hall .

Bonham Exchange 411 Bonham St tel 210/271-3811. Popular mixed gay club with good house and garage DJs.

Floore Country Store 14464 Old Bandera Rd, downtown Helotes tel 210/695-8827. Old country dance hall, with outdoor dancing.

Gruene Hall 1281 Gruene Rd, Gruene tel 210/606-1281. Dominating this small town (pronounced green ), 30 miles northeast of downtown San Antonio, is the oldest remaining dance hall in Texas, with top country stars playing here at weekends.

Jim Cullum's The Landing 123 Losoya St under the Hyatt Regency tel 210/223-7266. Traditional jazz every night in a club that's been running for over thirty years.

Polly Esther's 212 College St tel 210/220-1972. Sure, it's a chain, but it's also undeniably fun and enlivened by an ultra-energetic crowd spilling out from the club all over the River Walk.

Swig 111 W Crockett St tel 210/476-0005. The best martinis in the city, with an attractive crowd looking to mingle in a jazzy, classy space.

Tycoon Flats 2926 N St Mary's St tel 210/737-1929. A variety of live music with no cover charge. Patio restaurant serves good vegetarian food for about $5 per plate. Closed Mon.

White Rabbit 2410 N St Mary's St tel 210/737-2221. The main venue for touring indie bands, drawing a raucous, young crowd.

The Alamo (tel 210/225-1391, www.thealamo.org ) is the most famous for reasons that have nothing to do with its original purpose of a trail of Catholic missions established by the Spanish along remote stretches of the San Antonio River early in the eighteenth century. San Antonio's most distinctive landmark, it is smack in the center of downtown, but for a real sense of early Spanish influence in Texas, it's important to make an effort to get out and see the more distant, less visited missions. Each was laid out like a small fortified town, with the church as aesthetic and cultural focus. The goal was to strengthen Spanish control by "converting" the indigenous Coahuiltecan in practice, using them as workforce and army. The missions flourished from 1745 to 1775, but couldn't survive the ravages of disease and attack from the Apache and Comanche, and fell into disuse early in the nineteenth century. To get a sense of the history of the Alamo, you could head first for the nearby Rivercenter Mall , where the battle is re-enacted on a six-story, Texas-scale IMAX screen (call 210/225-4629 for showtimes; $8.95); fact and sentiment may converge during the 45-minute presentation, but it takes a callous viewer not to be affected by the rousing patriotism of the finale.

The main visitor center (daily 9am5pm; tel 210/932-1001) for the string of missions is next to Mission San Jose and contains a movie theater, small museum and giftshop.