Pickle Connoisseurs To Take Downtown By Storm at Picklesburgh – Pittsburgh Magazine’s 2026 ‘Best Of the Burgh’ Food Festival

This one’s for the brine-iacs! Picklesburgh – the four-time winner of USA Today’s ‘Best Specialty Food Festival’ contest, and Pittsburgh Magazine’s Food Festival pick for the 2026 Best of the ‘Burgh list – is back for its eleventh year. This year’s festival has the BIGGEST footprint to date, spanning two Sister Bridges (Clemente and Warhol), Allegheny Landing, Allegheny Riverfront Park, Fort Duquesne Boulevard (westbound), PPG Plaza, Sixth Street, Market Square, and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s newly opened Arts Landing. All weekend long, ‘gherkin’ geeks from across the land will enjoy four days of dill-icious food, jar-ring entertainment, and pickle-packed activities. Picklesburgh returns to a four-day schedule, opening at noon daily from Thursday, July 16, through Sunday, July 19. During the ultimate pickle ex- spear -ience, Downtown Pittsburgh will relish in the opportunity to enjoy 55 vendors, 14 Taste of Picklesburgh merchants, exclusive culinary offerings, crowd-rousing Dill-Cathlon contests, a mechanical pickle, live music, KidsPlay activities, pickleball, and the return of the 35-foot-long signature Heinz pickle balloon flying high above the Andy Warhol Bridge.  Created by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP) and presented by HEINZ, Picklesburgh has grown every year since its inception, boosting the Downtown economy and welcoming people from around the country and the world. Picklesburgh 2025 welcomed more than 200,000 people over the course of three days and, according to VisitPittsburgh, brought in an estimated $19.8M in direct spending to the City, which includes overnight lodging, transportation, retail, and recreation, generating over $970,000 in sales tax revenue. “This year’s festival is our biggest one yet, with an expanded footprint from the North Shore to PPG Plaza, welcoming the recently completed Arts Landing” said Jeremy Waldrup, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh D