Published by Angie. Last Updated on September 19, 2023.
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Rose All Day is a summer festival in Pittsburgh that features all things rose – ciders, beers, wines, and cocktails from dozens of vendors were featured in the inaugural event in August 2019.
With a mix of local and national wineries and breweries, an appropriately-sized venue for the crowd, minimal lines for drinks, and a good mix of non-alcohol vendors including food trucks and shopping, we can see this festival taking hold and becoming even bigger and better in the years to come.
Rose All Day Celebrates All Things Pink
We attended Rose All Day in its first year in 2019 when it was held in Nova Place. There were three different ticket tiers – VIP, early admission, and general admission. VIP ticket holders got in an hour earlier than general admission plus a swag bag and access to a VIP area, while early admission ticket holders just got in an hour early.
We typically go for early admission tickets at festivals like this in order to beat the crowds and ensure we get samples of our most coveted drinks. However, we had general admission tickets for this event and didn't experience lines that were more than three to five people long. If the festival continues and grows, though, we could see the VIP/early admission tickets being more worthwhile.
To enter the festival, there was security screening which consisted of purses and bags being inspected and a metal detector wand sweep for everyone. We arrived shortly after the start of general admission and had a brief wait of about ten minutes in this line- most of which was due to new security measures put in place.
From there we proceeded to get our wrist bands and souvenir glasses inside Nova Place, which was an even shorter line that took just a few minutes to get through. Then we were free to get our rose on!
A Great Assortment of Libations- Not Just Wine
In 2019 the festival spanned both inside and outside – we enjoyed taking a break from the heat and sun at the inside booths after drinking our way around the outside setup.
As the Pittsburgh region is not home to many wineries, it made sense that many of the wineries were national brands (Chateau Ste. Michelle, 14 Hands, Cupcake, etc.). However, local wines from La Casa Narcisi and Enginehouse 25 were available as well.
The local beer, cider, mead, and spirits/cocktails game was strong, though, with representation from Strange Roots, Southern Tier, Arsenal, Threadbare, Kingview Mead, Wigle, and Federal Galley. Other favorite local non-alcohol vendors were Chantal's Cheese (pouring French rose), Millie's Ice Cream, and Hippie & French (pouring a CBD-infused spritzer).
In general we didn't find the lines for drinks to be long at all. The only lines that got really long were for the food trucks (there were just three – Mr. Bulgogi, Campfired Pizza, and Doce Taqueria)- we hope more will be added in next year to address this.
One thing we love about festivals like this is trying new things and things we maybe normally wouldn't try. Although we've been to Arsenal Cider plenty of times, we had never tried their rose cider. We were super surprised to try it and find it was one of our favorite drinks at the festival- not surprising, it has won national awards! Other favorites included the rose saison from Strange Roots, a bourbon cocktail from Wigle, and a gin cocktail from Federal Galley.
We love supporting local businesses and can't wait to see this festival grow to include more local spots in the coming years. As the event planners are also the people behind Beers of the Burgh (one of the best local beer festivals, in our opinion), we think it's likely that will indeed happen.
Rose All Day is an annual libations festival at NOVA Place. We were guests of Rose All Day for this review. As always, all opinions are our own.
