Pittsburg, PA
Pittsburgh summer music festivals 2026: Everything you need to know
A summer full of music kicks off this weekend with Pittonkatonk. There are some amazing things to look forward to this year: Free county concerts include shows from Heavy Heavy and the Women in Jazz Festival at South Park, plus Pittsburgh Opera and Arrested Development at Hartwood Acres. The first Turn It Upstream Festival on June 26 features top-tier local acts like Beauty Slap and NASH.V.ILL. And ’90s nostalgia buffs can enjoy the Spin Doctors and Joan Osborne at the Three Rivers Arts Festival.
As always, find even more things to do in Pittsburgh in our Weekend and Monthly Event Guides.
Pittonkatonk
May 8-9, Vietnam Veterans Pavilion, Schenley Park
Pete Spynda’s Pittonkatonk — a celebration of world music, horns and drums — has opened the local outdoor festival season since 2014. This year’s lineup includes Colombian star Yeison Landero, the Undertow Brass Band and local artists Timbeleza and the Eagleburger Band.
There will be more than 350 musical acts on 32 stages, along with visual artists, comedians and poets in Millvale — and it’s all free. The two-day event includes classical music at St. Nicholas Church — and almost every other kind of music — all over the borough Friday night and all day Saturday.
Allegheny County Summer Concert Series
All shows start at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted
South Park Amphitheater (All shows on Friday):
- June 5 River City Brass
- June 12 Jimmie Ross & The Jaggerz
- June 19 Coltt Winter Lepley & The Briar Valley Rangers
- June 26 Red Wanting Blue
- July 3 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (8:15 p.m.)
- July 10 The Heavy Heavy
- July 17 Orleans
- July 24 Ruthie Foster
- July 31 Don McLean
- Aug. 7 Matthias Lattin & Dylan Triplett
- Aug. 14 Women in Jazz Festival, featuring Su Terry, Deanna Witkowski Trio and Camille Thurman with the Darrell Green Quartet
- Aug. 21 Tamburitzans
- Aug. 28 Summer of Love Revue
- Sept. 4 Reb Beach
Hartwood Acres Park Amphitheater (All shows on Sunday):
- June 7 Pittsburgh Opera
- June 14 Melinda & The Night Sky
- June 21 Yacht Rocket
- June 28 Tito Puente Jr. and Nestor Torres
- July 5 America’s 250th Anniversary Celebration, with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (8:15 p.m., $30 suggested donation to benefit the county Department of Human Services)
- July 12 The Fixx
- July 19 Cyril Neville
- July 26 Arrested Development
- Aug. 2 The Wood Brothers
- Aug. 9 Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
- Aug. 16 The Lemon Twigs
- Aug. 23 Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
- Aug. 30 Blasey Plays the Beatles
- Sept. 6 Buzz Poets
This is TRAF’s first year at its new permanent home on Penn Avenue between Eighth and Ninth streets. Aside from the shows listed below, also featured during TRAF at Arts Landing will be the world premiere of Squonk’s “Joy Machine,” running Friday, June 5, through Sunday, June 7; and Bandaloop’s “The Sky Is Not the Limit,” on Friday, June 12, and Saturday, June 13. Additional festival highlights include the Artist Market, Juried Visual Art Exhibition, Giant Eagle Creativity Zone and Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival Dance Battle.
- June 5 Spin Doctors
- June 6 The Pharcyde
- June 11 Buffalo Rose
- June 12 The War and Treaty
- June 13 Delfeayo Marsalis and The Uptown Jazz Orchestra
- June 13 (daytime) The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
- June 14 (evening) Joan Osborne
Check back with NEXT in early June for a full preview of what to expect from this year’s festival.
Summer Fridays, a $5 concert series at the picturesque former home of the Frick family, returns for its 12th season on June 5.
- June 5 The Stemtecs Band
- July 24 The Polkamaniacs
- August 28 Donora
The Farina Foundation will be at each night of Summer Fridays collecting instruments for a donation drive.
There’s no All Out Festival or Pride on the Shore with nationally known performers this year. But a consortium of local groups, including TransYOUniting and QBurgh, has put together a more low-key Pride celebration. Check their site for entertainment updates.
This free festival produced by Stop the Violence Pittsburgh is now the largest Juneteenth celebration in North America. Expect entertainment for the “grown folk” in Market Square, featuring Final Draft on June 19, Keith Washington the next night and Evelyn Champagne King closing it out on June 21. The lineup at Point State Park might appeal to younger fans: Lloyd, Musiq Soulchild and Fabolous. There will be a vendor market, food and more, as well.
Upstream Pittsburgh, which promotes clean water by protecting watershed ecosystems, celebrates its 25th anniversary with a music festival/fundraiser featuring Beauty Slap, NASH.V.ILL, Colatura and other artists. Along with the music, there will be guided walks and activities highlighting Upstream’s local impact. Tickets here.
Indie-pop singer Michigander headlines the free music event this year, supported by Ratboys, Jobi Riccio, and local artists Cam Chambers and Kahone Concept. There are free rides on the PNC Carousel until 9 p.m., too.
The Blues and Roots Festival has morphed into the Pittsburgh Music Festival with a new location along the Allegheny River. The lineup includes local stars like Gathering Field, Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers, Billy Price with Bill Toms, and the Sun King Warriors. As in the past, proceeds benefit Band Together and Autism Pittsburgh. Tickets go on sale May 15. More information here.
