If you’re looking for things to do in Pittsburgh this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we have your weekend planned. Our best bets include a comedian hating on Tahiti, a marketplace where craft and art refuse to stay in their lanes, an afternoon of posh British role-play, and a fair where cast-iron skillets are sporting equipment.
What To Do In Pittsburgh This Weekend
Colin Jost
Friday, September 11 | Rivers Casino, North Shore
Just two weeks before he returns to the ruthless bloodsport of the Saturday Night Live writers’ room for the show’s season premiere, Colin Jost is relaxing with his version of self-care: doing stand-up in Pittsburgh. Jost is best known for his decade-plus stint co-anchoring SNL’s Weekend Update—the longest run in the show’s 50-year history—and delivering political and pop culture zingers with a suit-and-tie smirk and the poise of a prep-school debate captain. But for his one-night set, away from the Studio 8H news desk, Jost turns the jokes on himself.
In a dry, hyper-literate deadpan, Jost—who was president of the Harvard Lampoon, is married to Scarlett Johansson, was hired by SNL at 22, and is now the show’s longest-tenured head writer—skewers his own golden-boy image, proving that an Ivy League diploma and a marquee job in the comedy biz offer zero protection against life’s humiliations. Like the indignity of paparazzi mistaking him for his wife’s personal assistant. Or his catastrophic attempt to report on surfing in Tahiti for NBC’s Olympic coverage: during a single weekend before he returned stateside, he developed a severe ear infection that distorted his hearing and a foot-rotting staph infection from a mishap with razor-sharp coral. For a guy whose résumé reads like a particularly aggressive piece of Harvard alumni magazine copy, Jost has amassed a wildly disproportionate collection of unglamorous indignities, which makes for a killer set.
In case you’re looking for more laughs, check out these upcoming Pittsburgh comedy shows.
A Fair in the Park
Friday, September 11 – Sunday, September 13 | Mellon Park, Shadyside
On a Venn diagram of fine art, studio craft, and design, this weekend’s 57th annual A Fair in the Park hits the sweet spot where all the circles overlap. Held in Mellon Park starting Friday, it’s an outdoor marketplace presented by the Craftsmen’s Guild of Pittsburgh, which has been championing the local maker scene since 1944. More than 80 local and national artisans will sell their contemporary crafts over the three days, with about half belonging to the Guild and the rest selected through its jury process. Their work in ceramic, fiber, leather, metal, glass, jewelry, and wood ranges from a $48 goat-hair-and-walnut hand broom to a $2,200 blown-and-cast-glass menorah. Among the local artists is Pittsburgh native Hanna Dausch, who has made the traditional wood lathe her signature tool, turning cherry, maple, and other woods into sculptural vases, lamps, furniture, and candle holders.
Of course, you can’t spend the entire weekend mulling over a menorah purchase. There will also be live music, a scavenger hunt and crafts for the kids, plus food vendors serving up wood-fired pizza, seasonal pies, and small-batch grilled cheeses. You can also watch the craft happen in real time, with screen-printing demonstrations by Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media and woodturners from Turners Anonymous making bowls and vases.
Family House Polo Match
Saturday, September 12 | Hartwood Acres, Allison Park
Pittsburgh does its version of Ascot this weekend when the Family House Polo Match kicks off Saturday morning at Hartwood Acres. While the 43rd-annual fundraiser is known for its Brit-inspired sporting style—there will be wide-brimmed hats, posh tailgating, and day-drinking champagne—it’s a welcoming, come-as-you-are event with some surprisingly competitive polo.
Saturday’s main event is a grudge match pitting hometown favorite Pittsburgh Polo Club against its longtime rival from Maryland, the #1 Cochran Potomac Polo Club. Pittsburgh’s team, which is based at a 325-acre facility in Burgettstown that offers lessons for beginners through advanced players, is managed by instructor Felipe Villamil, a seasoned pro whose international career has taken him from Palm Beach to Argentina to Paraguay. He’ll lead Pittsburgh’s four-player team in their latest face-off against Potomac, so expect some competitive heat and thrown elbows: while racing after the ball, players are allowed to ride into opposing horses and block their rivals’ mallets to spoil shots.
