GEORGIE LEHOOP, A DRUM ARTIST, DISPLAYS HIS ARTWORK AT THE DOLLAR BANK THREE RIVERS ARTS FESTIVAL IN JUNE 2024. | PHOTO BY JILIAN MUSSER

Updated Jan. 27, 2025: The 2025 Three Rivers Arts Festival will be held at the 15th Street Plaza along Waterfront Place on the edge of the Strip District. This will be for only one year as the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust prepares its permanent home at the 8th Street Block Civic Space.

The 66th annual Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival will be held only four days this June as the city and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust prepare a permanent spot in the Cultural District to hold the event beginning in 2026.

“Due to numerous downtown revitalization projects occurring in the summer of 2025, including construction of a new four-acre outdoor civic space that will serve as the Festival’s new long-term home starting in 2026, the 2025 Festival will take place at a new and temporary downtown location (still to be announced) with a four-day format, June 5-8, 2025,” according to an application for artists to participate.

The free festival, produced by the Cultural Trust, typically runs 10 days.

This year’s festival will still feature a lineup of performing and visual artists, including the popular Artist Market.

In a $30 million project, the trust is creating the 8th Street Block Civic Space to host festivals and performances on a main lawn with a bandshell. It will offer a children’s play area, restrooms, possibly pickleball courts and more. The Goodyear Auto Service, located on a corner of the property on Fort Duquesne Boulevard, will be razed to make way for the project.

For years the Arts Festival was held in the shaded green space of Gateway Center and parts of Point State Park. But it was moved a few years ago to different parts of the Cultural District after the state, which owns and operates the park, said it could no longer accommodate lengthy festivals there.