{"id":149234,"date":"2026-03-26T17:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/149234\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T17:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:13:07","slug":"whats-new-at-kennywood-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/149234\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s New at Kennywood This Year?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kennywood<\/a><\/p>\n

PHOTO PROVIDED BY KENNYWOOD<\/p>\n

When visitors hit Kennywood on its opening day on April 18, they\u2019ll be greeted with a thrillworthy lineup of new features, including weekend festivals and updates to beloved rides.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpening Day at Kennywood is always a big deal for Pittsburgh,\u201d\u00a0 Ricky Spicuzza, the park\u2019s general manager, says in a press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He adds that the park will debut Celebrate Kennywood Weekends for the first time this year, which will honor the park\u2019s \u201ciconic brand, the Potato Patch, through a variety of potato-inspired menu items.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Celebrate Kennywood Weekends will also offer nostalgic photo opportunities and competitive Kennywood trivia each Saturday and Sunday from April 18 to May 10.<\/p>\n

The park is also offering new tastings throughout the park in 2026. At its global food and drink festival, Bites and Pints, France and Germany will join the lineup of featured countries, which also includes Cuba, Greece, Italy, South Korea, Mexico and Poland. Bites and Pints runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from May 22 through June 28, as well as on Memorial Day on May 25.<\/p>\n

Two new food stands will also open up this season: the Centennial Grill in Lost Kennywood will grill up cheesesteaks, and the Big Dipper ice cream stand by Noah\u2019s Ark will serve as a tribute to the Dipper roller coaster that entertained guests from 1948 until 1984.<\/p>\n

Kennywood will also celebrate America\u2019s 250th birthday with a 4th of July fireworks display and six new drone shows featuring 200 drones. The shows will run every Saturday and Sunday from July 11-26. Park officials say this year\u2019s show will be the largest ever presented by Zambelli Fireworks.<\/p>\n

The 2026 season also marks two major ride anniversaries at Kennywood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After making its debut in 1926, The Whip turns 100 this year;\u00a0 Phantom\u2019s Revenge, which is nominated in the Best Roller Coaster category <\/a>of USA Today\u2019s 10 Best Awards, will celebrate its 25th birthday this summer. To honor it, the park will debut a 25th anniversary edition logo. New details also have been added to the station, including mixing and matching the iconic green-and-purple coaster cars and bringing back the original sounds from the station.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith milestone anniversaries for rides like The Whip and Phantom\u2019s Revenge, we\u2019re proud to see families continuing to enjoy generations of memories on the same rides that have made Kennywood special for nearly 130 years,\u201d Spicuzza says.<\/p>\n

In addition to the all-new Celebrate Kennywood Weekends and Bites and Pints Food & Drink Festival, the park will host a variety of fan-favorite events throughout the season. The 76th annual Fall Fantasy Parades return daily Aug.1 through Aug. 17, plus Aug. 22.<\/p>\n

Phantom Fall Fest will also run select days from Sept. 11 to Nov. 1, and Kennywood will wrap up the 2026 season with Holiday Lights running select days from Nov. 13 through Jan. 3, 2027.<\/p>\n

According to Kennywood\u2019s website, guests can save up to $40 on a season pass when they purchase online<\/a> as part of the park\u2019s opening sale.\u00a0\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOTO PROVIDED BY KENNYWOOD When visitors hit Kennywood on its opening day on April 18, they\u2019ll be greeted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[50093,9486,73,75,74,3668,289],"class_list":{"0":"post-149234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-amusement-parks","9":"tag-kennywood","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","12":"tag-pittsburgh-news","13":"tag-summer","14":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}