In addition to polo, there will be a demonstration featuring mounted riders and hounds from Rolling Rock Hunt, Ligonier’s century-old fox hunting club, and collector cars displayed by the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, which organizes the city’s annual motorsport festival. Younger spectators can head to the children’s tents for games, crafts, and pony rides. Per tradition, at halftime, everyone gets invited onto the field for the divot stomp—the smashing down of chunks of turf torn up by the ponies—because it’s not proper polo without some participatory lawn care. Check out the festivities from last year to see what you’re in for.
Pittsburgh County Fair
Saturday, September 12 | North Side
For anyone who’s watched a trad-wife video and thought, I could churn butter, or mistaken the newest Little House on the Prairie series for a documentary, the Pittsburgh County Fair is your moment. Created by Ferment Pittsburgh and happening on Saturday at Allegheny Commons Park, it’s a day-long celebration of back-to-the-land sustainability and pre-industrial craftsmanship, with enough demonstrations of homespun rural skills to rival an interactive frontier village.
Ferment Pittsburgh was founded by Justin Lubecki in 2015 out of a passion for promoting fermentation, but the project has always been bigger than sauerkraut: for Lubecki, it’s figuring out how to make, grow, and preserve the things modern society has outsourced. That philosophy led Lubecki, who also runs One By Spork’s quarter-acre urban farmette in Bloomfield, to launch the fair in 2023.
This year, he’s brought in urban-minded local farmers, foragers, gardeners and makers to share an astonishing array of old-school know-how with city dwellers: sheep shearing, flax scrutching, straw plaiting, papermaking, quilting, embroidery, backyard poultry keeping, seed saving, sorghum pressing, and homebrewing. Hands-on activities include crafting mulberry-paper kites and dyeing T-shirts with indigo and bandanas with madder root. For the kids, there are pony rides and a barnyard petting zoo, and judges will be awarding prizes for Pittsburgh’s best apple pie and best tomato. And because frontier life needs sporting events, there will be—of course—a competitive cast-iron skillet toss.
What to Do in Pittsburgh September 4-6, 2026
Taste of Greece Festival
Thursday, September 3 – Sunday, September 6 | Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, McCandless
You don’t have to be a pyromaniac to appreciate flaming food, but it certainly helps when your church festival is setting cheese on fire. At the Holy Trinity Greek Festival in McCandless this weekend, the saganaki booth will be lit as kefalograviera cheese is pan-sautéed, flambéed with brandy, and plated with the obligatory “Opa!” That theatrical bit of culinary pyrotechnics is just one of the highlights of the four-day celebration, a full-on showcase of Greek food, culture, and traditions that’s been drawing thousands of festival-goers for decades.
Blazing cheese is only the beginning. Parish volunteers also serve up a sprawling menu of Greek classics, including moussaka, souvlaki, spanakopita, and a Yinzer gyro piled with feta and Greek fries. There’s also endless trays of flaky, honeyed, nutty desserts, including a chocolate-drenched baklava sundae that you won’t find at the typical taverna. But, you can also check out our recipe for an Orange Baklava Sundae if you want to try it at home.
Of course it wouldn’t be a Greek gathering without some celebratory communal dancing, and at Taste of Greece, the parish’s youngest performers bring it. Ranging in age from 5-year-olds through high schoolers, they rehearse at the parish year-round before entertaining the crowds during the holiday weekend. Dressed in authentic folk costumes, they take over whatever space is available, performing the Kalamatianos, danced in a circle with everyone clasping hands, and the athletic Tsamiko, where the lead dancers break loose with high kicks and leaps. It’s a generational tradition that spills out into the festival every evening, turning the whole get-together into one giant family party—with Pittsburghers on the guest list.
Kickoff & Rib Festival
Thursday, September 3 – Monday, September 7 | Acrisure Stadium, North Shore
Most cities celebrate football’s season opener with an afternoon tailgate and a portable grill. In Pittsburgh, we require five unapologetic days, a stadium-sized party, and a nationally-recognized rib championship. For over 35 years, the Kickoff & Rib Festival—which opens Thursday at Acrisure Stadium and continues through Labor Day, with free admission—heralds the start of the Burgh’s high school, college, and pro football seasons. What began in 1990 as a modest parking lot gathering thrown by then-Steelers chairman Dan Rooney is now one of the country’s most-competitive rib smackdowns, with a dozen pitmasters battling it out for the top prize alongside live music, a midway of games and rides, a cornhole tournament, a 5K run, and an actual Saturday football game between Pittsburgh and Miami (Ohio).
