Cowboys Bring Back Carne Asada Bash Ahead of Arlington Home Opener

The Dallas Cowboys are throwing open the gates of Miller LiteHouse for a second round of Carne Asada on September 19, 2026, packing eight hours of live music and food trucks into the outdoor plaza next to AT&T Stadium the day before the team's first home game of the season. Tickets run $25 and are required for anyone age 2 and older, though the price only covers admission — food is sold separately by the vendors on-site.

According to The Dallas Morning News, the event runs from 2 to 10 p.m. at Miller LiteHouse, the 87,000-square-foot outdoor space built next to the stadium. The venue, according to the Association of Luxury Suite Directors, includes a 70-yard turf football field, four LED video boards, more than 60 television screens and two beer gardens with a walk-in cooler — giving organizers plenty of room to spread out food trucks and stages for a daylong festival.

Food reporter Imelda García, who covers the event for the Morning News, notes that vendors may hand out free samples even though meals themselves are not included with ticket purchase. Food trucks will handle all food and drink sales at the festival, per the same account.

A Lineup Built for Two Generations of Fans

Musically, Carne Asada is stacking traditional and electronic sounds on the same bill. Headliner Dareyes de la Sierra, led by Darey Castro, specializes in sierreño and corrido music — a style built around acoustic guitars and accordion instrumentation rooted in northern Mexico, according to a JG Music profile of the genre. Sharing the bill is 3BallMTY, the Latin Grammy-winning Monterrey DJ collective that picked up nine Billboard Mexican Music Awards in 2012 for pioneering tribal guarachero, a genre that fuses electronic dance music with Mexican cumbia, as detailed by Grammy.com. The 2011 hit single Inténtalo helped push the group to international commercial success.

Rounding out the performer list are DJ Avi Glow, Cornelio Vega, La Reunión Norteña and Ray Burger, per the Morning News report. The mix reflects a deliberate attempt to reach both older regional Mexican music traditionalists and younger fans of Latin electronic sounds under one roof.

Second Year Building on a 2025 Debut

This is the second time the Cowboys have staged Carne Asada. The inaugural event debuted in October 2025 at Miller LiteHouse, presented in partnership with North Texas Ford Dealers and headlined by Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán and Los Huracanes del Norte, according to the Dallas Cowboys at that time. The festival also falls squarely within Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs September 15 through October 15.

The Cowboys' ties to Latin American fan outreach stretch back decades. Owner Jerry Jones was named an Honorary Mariachi at the Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza in San Antonio in November 2002, and the franchise has formally dedicated an annual home game to Hispanic Heritage Month since 2006, per the Dallas Cowboys' official site. That outreach now includes permanent Spanish-language media operations, including the team's Somos Cowboys platform and the Cadena de Plata radio network, which broadcasts all Cowboys games in Spanish across Texas and Mexico.

Timed to the Season Opener and a League-Wide Push

Carne Asada lands one day before the Cowboys' first home game of the 2026 season, when Dallas hosts the Washington Commanders on September 20 at AT&T Stadium, with kickoff set for 3:25 p.m. Cowboys defensive lineman Quinnen Williams practiced at training camp in Oxnard, California, on August 9 as the team continued preparing for the season.

The timing also lines up with a broader league effort. The event coincides with the NFL's strategy to engage an estimated 30 million Hispanic football fans across the country, a figure cited in coverage shared via CNBC. Miller LiteHouse itself grew out of a 10-year sponsorship extension between Molson Coors and the Cowboys announced in September 2021, part of a beer partnership spanning four decades, according to On3.

What Changes on Actual Game Days

Carne Asada operates differently than the plaza's setup on Cowboys game days. On game days, Miller LiteHouse requires a stadium ticket for entry, opens up to four hours before kickoff, and features $5 12-ounce Miller Lite beers along with appearances by the team's cheerleaders. Standard stadium bag policies apply on those days, and personal lawn chairs are not allowed.

AT&T Stadium's broader fall calendar around Hispanic Heritage Month includes Monster Jam on October 3, the Cowboys' game against Tampa Bay on October 8, and a Karol G concert on October 15, rounding out a stretch that pairs Latin entertainment with the football season in Arlington.