It’s the North Side’s version of the Millvale Music Festival (or vice versa). There will be three days of free, local music on outdoor stages, in bars and at the Elks Club, along with family activities. The schedule and lineup have not yet been announced.
Rock Reggae and Relief
Aug. 8, Market Square, Downtown
The festival returns to Market Square after switching to Stage AE last year. This year’s lineup includes UB40, G. Love & Special Sauce, The Elovaters, and more. Proceeds will benefit Cafe Momentum, which offers paid internships and job training for young people exiting the justice system. Buy tickets here.
Headliners include Ally the Piper, Screaming Orphans, Eileen Ivers & the Brigideens as well as locals Bealtaine, the Low Kings, Jim Lamb and more. Look for kids’ activities, ceili dancing, Guinness, Harp, whisky, scones and the like. Tickets available here.
A free outdoor festival with some of the best-known names in jazz. Dee Dee Bridgewater, Bilal and many more played last year. The 2026 lineup will be announced soon.
More music
Major events like the city’s Fourth of July celebration, Picklesburgh and Barrel and Flow will also feature live, outdoor music. Both WYEP and the City of Pittsburgh will host neighborhood concerts, and Hazelwood Local is bringing back its Summer Sounds on Hazelwood Green. Municipalities including South Fayette, Monroeville, McCandless and many others have summer concerts too.
Pittsburg, PA
NASA astronaut from Western Pa. returns to Pittsburgh for 1st time since suffering unprecedented medical event in space
This time, the warm-up was brief. After getting off to one of the chilliest starts (tied for 2nd coldest first 3 days when it comes to daily average temperature) on record in May, we saw two above-average days over the past two days.
We won’t make it three with temperatures today cooling down behind widespread morning rain. We’ve already seen our high temperature for today, with Pittsburgh seeing a daily high of around 62 degrees. That was our midnight temperature, but sometimes they adjust it slightly up or down due to the number being sent out technically happening around 8 minutes before the top of the hour.
Temperatures will be in the 50s for the rest of the day. Skies will be mostly cloudy with variable but breezy winds of around 15mph this afternoon.
It’ll be damp and cool. You’ll certainly want long sleeves this afternoon if you are outside for any extended period of time.
When it comes to rain chances, rain will be fairly consistent through around 8 o’clock, then become more scattered for the rest of the morning.
This afternoon is looking dry for pretty much everyone. I can’t totally rule out an isolated shower in the Laurel Highlands.
After today, our next rain chance comes Friday morning with the potential for an isolated shower or storm. There will be a better chance for rain on Saturday, with rain once again confined to the morning hours.
Saturday afternoon is looking dry. Mother’s Day is also looking dry for most of the day, with rain showers arriving after 4 p.m.
Highs will hit the low 70s ahead of the rain chance.
Pittsburg, PA
After all of Pittsburgh area’s Smokey Bones restaurants close, what should consumers do with gift cards?
All three remaining Smokey Bones locations in the Pittsburgh area have closed after the restaurant chain’s parent company filed for bankruptcy.
After the locations in Hempfield, Cranberry and at the Pittsburgh Mills in Frazer closed, people reached out to KDKA asking what to do with their unused gift cards.
Michael Litvak from Beaver County says he’s stuck with $100 worth of Smokey Bones gift cards.
“And the one in Robinson closed about, I guess it was maybe about two weeks ago, they closed it 3 weeks ago, but nothing was said when they closed that that they were closing any other locations,” Litvak said. “And then on April 28, I found out we were going to go to Smokey Bones in Cranberry with friends and our friends said, ‘hey, we just checked their site, we was gonna check the menu, and it says they’re closed.’ So I started looking around, and here they closed all their restaurants on April 28, not even letting anybody know.”
Gift cards are treated as unsecured claims in a bankruptcy. That means you’re in the back of the line, behind the banks and the landlords to get your money back, so the likelihood of recouping your money is slim to none.
What to do with Smokey Bones gift cards
If you bought the gift card with a credit card, that’s your best shot at getting money back. Contact the credit card company and ask for a chargeback for goods and services not received. But you have to ask fast. This works best if you’re only one to four months out from the purchase.
Did you get it from a third party? If you snagged the card on one of those big display sets at a Costco or grocery store, they’ll sometimes refund or exchange gift cards in special situations like this one.
If both fail, decide if it’s worth the hassle of filing a claim.
The Better Business Bureau recommends always checking with the company’s ownership. In this case, it’s FAT Brands. Right now, the BBB says the claim form and filing instructions are on FAT Brand’s website.
Even though FAT Brands owns other restaurants in the area, like Twin Peaks, they said they will not be honoring the Smokey Bones gift cards at those locations.
-
New York49 minutes agoMamdani Wants Free Buses for All. The City Council Has Different Ideas.
-
Detroit, MI1 hour ago
Breaking down the Detroit Lions roster: Defense
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoMissing man, 85, last seen in South San Francisco
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoCowboys’ Stephen Jones says what NFL won’t admit about the Micah Parsons trade
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoWhat we learned about the pecking order after Miami
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoI was ready to hate the new Copley Square Park. Then I visited it. – The Boston Globe
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoJonah Coleman says being a Bronco is ‘the best thing in the world’ as rookie camp begins
-
Seattle, WA2 hours agoMeet the ‘fuel mitigation specialists’ protecting Pierce County from wildfires