Over the five-day fest, twelve professional teams from the national circuit will be serving up their own regional styles, secret rubs, and signature sauces. Expect everything from dry-rubbed ribs with a smoky crust to tender, low-and-slow smoked brisket, pulled pork, and chicken, with sauces ranging from sweet and sticky to tangy and spicy. Another big draw is Monday morning’s 38th-annual Steelers 5K, which allows runners inside the stadium for the final leg. After completing a flat 3.1-mile course around the North Shore, participants head inside the stadium and cross the finish line on the warning track at midfield. Not bad for a parking-lot party that started in 1990.
And if you find yourself wanting to linger on the North Side, try out these bars near Acrisure stadium.
Marlon Wayans
Friday, September 4 – Saturday, September 5 | Pittsburgh Improv, Homestead
If you catch Marlon Wayans playing a blissfully baked stoner when Scary Movie 6 drops on Paramount+ this Thursday, brace yourself for some spectacular tonal whiplash at his live stand-up Friday night in Homestead. Because the Wayans brother who built an entertainment empire on raunchy, rubber-faced comedy is now finding profound truths—and brutal funniness—in diapering his elderly parents and navigating middle-age grief. In Living Color this ain’t.
When Wayans hits the stage at the intimate, 400-seat Improv this weekend for his Wild Child tour, expect a raw, freewheeling performance that strip-mines his personal life for humor. His 2024 Good Grief special was proof of concept: Wayans found jokes in the deaths of both parents and the indignities of aging, veering between filthiness, despair, and poignancy and ending up somewhere transcendentally hilarious. Continuing that confessional spirit, his current material is less a polished greatest-hits package than thinking-out-loud spontaneity. Wayans will take his freshest catastrophes, blow up the comic proportions, and turn it all into catharsis. At this point, the audience should probably send him a therapy bill.
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Friday, September 4 – Sunday, September 6 | Highland Park
For the start of Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks’ fall season this weekend, The Merry Wives of Windsor is going full 1980s, transplanting its 16th-century sexual hijinks to the decade famous for big hair, gender bending, and New Wave fashion. The Bard’s bawdiest comedy, supposedly written in just two weeks, features Falstaff, an outsized, overconfident knight attempting to make quick cash by seducing two married women, then blackmailing them into silence. What happens next could be lifted straight from Love Island: the women compare notes, realize they’ve been played, and flip the script by turning Falstaff’s seduction scheme into a revenge plot—and getting all the best lines.
Queering and reimagining Shakespeare has been part of Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks’ DNA since its founding in 2005 by actor and director Jennifer Tober. For more than 20 seasons, the company has staged free, alfresco, nontraditional performances of Shakespeare’s plays, including all-female productions of Hamlet, Julius Caesar, and Cleopatra & Antony. When Merry debuts in Highland Park on Friday night—and continues through October 11 in parks around the city—the wives will be played by a man and a woman, with the production intentionally leaving the characters’ genders open to interpretation.
The result: a 400-year-old comedy that feels surprisingly at home in the ’80s. Tober describes the MTV era, with Madonna, DEVO, and Boy George, as a decade when people were pushing boundaries, taking risks in love, reinventing themselves, and “going for it.”
Keep your love for theater going long after the performance ends with Pittsburgh’s fall and winter performance calendar.
Events This Weekend in Pittsburgh August 28-30, 2026
Butler Italian Days
Friday, August 28 – Saturday, August 29 | Butler
A rom-com location scout searching for a cinematic Italian-American festival—complete with from-scratch gnocchi, a strolling accordion player, and six straight hours of bingo at the local Italian lodge—should head to Butler Italian Days this weekend. Now in its second year, it’s an old-school, community-led celebration of the town’s Italian-American heritage that kicks off Friday evening. Organized by Butler’s Sons and Daughters of Italy Lodge 1664, the two-day street party leans big-time into food, bocce, bingo, music, and classic Italian-American traditions.
While there’s expected festival fare like gyros and funnel cakes, there are also Italian-American favorites: Bellissimo Catering will serve up the aforementioned gnocchi plus hand-breaded arancini and stuffed banana peppers; Kaczor Ravioli Company is doing from-scratch ravioli and pierogies; Del Vecchio’s will grill Italian sausage and meatballs; Benvenuti’s Pizza Factory is turning out pizza, stromboli and calzones; and Holy Cannoli has dessert and Italian iced coffee covered.
