Michigan Travel · Jackson
Gershwin with Jon Kimura Parker, a $5 craft show and a Flatiron block party make a Jackson Saturday
JACKSON, Mich. — Saturday, Oct. 17, gives Jackson a full day out, from a craft show downtown in the morning to Gershwin at night.
The Jackson Symphony Orchestra’s “Gershwin’s Greatest” starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Potter Center. Pianist Jon Kimura Parker, a 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition gold medalist, is soloist in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, according to the orchestra. The program also includes Robert Russell Bennett’s “Four Freedoms,” written after Norman Rockwell’s paintings, Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess: Symphonic Picture” and Camille Pépin’s 2025 “Feu d’artifice.” A free pre-concert talk begins at 6:30 p.m.
Fans who want dinner first can book the Guild’s tailgate supper at 5:30 p.m. in the Potter Center’s Snyder Dining Room, with brisket sliders and football on TV; it costs $40 a person or $75 a couple. A $20 afterparty in the lobby follows the concert.
Downtown, the Shipshewana On the Road Gift, Food and Craft Show fills the American 1 Credit Union Event Center, 128 W. Ganson St., from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, according to Jackson County. Admission is $5 for one day or $8 for both.
From 1 to 5 p.m., the Welcome Home Organization hosts a Flatiron District block party and trunk-or-treat at 1203 First St., with music and treats, according to the event listing. Costumes are encouraged.
Sources:
Jackson Symphony Orchestra, “Gershwin’s Greatest,” https://www.jacksonsymphony.org/concerts-and-events/gershwins-greatest/
Jackson County, “Shipshewana On the Road,” https://www.co.jackson.mi.us/Calendar.aspx?EID=1835
StayHappening, “Flat Iron Block Party & Trunk or Treat,” https://stayhappening.com/e/flat-iron-block-party-andamp-trunk-or-treat-E2ISYRVC8LS
Photo: Dwight Burdette, “Jackson Community College George L. Potter Center.JPG,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), cropped, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jackson_Community_College_George_L._Potter_Center.JPG
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