The following events are planned for the week ahead throughout the region:
• The Greater Philadelphia Pet Expo, a family-oriented event featuring many educational demonstrations and seminars, hands-on petting opportunities, special attractions, rescue groups and pet adoptions, and entertaining exhibits, will be held Friday through Sunday at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks. Hours are 3 to 8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Special attractions include the Dynamo Disc Dogs, AKC Canine Good Citizen Testing, The International Cat Association Cat Show and Rainforest Reptile Shows. Tickets at the door cost $15 for adults, $13 for seniors and military, and $6 for ages 4 to 12. Friday is Family Night, with children 12 and younger admitted free. For discounted tickets and more information, see www.familypetshows.com/greater-philadelphia-pet-expo.
• The Philadelphia Flower Show, with the theme “United by Flowers,” continues through Sunday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch St., Philadelphia. The theme was chosen to celebrate the colorful community that comes together to share in their love of gardening, flowers and plants, and the impact they make on our lives all year round. Now in its 195th year, the flower show is a world-renowned gardening event and PHS’s main fundraiser to support its impactful greening work that advances health and well-being in the region. This weekend’s highlights include Fido Friday. Guests are invited to bring their four-legged friends to the show on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m., when pet-friendly activities will be offered. On Saturday, Flowers After Hours, an after-hours dance party, returns from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. with a new theme, “Shimmer and Shine.” This 21-and-older soirée will groove to the beats of all-female DJs from Philadelphia, with the floral displays as the backdrop. Guests are invited to dress in glamourous shades of white and nude tones with glimmering fabrics and sparkling accessories. Show hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Saturday, then 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. For more information, visit phsonline.org/the-flower-show. To purchase tickets, see tickets.phsonline.org.
• Latin music icon and reggaeton pioneer Don Omar kicks off his “Back to Reggaeton” tour at Santander Arena, Reading, on Thursday at 8 p.m. The tour will celebrate two decades of innovative music and global hits that have marked the Puerto Rican artist’s career. The repertoire will feature the artist’s most legendary hits, as well as those from his most recent EP, which bears the same name as the tour and includes the single “Sandunga,” a collaboration with Wisin y Yandel, produced by the duo Luny Tunes. The show is sold out but verified resale tickets are available at ticketmaster.com.
• Exploring Pennsylvania’s colorful and diverse Easter egg traditions, “Easter Eggs: Symbols of Rebirth and Renewal,” a collaborative exhibition at Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, produced in partnership with the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University, is up and running through May 5. Featuring an unparalleled display of historic and contemporary Easter eggs, artifacts, documents and ephemera, the exhibition traces the origins, history and cultural diversity of Pennsylvania’s unique role in the development of Easter traditions in North America. The exhibition explores age-old European Easter egg traditions and how present-day Pennsylvanians are keeping them alive. The exhibition is available weekends from 1 to 4:30 p.m. or weekdays with a guided tour or by appointment. Admission is $5 per person, included with a guided tour or other event attendance. Exhibition access times can be pre-booked online at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. at www.glencairnmuseum.org.
• The Miller Center for the Arts at Reading Area Community College presents the U2 tribute band Unforgettable Fire on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and the children’s show “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” on Saturday at 4 p.m. Unforgettable Fire was born on New Year’s Day in 1995 as one of the very first U2 tribute bands to ever perform in America. After over 25 years of performing at venues throughout the East Coast and beyond, UF has built the reputation of being the preeminent U2 tribute show in North America. The band strives to present an authentic U2 experience, both sonically and visually. In addition to performing an impressive array of U2 material from pre-“Boy” to the most recent “Songs of Experience,” the band does everything in its power, from wardrobe to lighting, to create the live U2 concert setting for their audience. Tickets cost $30. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is an enchanting and delightful telling of the classic children’s book of the same name, using large-scale puppetry that wows audiences. Tickets are $39, and required for ages 2 and older. For more information, see millercenter.racc.edu.
• Steel River Playhouse presents “Steel Magnolias” from Friday through March 24 at its theater at 245 E. High St., Pottstown. The play is set at Truvy’s Beauty Salon in Chinquapin, La., where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. It is here that they bicker, share beauty tips and recipes, and swap more than an occasional bit of scandalous gossip. They also forge a bond of friendship that carries them through personal triumphs and tragedies. Just like magnolias, these Southern women are delicate, beautiful and, ultimately, resilient. This weekend’s show times are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $29 for adults and $24 for ages 65-plus and $17 for students. To reserve, visit steelriver-playhouse.org.
• The Santander Performing Arts Center, Reading, presents the Prince tribute band Marshall Charloff & The Purple Xperience on Saturday at 7 p.m., the Mexican cumbia group Los Angeles Azules on Sunday at 8 p.m. and blues rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd on Wednesday, March 13, at 7 p.m. The Purple Xperience is a five-piece group hailing from Prince’s birthplace, Minneapolis, Minn., that has been touring the country since 2011. Los Angeles Azules is the first Mexican group to join YouTube’s Billion Views Club and the only Mexican group to have two videos — “Nunca es suficiente” feat. Natalia Lafourcade and “Mis sentimientos” feat. Ximena Sariñana — with more than 1 billion views. Kenny Wayne Shepherd has received five Grammy nominations, two Billboard Music Awards, a pair of Orville H. Gibson Awards, the Blues Foundation’s Keeping the Blues Alive award and two Blues Music Awards. For tickets and more information, see santander-arena.com.
• Kennett Flash, Kennett Square, presents a concert by Lucy Wainwright Roche on Saturday at 8 p.m., and Alice Howe & Freebo on Sunday at 7 p.m. The daughter of Suzzy Roche (The Roches) and Loudon Wainwright III, and half sibling to Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Wainwright Roche grew up steeped in music. But she has carved out her own career as a touring singer-songwriter and recording artist, having sold over 60,000 copies of her four critically acclaimed solo recordings released on her own label. Alice Howe and Freebo present a unique study in contrasts, bringing together a rising voice in Americana music and a venerable rock, folk and blues icon. Freebo weaves his unique fretless bass stylings into Howe’s superb vocals for a presentation with undeniable chemistry. For tickets and more information, see kennettflash.org.
• The Friends of Chamber Music of Reading will present a free concert by the AYA Piano Trio on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the WCR Center for the Arts, 140 N. Fifth St., Reading. AYA Piano Trio was formed in 2013 at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where its members studied extensively and worked closely with renowned chamber musicians and soloists including members of the Guarneri Quartet and Beaux Arts Trio. The trio has performed extensively across the U.S. in both recital and competition stages. In 2018, it won the WDAV Young Chamber Musicians Competition in Davidson College, North Carolina. In 2020, the group was awarded first prize in the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition and was nominated finalists of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition. Members are Angela Chan, violin; Andres Sanches Linares, cello; and Ying Li, piano. The program will feature Mozart: Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, KV 502; Arno Babadjanian: Piano Trio in F-sharp Minor; and Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8. No tickets are needed. For more information, see www.chambermusicreading.org.