The Heinz History Center’s Italian American Program will also be staffing an outreach table, while the entertainment lineup brings a bocce tournament, a polka concert, and live bands. New this year for the kiddos: more crafts, plus a petting zoo and free mini golf. Go now, before it morphs into a mega festival with a VIP tent, sponsored hydration stations, and $19 tiramisu.
Bridges & Stages 10-Minute Play Festival
Friday, August 28 – Saturday, August 29 | New Hazlett Theater, North Side
If you’ve ever wondered what TikTok looks like in theater form, have we got a weekend for you. At the second-annual Bridges & Stages 10-Minute Play Festival this weekend, a whopping 26 plays will be performed over Friday and Saturday nights—and none clock in longer than ten minutes. There’s everything from high-speed comedies to dramas, and they aren’t excerpts or deleted scenes: they’re all complete, self-contained stories. With the rapid-fire format, it doesn’t matter if you’re not vibing with a character or plot—another play will pop up faster than you can doomscroll through your For You page.
Presented by The Becoming Arts Collective and Broken Arts Entertainment in partnership with the New Hazlett Theater, the festival is a chance to showcase and support emerging talent. When the festival announced an open call for plays, it received a staggering 350-plus submissions in less than 24 hours, with entries arriving from across Pennsylvania, the country, and as far away as Japan. A group of 45 actors and 13 directors will take the works from page to stage, and keep the costumes and sets as pared-down as the run time. With no extra minutes for leisurely exposition or meandering plot-lines, the plays are marvels of efficiency. Note to Samuel Beckett: This could have saved generations of theatergoers waiting for Godot a whole lot of existential dread.
Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival
Saturday, August 29 – Sunday, August 30 | West Newton
This Saturday, return to the Middle Ages—minus the pesky plague, pillaging, and pestilence—at the opening of the 33rd-annual Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival, which was rain-delayed for a week. Now running through October 4, the festival offers six jam-packed weekends of semi-historical immersion, elaborate cosplay, live spectacle, medieval make-believe—and the opportunity to add Ye Olde to just about everything. Can I get a huzzah?
Set in the fictional 16th-century village of Morelandshire (actually a collection of faux-old buildings on 20 acres in West Newton, about 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh), the fair is like a giant set piece of interactive theater. While some festival-goers come as they are, others go all-in with period costuming—stage swords or daggers do need to be sheathed and peace-tied, though—and the festival supplies plenty of incentive to commit to role-playing. There’s a king and queen presiding over three daily jousting matches, plus wandering minstrels and wenches, fire-breathers and sword swallowers, medieval comics and musical revues. The hamlet also offers shopping and dining, so you can pick up some hand-forged blades, chain-mail skirts, and juggling supplies, or chow down on turkey legs, Scotch eggs, mead, and hearty stews—but bring your money pouch, as all food and drink purveyors are cash-only.
The Renaissance concept gets looser as the season goes on, with themed weekends ranging from Pirate Invasion to Time Travelers to Celtic Weekend. Because at Morelandshire, the Middle Ages is less a time period than a general suggestion.
But if you can’t make it out to the festival, check out these spots for eating and drinking around the city that channel the same vibes of the Middle Ages.
PedalPGH
Sunday, August 30 | North Side
There may be no better way to fully appreciate Pittsburgh’s famously steep terrain than from the seat of a bicycle. Whether that’s a good idea or a terrible one depends on how many hills you’re tackling during PedalPGH this weekend. Created in 1994, it’s now Western Pennsylvania’s biggest charity bike ride, sending more than 3,000 cyclists onto lower-traffic streets, bridges, trails, and bike lanes for a rolling tour of the city. How much of Pittsburgh you see is up to you: PedalPGH offers three routes, ranging from a leisurely Sunday ride to a full-on WTF test of endurance.
The 10-mile North Side Loop is the easygoing option, mostly following trails and protected bike lanes along the Allegheny River. The 25-mile route takes it up another level, sending you through the North Side, East End, South Side, and Downtown as you face 1,200 feet of total elevation gain. And then there’s the insane 53-mile trek, which covers 30 neighborhoods and packs in 3,700 feet of elevation gain. If that starts to feel like summiting Everest somewhere around mile 37, there’s an escape hatch: Follow the bailout signs, skip Troy Hill and Mt. Washington, and call it a mere 40-miler.
Two-wheelers, tricycles, unicycles, tandems, and street-legal e-bikes are welcome on the ride. The three routes start and finish at Allegheny Commons Park, where a post-ride festival will offer food trucks, music, family activities, and a beer garden—thankfully, on flat ground.
