Des Moines hosts the National Senior Games this summer, two years after it gathered in Pittsburgh. (We’ll try to raise the bar.) Photo: National Senior Games – Brit Huckabay
The listed dates reflect our sources’ best estimates at press time.
Feb. 7-March 2: “Men on Boats,” a play about an 1869 expedition on the Colorado River, tells its story in the
Des Moines Playhouse’s renovated Studio Theatre. The space reopened for a general admission show in November, but the upcoming show will be the first with reserved seating, arranged in one of six possible layouts in the versatile black box formerly known as the Kate Goldman Children’s Theatre. (The Playhouse continues to commemorate the longtime champion of theater and youth education through the Kate Goldman Family Series based on classic and contemporary children’s literature.)
Feb. 14: Made in the Midwest, a new concert series from Des Moines Performing Arts, debuts on Valentine’s Day with the Cedar Falls husband-and-wife, pop-folk duo Brad & Kate (known offstage as Brad and Kate Myers) at the Temple Theater. The series continues through May with three more Iowa acts.
Spring: Fourmile Mountain Bike Park opens at 1601 Williams St. in east Des Moines and Pleasant Hill, along the Gay Lea Wilson Trail. The 50-acre network of groomed trails, jumps, boardwalks and stream crossings was designed and built by the Central Iowa Trail Association and Polk County Conservation. It’s open to cyclists, hikers and trail runners.
Spring: Center at Sixth (pictured above), at 1714 Sixth Ave., opens north of downtown. The 9,000-square-foot building is designed to support Black, brown and other diverse entrepreneurs, with main-floor space for restaurants and retail, plus a second-floor gallery and six live/work units for artists and others. Rendering: Neumann Monson Architects
April: Ankeny’s Rally Complex, a new park at 725 S.W. Prairie Trail Parkway, opens with a dozen pickleball courts, two ball fields, batting cages and a shelter.
May 22: Allegiant Air adds a direct flight from Des Moines to Jacksonville, Florida. The next day, the airline adds a direct flight to Boston. The two new options bring the airport’s total number of nonstop destinations to 33, the most in its history. (Open plea to Allegiant executives: Please bring back the flight to Palm Springs.) Further ahead, the first of three phases of the airport’s $770 million expansion is expected to wrap up in 2026, before the other two phases finish in 2030.
Late May: A new “glow trail” (pictured above) lights up 425 feet of Ankenky’s new High Trestle Trail Experience Park. The 14-acre park stretches along the High Trestle Trail and offers several new ways to enjoy the outdoors, including a pump track with mounds and embankments for cyclists, skaters and skateboarders — plus a gentler “stroller coaster” for kiddos in parent-powered strollers and wagons. Rendering: City of Ankeny
June 22-28: AACTFest, the biennial festival of the American Association of Community Theatre, comes to town. Dozens of public performances will take place at Hoyt Sherman Place and the festival’s official host, the Des Moines Playhouse, one of the oldest and largest community theaters in the country.
July 1: Casey’s Center becomes the new name of Wells Fargo Arena, ushering in a glorious new era of concession stand pizza. At press time, the first posted event in the rebranded center was a Barnstormers arena football game on July 12. (Take note: Casey’s Center is next to the newly renamed EMC Expo Center, which replaced Hy-Vee Hall on Jan. 1.) Casey’s Center stands across the river from the proposed Casey’s Scenic Overlook, part of the evolving Iowa Confluence (ICON) Water Trails.
July: The Gardener’s Show House, the public greenhouse at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, reopens after about six weeks of renovations. Also, the site’s spaces for business meetings, wedding receptions and other events will be renovated over the summer and are expected to reopen by October. All of these updates, and more to come in 2026, are funded by the garden’s recent “Welcome, Gather, Grow” campaign.
July 24-Aug. 4: The National Senior Games take over the city with more than 10,000 athletes (ages 50 and up) in 20 sports, plus their fans (of all ages). The games take place every other year and were last hosted by Pittsburgh, where Catch Des Moines President and CEO Greg Edwards participated in the traditional torch-passing ceremony.
By year’s end: The S.W. First Street Bridge, between Principal Park and Mullets, gets a $1 million makeover. It was converted to a pedestrian bridge about 20 years ago, but the new project adds synthetic turf play mounds, planters, seating and a overhead structure for shade.
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