Happy holidays so soon? Swope Park is about to open a two-month light display
If you just can’t wait any longer to get in the holiday spirit, Winter Magic can help, right after Halloween.
The new drive-thru experience will be the first of the area’s holiday lights events to open when it debuts Nov. 2 in Swope Park, just outside the Kansas City Zoo. Running 5-11 p.m. daily, it will feature a nearly mile-long drive of displays through Jan. 2.
Admission is $20 for standard vehicles and $30-$40 for larger vehicles; tickets must be purchased at wintermagickc.com. Proceeds will benefit the KC Parks Summer Camp Scholarship Fund.
This new event will join other area outdoor holiday experiences that remain scheduled despite the COVID-19 pandemic:
▪ Festival of Lights: Enchantment at Powell Gardens (Nov. 13-Jan. 3).
▪ Christmas in the Park at Longview Campground (Nov. 25-Dec. 31; Christmas in the Sky has been canceled).
▪ Luminary Walk at Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens (Nov. 27-28, Dec. 4-5, Dec. 11-12).
Here is a hybrid event to consider for the next week:
▪ The William Baker Festival Singers will open their 23rd concert season in Kansas City with a one-hour performance of classic works in front of a limited audience at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception that will be livestreamed on their Facebook page, 2 p.m. Nov. 1 ($5-$20). festivalsingers.org and facebook.com.
Here are four more in-person activities:
▪ Da Truth Band will play a free concert at the KC Live! Block, with food available from several restaurants at picnic and patio tables, 8 p.m. Oct. 30. powerandlightdistrict.com.
▪ Comedians from both coasts will come to Kansas City this weekend: Jared Freid (New York), 7 p.m. Oct. 29, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Oct. 30-31 (tables for two and up, $40-$80) at the Comedy Club of Kansas City, and Carlos Mencia (Los Angeles), 7 and 10 p.m. Oct. 30-31 ($31) at the Kansas City Improv. thecomedyclubkc.com and improvkc.com.
▪ Just after the Chiefs end the first half of their season against the lowly New York Jets at noon Nov. 1 ($187-$416 for two; CBS) at Arrowhead Stadium, Sporting Kansas City will play Minnesota in its final home match before the playoffs at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 1 ($30-$145, Fox Sports KC) at Children’s Mercy Park. Limited audiences will be allowed at both games. chiefs.com and sportingkc.com.
▪ The Kansas City Chorale will perform “Over the Rainbow,” an arrangement of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” as well as American and Irish folk songs, spirituals and hymns on the Southeast Lawn of the National World War I Museum and Memorial, 3:30 p.m. Nov. 1 (free with RSVP). kcchorale.org.
Here are five online ways you and your family can spend your coronavirus-induced stay-at-home time:
▪ Kansas City Public Theatre will perform a Spanish-language radio play, “El Amor que Mueve el Sol y Las Demás Estrellas” (“The Love that Moves the Sun and Other Stars”), 7 p.m. Oct. 29 on KKFI 90.1 FM and 7 p.m. Nov. 1 on Facebook (with English subtitles). kcpublictheatre.org. Free.
▪ Local rock band The Get Up Kids will perform a 25th anniversary livestream concert, 8:30 p.m. Oct. 29 ($13.94). eventbrite.com. More information, therecordbar.com.
▪ Carlsen Center and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will present a livestreamed concert by pianist Gloria Chien, 7 p.m. Oct. 30 (free; link will be available until midnight Nov. 4). jccc.edu/carlsen-center-presents.
▪ The Virtual Wilderness Run of Kansas City Parks and Recreation will take place Oct. 31 through Nov. 14 ($20). kcparks.org.
▪ The Mid-Continent Library’s Storytelling Celebration 2020 will open with “True Adventures of Growing Up on a Rural Missouri Farm” with Beth Horner, 7 p.m. Nov. 2 (free; Storytelling Celebration 2020 continues through Nov. 7). mymcpl.org.
