{"id":178968,"date":"2026-04-29T05:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T05:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/178968\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T05:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T05:24:09","slug":"5-things-to-do-week-of-april-29-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/178968\/","title":{"rendered":"5 things to do, week of April 29, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Philharmonic features an astronaut on Friday in Scranton<\/p>\n<p>The Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic will be accompanied by NASA astronaut Nicole Stott on Friday for \u201cPlanets, Moons, &amp; Star Wars\u201d at 7 p.m. at the Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple. Stott will introduce one of the works. The concert will also include multimedia projections and local vocal groups. Tickets are available at <a href=\"https:\/\/nepaphil.vbotickets.com\/events\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nepaphil.org\/tickets<\/a> or by calling 570-270-4444, starting at $29 for adults and $16 for students.<\/p>\n<p>Regional folk musicians in Jim Thorpe on Friday<\/p>\n<p>The Free Range Folk Spring Jam is Friday at the Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe. The band has roots in the Jim Thorpe area and plays original folk, bluegrass and other music. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $18. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcohjt.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mcohjt.com<\/a>. 14 W. Broadway, Jim Thorpe.<\/p>\n<p>Derby Day at a Pottsville mansion on Saturday<\/p>\n<p>The Kentucky Derby is Saturday, and the horse race is an excuse for parties everywhere. The Inaugural Kentucky Derby Garden Party at the Historic Yuengling Mansion in Pottsville will blend watching the race with a garden f\u00eate, art gala, themed games, a best dressed contest, live music and more. The event is from 4 to 8 p.m. Tickets: $75. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.schuylkillartscouncil.org\/events-at-the-mansion\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">schuylkillartscouncil.org\/events-at-the-mansion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>West Pittston Cherry Blossom Festival is Saturday and Sunday<\/p>\n<p>The 55th annual West Pittston Cherry Blossom Festival is Saturday and Sunday on the Susquehanna River bank off Luzerne Avenue. The parade is at 11 a.m. Saturday. The Little Miss Cherry Blossom contest is on Sunday this year. The schedule is on Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>John Legend on Sunday in Wilkes-Barre<\/p>\n<p>EGOT-winning R&amp;B star John Legend will present \u201cAn Evening of Songs and Stories\u201d at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday at 8 p.m. Legend is a coach on NBC\u2019s \u201cThe Voice.\u201d The official ticket sellers are <a href=\"https:\/\/kirbycenter.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">KirbyCenter.org<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ticketmaster.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ticketmaster.com<\/a>. 71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Astronaut and artist Nicole Stott will visit Scranton. (COURTESY OF...\" class=\"size-article_inline\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777440247_493_STT-L-SPACE-0417-01.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Astronaut and artist Nicole Stott will visit Scranton. (COURTESY OF NICOLE STOTT)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Free Range Folk Spring Jam is Friday. (COURTESY OF...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/STT-L-BESTBETS-0429-01_32f4ba.jpg?w=600\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/STT-L-BESTBETS-0429-01_32f4ba.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Free Range Folk Spring Jam is Friday. (COURTESY OF THE MAUCH CHUNK OPERA HOUSE)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"One of the few remaining cherry blossom trees still in...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PSP-L-WPCHERRYBLOSSOM-CAPSTB-0511-10.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PSP-L-WPCHERRYBLOSSOM-CAPSTB-0511-10.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>One of the few remaining cherry blossom trees still in bloom during the West Pittston Cherry Blossom Festival on May 3, 2025.  (BILL TARUTIS \/ CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"John Legend chats with patrons of the Retro Cafe in...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/STT-L-JOHNLEGEND-1104-22.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/STT-L-JOHNLEGEND-1104-22.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>John Legend chats with patrons of the Retro Cafe in Scranton on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024.\n<\/p>\n<p>Show Caption<\/p>\n<p>1 of 4<\/p>\n<p>Astronaut and artist Nicole Stott will visit Scranton. (COURTESY OF NICOLE STOTT)\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"icon-enlarge mng-gallery-fullscreen-expand\" aria-label=\"Expand fullscreen slideshow\">Expand<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philharmonic features an astronaut on Friday in Scranton The Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic will be accompanied by NASA astronaut&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5523,1681,52731,201,182,803,1213,708,8782,28,4961,435,231,178,180,179,289,729,4488,2685],"class_list":["post-178968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-carbon-county","tag-entertainment","tag-jim-thorpe","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-music-and-concerts","tag-outdoors","tag-parenting-and-family","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pottsville","tag-restaurants-food-and-drink","tag-schuylkill-county","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-uncategorized","tag-west-pittston","tag-wilkes-barre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}