Downtown El Paso is getting a shot of vintage Hollywood glam this summer: Ann-Margret, the screen and stage icon best known for Bye Bye Birdie and Viva Las Vegas, is headed to the Plaza Classic Film Festival to appear in person and receive the festival’s Plaza Classic Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Ann-Margret is scheduled to take part in onstage interviews and introduce Plaza Theatre screenings of Bye Bye Birdie at 7 p.m. Friday, July 17, and Tommy at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, July 18. The festival runs July 16-26, 2026.
The festival announced her appearance in a June 24 news post, noting that she will accept the lifetime achievement award and participate in interviews before both films, according to the Plaza Classic Film Festival. Tickets for Bye Bye Birdie are $20, and tickets for Tommy are $10. Both are on sale at the Plaza Theatre box office and via Ticketmaster.
Presented by the El Paso Community Foundation, the Plaza Classic returns downtown for its 19th edition July 16-26, 2026, with a program of more than 90 films that regularly draws audiences from across the border region and beyond, according to the El Paso Community Foundation. Launched in 2008 to bring movies back to the restored Plaza Theatre, the festival has grown into one of the area’s marquee cultural events.
Ann-Margret rose to national prominence as teenager Kim McAfee in Bye Bye Birdie and later co-starred with Elvis Presley in Viva Las Vegas. She earned Academy Award nominations for Carnal Knowledge and Tommy, per Biography. Her range, from effervescent musical comedy to weightier dramatic roles, is the kind of long-haul career the Plaza Classic Award is built to celebrate.
Tickets, Schedule And Where To Go
The full festival schedule and pass options are posted on the Plaza Classic Film Festival site, and single-film tickets and venue details are also available there and on Ticketmaster. Organizers encourage buying early for high-demand screenings and suggest checking the Plaza Theatre box office hours before heading downtown.
Local coverage of the announcement appeared in the El Paso Times, which shared details from the festival’s press materials. Organizers say more guest appearances and special programming will be announced in the coming weeks, so classic film fans may want to keep their calendars (and their popcorn budgets) flexible.
