Film Festival (www.3rff.com) takes place. Finally, Pittsburghers love their Halloween. You’ll be able to tell by the large number of pumpkin patches and haunted attractions that pop up in October. All will give you a good scare, but a few to check out include: The Scarehouse (www.scarehouse.com), in Etna; The Hundred Acres Manor (www.hundredacresmanor.com), in Bethel Park; Kennywood Phantom Fright Nights (www. phantomfrightnights.com); and the Haunted Hills Hayride (www.hauntedhillshayride.com), in North Versailles. And for more than 45 years, residents from across the city have packed the streets for the Bloomfield Halloween Parade (www.bloomfieldlive.com). Bloomfield Halloween Parade / PHOTO BY THEO SCHWARZ
for a bit of nostalgia, just one drive-in movie theater remains in close proximity to the city. The Dependable Drive-In (500 Moon Clinton Road, Coraopolis, www.dependable drivein.com) features four screens and is open year-round. If you want a little more culture, every Sunday from June through August, Citiparks holds its annual Bach, Beethoven and Brunch (Mellon Park, Shadyside, www.tinyurl.com/ cpbrunch). Food is available for purchase, or bring a picnic lunch. If music is your thing, there is no shortage of events, either. The Allegheny County Summer Concert Series (tinyurl.com/ cpacconcerts) at South Park and Hartwood Acres offers a mix of national and local bands playing free shows from June through Labor Day. The Pittsburgh Jazz Live International festival (www.pittsburghjazzlive.com) brings jazz music to Downtown streets for three days in June. The Deutschtown Music Festival (www.deutschtownmusicfestival. org) features more than 100 bands of various genres on stages on the North Side for two free days of music. And in August, the city’s hippest neighborhood gets into the act with Lawrenceville’s Rock All Night (tinyurl.com/ orvhkpe), which features 14 hours of live music from more than 100 bands playing, well, all night. This year’s installment takes place Aug. 12-14. And Shadyside’s Jam on Walnut (www.thinkshadyside.com) puts 10 PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER CITY GUIDE 2016
on live concerts three times a summer beginning in June. This year’s final performance will be held Aug. 20. Other summer events of note include: farmers’ markets held all summer long by Citiparks (www.citiparks.net), and every Thursday in Market Square (www.tinyurl.com/ owzou6s); and, beginning in May, trips to historic amusement park Kennywood (www.kennywood. com). And there’s no better time to “people-watch” Downtown than during Anthrocon (www. anthrocon.org), more widely known as the national Furry convention, held each July.
their season on Oct. 13 From Sept. 9-11, the Craftsmen’s Guild of Pittsburgh will present its annual A Fair in the Park (Mellon Park, Shadyside, www.afairinthepark. org) fine-arts and craft festival. On Sept. 3, Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks (www.pittsburghshakespeare. com) begins its free, annual, month-long weekend performances in city parks. The Wizard World pop-culture
winter Sure it will be cold; it’ll probably snow. But it will also be Christmas in the city, and that’s always a lot of fun. While most of the dates aren’t yet set for this year, the Downtown Pittsburgh Partnership (www.downtown pittsburgh.com/holidays) puts on several holiday events. Highlights include Pittsburgh Light Up Night, on Nov. 18; a German-style Holiday Market starting Nov. 18 in Market Square; and outdoor
fall The Pittsburgh Steelers (www.steelers.com) were pretty good last year, but it’s been way too long since we’ve won a Super Bowl. While home games are traditionally sold out, you can find tickets if you look perhaps on game days, perhaps around Heinz Field, perhaps from an “independent contractor.” The Steelers start the season Sept. 13 at Washington, D.C. Championships are no problem for our hockey team: In June, the Pittsburgh Penguins capped an incredible comeback season to win the venerable Stanley Cup. And while the NHL season seems to last for 12 months, the Pittsburgh Penguins (www.penguins.nhl.com) start
Anthrocon / PHOTO BY MIKE SCHWARZ
convention (David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown, www.wizardworld.com) comes to Pittsburgh Nov. 4-6. Two of the city’s longestrunning film festivals also take place in autumn. ReelQ (www.reelq.org), the city’s LGBT film festival, takes place Oct. 6-15. On Nov. 6-15, the 35th installment of the Three Rivers
ice-skating at PPG place, from November to March. Other annual holiday events include: The WPXI Holiday Parade, on Nov. 26; and The Pittsburgh CLO’s annual production of A Christmas Carol (www.pittsburghclo.org). Wrap up the holiday season with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s familyfriendly, arts-focused New