The Parade of Hearts is one of our favorite community traditions, and 2026 looks to be bigger and better than ever!
🎉 13 things to do this weekend
❤️ 150 “Heartists” selected for 2026 Parade of Hearts
🏠 House Hunch
📲 This week’s most-clicked stories
Events
Weekend Roundup 🎉
KC Daily
Ladies and gentlemen, we made it to Friday. Here are 13 ways to celebrate this weekend:
All Weekend Long
☘ Raise a pint, shop local, dance to the music, and celebrate Irish heritage at the Excelsior Springs Irish Festival in the rolling, picturesque countryside October 4-5.*
🍎 Applefest at The Farmer's House features live music, photo ops, delicious food including sizzling BBQ, and their famous apple fritters. All things apple and more during this apple celebration in Weston at Farm Market & Gardens: 23200 MO-273 N Weston, MO.*
🍻 KC Bier Co. hosts KC Oktoberfest 2025 at Crown Center. KC’s largest Oktoberfest features two days of Bavarian-style food, bier, and music.
🎤 Missouri-native Chappell Roan brings her Visions of Damsels and Other Dangerous Things pop-up shows to the WWI Museum and Memorial Park tonight and tomorrow. Both shows are sold out.
🎺 The KC Blues & Jazz Festival takes over Legends Field in KCK with two days of blues & jazz music, food & drink, and cultural celebration.
Friday
🖼️ It’s the first weekend of October, which means it’s First Fridays in the Crossroads and the West Bottoms. Explore art galleries, vintage markets, local businesses, food trucks, live music, and more!
🧡 The Regnier Extreme Screen Theatre at Union Station hosts Taylor Swift’s Official Release Party of a Showgirl with showings at 8pm and 10:45pm. More showings are scheduled for Saturday.
👑 The Lyric Opera presents Cinderella at the Muriel Kauffman Theater at 7:30pm, followed by one last performance on Sunday at 2pm.
Saturday
🎨 The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art hosts ArtSmash 2025: Riff\Evolve, the museum’s annual gala celebrating the collision of music and fashion.
🇯🇲 Grinders in the Crossroads hosts Ziggy Marley & Burning Spear - Do The Reggae Tour 2025. Doors open at 6:30 and the show goes from 7:30-11pm.
🎃 Downtown Shawnee hosts the 2025 Scarecrow Festival from 9am-12pm, with opportunities to decorate your own scarecrow and pumpkins alongside the Shawnee Farmers Market.
Sunday
💃🏾 The Chicano Center for the Arts presents the 2025 Chicano Art Festival from 11am-5pm at Liberty Courtyard in the West Bottoms.
🍂 Distract yourself from the Sunday Scaries by spending the afternoon with pumpkins and cider at one of Kansas City’s best fall farms.
*content is sponsored
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Community
150 “Heartists” Selected for 2026 Parade of Hearts
KC Daily
After more than 500 artist submissions, 150 “heartists” were selected for the 2026 Parade of Hearts.
In the Heartland: After a hiatus in 2025, the KC Parade of Hearts returns in 2026 with a new heart design and 150 new artists displaying their works of art. Each artist will paint a 6’ circle with a hollow heart in the middle, which are then scattered throughout the KC metro. Artists were selected via a blind jury process.
Community First: The Parade of Hearts launched in 2022 as a free public art exhibition to raise funds for impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has since become an annual event (minus last year) to celebrate Kansas City’s cultural pride, creativity, and community connection.
Check out the full list of artists for the 2026 Parade of Hearts HERE.
Real Estate
House Hunch 🏠
Listing by YFA Team - Your Future Address LLC
Can you guess the price of this Kansas City area house based on just one photo?
Ready to see this house for yourself? Schedule a showing with Becca Hageman with GRID at Compass Realty Group!
ICYMI
This Week’s Top Stories 📲
This past Monday was National Coffee Day, and hopefully you celebrated at one of Kansas City’s best coffee shops!
A Harrisonville couple transformed their historic cottage to the house from Disney Pixar’s Up.
Out of the top 10 highest-grossing concert tours in 2024, only one came to Kansas City. Linkin Park’s From Zero World Tour was the lone stop.
Andretti Indoor Karting & Games will officially open in Overland Park on November 18th.
The Farmer’s House has a full fall schedule this month at their Farm Market and Gardens in Weston. If you’re heading to Applefest this weekend, be sure to stop by!
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