5 things to do in Pittsburgh this weekend: Oct. 14-16
Good music, good food, giant pumpkins and giant bats are on the slate for this weekend’s events in and around Pittsburgh.
Shostakovich and Sibelius
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will present Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 during concerts at 8 p.m. Friday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Heinz Hall, 600 Penn Ave. in the Cultural District.
The Russian composer completed the work in 1925 at age 19, and it was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic.
The program will include works by two Finnish composers: Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, featuring the Grammy Award-winning classical violinist Augustin Hadelich; and the Pittsburgh premiere of contemporary conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen’s “Helix.”
Juraj Valčuha, a native of Slovakia and conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, will conduct.
Tickets are $20-$98, available at 412-392-4900 or pittsburghsymphony.org.
Homegrown goodness
The ninth annual Hometown-Homegrown food festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Senator John Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman St. in the Strip District.
The day will include cooking demonstrations from local culinary personalities, free samples from regional food purveyors and eateries and talks on olive oil and creating a fall holiday centerpiece. Visitors also can learn more about Western Pennsylvania’s culinary history throughout the center’s six floors of exhibitions.
The festival is presented in partnership with GoodTaste! Pittsburgh.
Festival activities are included with regular admission to the history center. For schedule of events and to purchase tickets in advance, visit heinzhistorycenter.org.
Owl be seeing you
Who-o-o knows who-o-o you‘ll meet during Owl-O-Ween, set for 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh’s North Side?
The family-friendly celebration of all things owl returns with owl-themed crafts, bird meet-and-greets, expert talks and goody bags filled with treats made from sustainable palm oil.
Talks will cover the adaptations owls possess that enable them to fly silently, give them incredible senses of hearing and sight and make them impressive hunters. Sharing the spotlight is another creature known for its nighttime flying, the Malayan Flying Fox, a megabat species.
Owl-O-Ween continues Oct. 22 and 23; all activities are included with admission to the Aviary. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit aviary.org.
Prodigious pumpkins
The Pittsburgh Monster Pumpkins Festival celebrates its 5th anniversary from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at The Stacks at 3 Crossings on Railroad Street in the Strip District.
Pumpkins on display, grown by competitive pumpkin-growers from around the country, can range from 900 to more than 2,500 pounds.
“It’s called ‘monster’ for a reason,” says Michael Dongilli of Vivid Pittsburgh, the event’s producer/manager.
The festival will feature pumpkin carvers, a “Prehistoric Pittsburgh” dinosaur-themed carved pumpkin display, glass-blowing, hay bale graffiti art, carriage rides and pumpkin-themed contests including pie-eating.
The Project Bundle Up Pumpkin Splash will provide winter clothing for children and older people in need. Visitors can make a donation for a numbered ping pong ball to be placed in a pool of water, into which a giant pumpkin is dropped from a height of 140 feet. The ball traveling the farthest upon splash-down wins a prize.
Admission is free. For more information, visit monsterpumpkins.com.
Accessible history
After a three-year hiatus, the Historic Pittsburgh Fair returns from 1-4 p.m. Saturday to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Main at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland.
The event will feature tours of the library, a presentation from documentarian Rick Sebak on “Curiosities & Weird Questions” about Pittsburgh and a panel discussion on the accessibility of the library’s collections.
Representatives of local history institutions will discuss their favorite historical resources and the ways different organizations are working to make historical tools and research collections accessible to everyone.
The event will include a scavenger hunt.
Participation is free; no registration is needed. For more information and schedule of events, visit carnegielibrary.org.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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