What to Do in Pittsburgh August 21-23, 2026
Nowhere To Wear It
Friday, August 21 | National Aviary, North Side
The National Aviary knows there’s clothing with a thwarted social life lurking in the back of your closet. Like that crystal-encrusted cocktail dress you bought in your Holly Golightly era, the floor-sweeping strapless gown you were certain would kill at a New Year’s ball, the four-inch stilettos with the calf-wrapping laces for whatever event would require gladiator-inspired heels, and the Philip Treacy-worthy fascinator perfect for a London society wedding. Eventually, you’d get that hoped-for invite and have somewhere to wear them. Well, eventually is this Friday.
On August 21, for its inaugural Nowhere to Wear It party, the Aviary is giving all your special-occasion outfits the occasion they’ve been waiting for. The evening’s official dress code: all the over-the-top clothing languishing unworn in your closet—preferably worn together in one head-to-toe ensemble. Consider it a unicorn of an opportunity to stop asking whether all those pieces should be worn together (honestly: no), and start asking whether they’re fabulous enough to compete with the flamingos and peacocks. There’ll be dancing, drinks, and small bites, plus plenty of plumage—human and otherwise.
And a confession: I once impulse-bought a black ostrich-feather miniskirt at a sample sale, convinced it would be sexy and sophisticated at my book launch party. Instead, I looked like I was molting. But if there’s ever a time to bust it out, it’s this Aviary bash. Just don’t tell the birds what I’m planning to wear.
ZooBrew: Prehistoric
Saturday, August 22 | Pittsburgh Zoo, Highland Park
Someone at the Pittsburgh Zoo decided that what this late-August weekend really needed was a mashup of a beer crawl, Jurassic Park, and frat-house drinking games, and who are we to argue? At ZooBrew: Prehistoric, the zoo’s after-hours, 21+ party on Saturday night, you can sample brews, ciders, and spirits at more than 20 tasting stations scattered throughout the grounds. As you sip, stroll, and try to spot animals in their enclosures, you’ll encounter more than 30 enormous, roaring, bellowing, and screeching animatronic reptiles straight out of the Mesozoic Era, including the sickle-clawed Utahraptor, the spike-tailed Stegosaurus, and the all-around fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex.
Along with live music and food trucks serving late-night bites, there will also be animal-ambassador meet-and-greets, featuring critters from the zoo’s educational programs. And—because nothing goes with alcohol like a test of hand-eye coordination—there are actual beer pong tournaments going down. Hustle, though: Ticket sales close 24 hours before the party, and no tickets will be sold at the door. While you’re there, be sure to take a look at the new lion cub now in her habitat on public view.
Great American Banana Split Celebration
Saturday, August 22 – Sunday, August 23 | Latrobe
Of all the small towns near Pittsburgh, Latrobe scored the luckiest trifecta: It’s the birthplace of Arnold Palmer, Mister Rogers, and the banana split. One is a golf legend, one is a television icon, and one is a frozen dessert—but around here, all three are revered as hometown celebrities. This weekend, the banana split—invented in 1904 at a downtown soda fountain—gets the rockstar treatment at the Great American Banana Split Celebration, a two-day party-palooza that will make you wonder how the organizers managed to cram so many activities into 48 hours in honor of a three-scoop fruit sundae.
In addition to all the banana-centric festivities (which you can learn more about in our Great American Banana Split Celebration feature), you’ll also find theater, dance, and gymnastics performances, a mobile rock-climbing wall, a cornhole tournament, candy-bar bingo, a marching band, face painting, kids’ crafts, life-size board games, a beer and wine garden, and adorable animals from Living Treasures Wild Animal Park. At this point, the only thing missing is Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana stand.
Ballet Under the Stars
Sunday, August 23 | Hartwood Acres, Allison Park
Nearly two years after choreographer Trey McIntyre’s punk-infused, boundary-breaking Peter Pan took Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre to a dark and brooding Neverland, he’s bringing his provocative sensibility to the sugarplum sweetness of the Nutcracker—and we are so here for it. On Sunday, during their annual alfresco Ballet Under the Stars performance at Hartwood Acres, PBT will offer an early look at McIntyre’s reimagined Nutcracker (learn more about the early look in our feature), which doesn’t officially premiere until 2027. It’s been revealed that McIntyre’s overhaul of the holiday classic—a collaboration with PBT’s artistic director Adam W. McKinney—is Yinzer-coded, set in an enchanted Pittsburgh populated by pirouetting pierogies, baseball players, a steelworker, and geodes from the Carnegie Museum. Sunday’s excerpt, a Grand Pas de Deux for the Sugar Plum Fairy and Nutcracker Prince, isn’t as Pittsburgh-centric, but it does feature McIntyre’s trademark acrobatic lifts and intricate partnering.
