Events this weekend in Des Moines

Events this weekend in Des Moines this weekend 🔥

If you’ve been pretending Des Moines is quiet, the parties events in Des Moines this week are here to expose you. Across town, from downtown to Valley Junction and up through Highland Park, about 9,375 people are already RSVP’d or eyeing this week’s highlights — which, yes, is a lot of humans to be sharing line at the bar with.

Right now the city’s in that chaotic, very-Des-Moines crossover era where everything overlaps: K-pop kids are taking over the roller rink, Bald Eagle Day is pulling the birdwatchers to the river, Valley Junction is hosting a rescheduled foodie hang at the Culinary Annex (because of course the weather got involved), and Highland Park is throwing an anniversary sale that’s basically a neighborhood party with receipts. Add in First Friday art nights, theatre at the Des Moines Performing Arts Center – Civic Center, and late-night sets at spots like Mainframe Studios and xBk Live, and suddenly your “maybe I’ll just stay in” plans look very weak.

This week’s standouts are a pretty good snapshot of what’s actually driving the best parties in Des Moines this month. K-POP Demon Hunters Skate at Skateland is full send if you want loud outfits, louder playlists, and the feeling of being in a very niche music video on wheels. Snowball is your classic big-night-out energy: dress up, lean into it, and expect to run into at least three people you kind of know from somewhere. EGGDAY at Culinary Annex in Valley Junction (now shifted to 2/8/26 thanks to the weather) is for the food-obsessed friend group that will debate poaching vs soft-boiling like it’s politics.

If you’re more ‘wander and look at things’ than ‘scream-sing on a dance floor,’ Embodied at February’s First Friday is your move – art, vibes, and the kind of crowd that knows every coffee shop in a five-mile radius. Bald Eagle Day is peak Iowa winter-core: thermos coffee, binoculars, and a surprising amount of excitement over giant birds doing their thing. And the Highland Park Anniversary Sale is perfect if you want to make a day of it – shopping, neighborhood pride, and the sort of casual party where you keep bumping into people you haven’t seen since last summer’s patios.

Underneath all the noise, the pattern’s clear: Des Moines is having a moment. Live music and concerts at xBk, theatre and performances at the Civic Center, art and exhibitions at Mainframe, food trucks, beer festivals, raves, family-friendly stuff, bookish events, Black History Month programming – it’s all bleeding into one big citywide choose-your-own-adventure. If you want unmissable? Start with the K-pop skate night, First Friday’s Embodied, and whichever party pulls you closest to the Civic Center or Valley Junction. If you want low-key? Hit Bald Eagle Day and the Highland Park Anniversary Sale and call it balance.

This is what discovery looks like in Des Moines right now: a little weird, very social, mildly weather-dependent, and absolutely not boring if you’re willing to leave the couch.

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