Carnegie Mellon’s Spring Carnival and Buggy Races

Carnegie Mellon University's Spring Carnival is a tradition that dates back more than a century and is a three-day event that takes place each April.  

Sometimes it is hard to say no to traditions, and CMU knows how to really honor theirs!

If you are planning a visit to this one, the following is what you can expect.

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Mars New Year Blast Off Dinner – A Celebration of Mars, In Mars

Any time I think of Mars, PA, it is almost always in tandem with at least one Martian reference of some sort.

As such, I wasn't too surprised to find out that Mars hosts a semi-annual Mars New Year celebration to honor the planet's roughly 687-Earth day revolution around the sun. 

While the actual three-day festivity is taking place a few months after the official new year (which occurs on the Mars spring equinox in the northern hemisphere), the borough hosts an annual dinner as close as possible to the exact Martian New Year (most recently on March 23, 2019).

With a line-up of speakers and Martian references aplenty, we were pretty excited to attend this one as guests of our friends at Butler County Tourism.

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Which Beer Festivals in Pittsburgh Are Right For You?

Much like our goal to visit every Pittsburgh brewery, we're also on a mission to go to all of the annual beer festivals in Pittsburgh.

And, like our growing brewery scene, the list of festival options is so long such that we'll be checking out new ones many times a year for quite some time. 

In this one, we did not want to do a review of every beer festival out there (you can find all of those on our site already), but instead want to look at them from a different angle. You see, beer festivals come in many different styles, offerings, and ambiances, and what you're looking for may influence your festival choice completely!

So whether you're looking to try a themed festival, or want an absurd amount of local beer, or perhaps even want to enjoy something completely different, the following may be for you.

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Seasonal Pierogies at the Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church

We first had pierogies from the Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church at the Pittsburgh Pierogi Festival. We had heard the glory of the church's famed dumplings, but never quite made it happen until fate intervened and put us all at the same festival.

It was truly love at first bite.

When we visited the church's table at the festival they were handing out cards for their Christmas pierogi sale, and we knew we would have to return to buy more- and that we did!

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FEAST at the Carnegie Museums – An Exceptional Dining Experience

The Carnegie Museums in Oakland have an annual dinner series known as FEAST which is a themed a dining experience in conjunction with a current exhibit. During the Carnegie International (running until March 2019), the museum is hosting three unique dinners in order to celebrate topics being presented during the flagship exhibition.

The first dinner was themed after the topic Beauty and hosted by Kate Romane from Black Radish Kitchen- a popular pop-up restaurant that is known for being highly sought after and almost impossible to get a seat at (we've yet to get in ourselves!).

I was invited to check out the dinner series as a guest of the museum, and share the experience of the dinner series in this one!

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Sleight of Hand at Its Finest at 52 Up Close with Lee Terbosic

Let's talk about magic, shall we?

Or, perhaps, we should be a bit more honest and talk about the art form of sleight of hand- most notably used in the form of card tricks.

This kind of entertainment has been around for quite some time, and is still alive an kicking at Lee Terbosic's resident show at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco– 52 Up Close.

We were invited to check out the show and have to say, he certainly fooled us during the 90 minute performance.

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Texture Contemporary Ballet at the New Hazlett Theater

Texture Contemporary Ballet fills an invaluable niche in the city of Pittsburgh's arts scene with its classically-trained ballet dancers performing original contemporary works.

Texture Contemporary Ballet is for everyone: those who love classic ballet, performing arts enthusiasts, and even those who think they might not like a dance performance. We've been to several shows over the years, and we have to say that their works always keep us incredibly captivated and leave us inspired.

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Pittsburgh Pierogi Festival – Celebrating the City’s Favorite Food

As far as local foods are concerned, Pittsburgh is in love with the pierogi. If there would be an official dish of the city, we have no questions that this little dumpling would be it.

So what would any good pierogi lover do with this tried and true favorite? Honor it with a festival of course!

Enter the Pittsburgh Pierogi Festival, a one day celebration taking place at Kennywood. We were invited to check out this pierogi-laden event and share our thoughts on it in this full review!

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Justin Severino’s Hog Butchering Demonstration at Morcilla

Most Pittsburghers know about esteemed Chef Justin Severino and his two restaurants, Cure (closed in early 2019), that featured his creative and unique charcuterie, as well as Morcilla, focusing on Spanish tapas. But did you know that Chef Severino also hosts semi-annual hog butchering demonstrations where you can take a deep dive into his world of meat curing while enjoying a multi-course meal?

We've long been fans of Severino's work and were so excited that we recently had the chance to finally enjoy one of these events at Morcilla.

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