Also on the schedule: selections from classic and contemporary ballets, along with previews of upcoming productions, including Alice in Wonderland and The Sleeping Beauty. You’ll also see two excerpts from October’s Giselle, the spooky revenge drama starring a supernatural sisterhood of ghost brides. Food trucks will serve picnic-ready eats, and there’ll be pre-show dance demonstrations and ballet-centric crafts. It’s all free—just bring a blanket or lawn chair. Think of it as your first holiday present of the year, arriving before you’ve been subjected to a single note of All I Want for Christmas Is You.
What to Do in Pittsburgh August 14-16, 2026
Amanda Ross-Ho Performance: Untitled Demolition (HYPHEN)
Friday, August 14 | Mattress Factory, North Side
For the last two months, Mattress Factory artist-in-residence Amanda Ross-Ho has been building a 75-percent-scale replica of her childhood home in Chicago on the museum’s fourth floor. This Friday evening, she’s going to start dismantling it—and you get to watch, because it’s art. Ross-Ho, whose work has been exhibited at the Whitney Biennial and MoMA and whose resume includes stints as a prop person for film and television, recreated her home’s second-floor rooms using her memories, photographs from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and a current Zillow listing.
Exactly what she plans to do to the facsimile house is hush-hush. The museum will only say that it will be loud, messy, and improvisational, and may involve a saw, hammer, pry bar, and screwdriver—and that Ross-Ho herself doesn’t know what will unfold until she starts demoing. But there will be a DJ spinning tracks, food, and drinks, because what’s a one-woman wrecking crew without a soundtrack and booze?
Science of Speed with Movies at Rangos
Saturday, August 15 | Kamin Science Center, North Shore
According to the Kamin Science Center, the best way to learn the physics of speed is to strap yourself into a high-performance electric go-kart and tear around a three-story indoor track at over 40 mph. The educational value might be debatable, but the thrills are real at the just-opened Science of Speed, an immersive 21,000-square-foot motorsport exhibit that’s been blowing up on social media. The main attraction is a white-knuckle go-kart race through hairpin turns, steep climbs, and sharp drops, where you’ll rip through over 10 laps in about six minutes—plenty of time to discover whether you’re Pittsburgh’s answer to Lewis Hamilton or just really good at Mario Kart.
For adrenaline junkies who would rather skip the actual crash helmet, there’s a full-size Formula 1 simulator that recreates the feel of driving famous circuits, plus four interconnected simulators for head-to-head competitions on virtual tracks. The multi-million-dollar complex also includes the new Pit Stop Lounge, featuring craft cocktails and local drafts, with the whole place turning into a 21-and-over hangout after dark. To fully commit to the bit this Saturday, head to the on-site Rangos Giant Cinema: Pixar’s Cars screens at 10 a.m., followed by the real deal, F1: The Movie, at 6 p.m.
Fall Fantasy Parades
Friday, August 14 – Sunday, August 16 | Kennywood, West Mifflin
Before local marching bands file onto football fields during Friday night games, they’ll bring their bleacher-rattling brass and percussion to Kennywood. For 76 years, the park’s Fall Fantasy Parades have been a late-summer showcase for the region’s high school and university bands, giving them an early chance to display their music and marching skills. Over 18 evenings in August, more than 130 bands—including Mt. Lebanon, Central Catholic, Peters Township and Pine-Richland—will march past the Potato Patch and the Wacky Wheel playing drum-heavy versions of pop hits. Friday night gets an extra dose of Pittsburgh: WQED legend and Kennywood documentarian Rick Sebak will host a Kennywood Memories Q&A, then lead the parade as grand marshal.
There are also six hand-decorated floats built in-house by Kennywood’s own carpenters, artists, and electricians, all decked out in this year’s Mardi Gras theme. Watch for Kenny Kangaroo, Parker the Arrow, Jeeters, and—for reasons the park has never fully explained—Santa Claus. Because August is never too early for Christmas.
Girard Sunflower Festival
Saturday, August 15 | Girard
CelebrateErie
Friday, August 14 – Sunday, August 16 | Erie
If your summer Instagram grid has been mostly Picklesburgh selfies and cocktail close-ups, head to the Lake Erie coast this Saturday. It’s the final day of the Sunflower Festival in the historic town of Girard, and your last chance to catch 50 acres of farmland going full Van Gogh. With over a million blossoms in full bloom, the fields practically art-direct your photos for you. Get lost in the sunflower maze, pick a bouquet, check out the food and craft vendors, and know that the whole botanical backdrop is zero waste: in autumn, a local distillery will harvest the seeds and transform them into sunflower rum.
After you’ve got the shot, drive 30 minutes east to CelebrateErie, where a three-day festival of music, local art and culture, wine and craft beers, and free concerts takes over downtown. Saturday night’s headliners are the Plain White T’s, but if you stay through Sunday, you’ll catch Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine and the Pet Sounds Band, best known for their 1966 album that turned surf-and-summer tunes into psychedelic orchestral pop.
What to Do in Pittsburgh August 7-9, 2026
Camp Carnegie
Friday, August 7 | Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Oakland
Turns out, summer camp is way more fun when everyone’s old enough to order s’mores cocktails. On Friday night, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History becomes an adults-only nostalgia fest called Camp Carnegie, where you can relive all your favorite camp traditions—only this time with a cash bar. Roam the museum by flashlight, swap stories around a faux campfire, craft friendship bracelets and beaded bug lanyards with the museum’s Invertebrate Zoology team, sharpen your soccer skills with Pittsburgh Riverhounds players, and pick up wilderness wisdom from Pittsburgh Park Rangers. While we won’t shame you for wearing that bug lanyard on Monday, we can’t vouch for your coworkers.
PONY League World Series
Friday, August 7–Wednesday August 12 | Washington
Right now, the best baseball players in the world are warming up in Washington, Pennsylvania. They’re middle schoolers battling it out in the PONY League World Series, a six-day slugfest that kicks off Friday and features 10 championship teams from across the globe. Founded in Washington in 1951 for boys who had outgrown Little League, PONY baseball celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and counts Andrew McCutchen, Cal Ripken Jr., and Nolan Ryan among its most famous alumni. Opening weekend features a home run derby, a fastest-runner competition, themed nights—and a chance to scout the draft class of 2035.
Heinz History Center Bocce Tournament & Festival
Saturday, August 8 | Acrisure Stadium South Plaza
The loudest sports arguments in Pittsburgh this weekend won’t throw down at a Steelers practice—they’ll erupt over a little white pallino ball at Heinz History Center’s annual Bocce Tournament & Festival. Now in its 15th year, the tournament brings four-person teams to Acrisure Stadium for a day of surprisingly fierce competition, as they battle for an ornate trophy and a year’s worth of bragging rights. The fundraiser, benefiting the museum’s Italian American Program, also includes Italian food, live music, and lots of opportunities to cheer from the sidelines. Don’t stress if you’ve never played—or even watched—bocce before: You’ll learn the rules in about three minutes, and start disputing close calls at around four minutes.
Barrel & Flow Festival
Saturday, August 8 | Strip District
Once a year on an August Saturday, Pittsburgh becomes the country’s capital of Black-owned craft beer. Barrel & Flow—the first and largest festival in the country dedicated to Black-owned breweries—brings nearly 30 of those businesses to the Burgh to pour everything from hazy IPAs and crisp lagers to barrel-aged stouts and one-off collaborations you won’t find anywhere else. Beyond the beers, expect live bands and DJs, visual artists creating work throughout the day, chefs and food vendors, rising comedians, writers, and more than 100 Black-owned small businesses.
For more happenings, check out our Pittsburgh events calendar. Or, find things to do in Pittsburgh year-round.
About the Author
Kathleen Renda is TABLE Magazine’s Online Content Strategist and a contributor covering design, trends, and lifestyle. A veteran journalist with more than two decades at national titles including Martha Stewart Living, House Beautiful, and HGTV Magazine, she was part of the Budget Living team that won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. She’s interviewed names like Chip and Joanna Gaines and Nate Berkus, and ghostwritten two bestselling interior design books, including Thom Filicia Style. More at kathleenrenda.com.
Featured Image by Jeff Swensen
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