Feel that shift? It is the first real football Sunday of the year, the calendar finally tipping out of summer and into the good part of fall.

The Steelers open at home, the Irish Festival lights up the old blast furnaces in Rankin, and Mellon Park fills with 85 artists selling the good stuff.

There is a tacos-only festival in the Strip, K-pop at the Kelly Strayhorn, and two-step dancing on the South Side.

Grab a layer for the night games, and let's map it out.

In today's What's On Pittsburgh:

☘️ The Irish Festival turns 35, under the Carrie Blast Furnaces in Rankin
🏈 The Steelers open at home against the Falcons on Sunday
🌮 Twenty-plus vendors, tacos only, at the Original Pittsburgh Taco Festival
🤠 Live-band two-step, with a lesson up front, at Club Cafe

- And much more!

Let's get to it. - Madison Johnson

☘️ The 35th Pittsburgh Irish Festival takes over the Carrie Blast Furnaces in Rankin, Friday through Sunday: music on multiple stages, step dancers, a whiskey pull, Irish dogs, and a full marketplace, all under the rusted bones of a steel-making landmark. Kids 12 and under get in free.

🎨 A Fair in the Park spreads about 85 fine artists and makers across Mellon Park in Shadyside for its 57th year, with clay, glass, fiber, jewelry, and metalwork to browse. Free, rain or shine, Friday through Sunday.

Get your business, service, event, or announcement promoted in front of thousands of engaged Pittsburgh readers.

Three mid-2000s heavyweights share a bill for the Back to Basics Tour at Stage AE, a full riverfront night of the hits you still know every word to.

Carnegie closes part of Main Street for the last Second Fridays of the season: shops stay open late, live music plays, and food and games spill out onto the pavement.

Steel City Squares turns Club Cafe into a honky-tonk for a night of live-band two-step and partner dancing, with a lesson up front so nobody has to sit against the wall.

The taco fest goes back to basics at The Stacks at 3 Crossings in the Strip: more than twenty vendors, tacos only, plus tequila and music from half past noon on.

A family-friendly blast of K-pop hits, tight choreography, and acrobatics lands at the Kelly Strayhorn in East Liberty for two shows Saturday. Loud, bright, and built for all ages.

The touring production is back at the Benedum through the 27th, and that opening number still puts a lump in the throat of grown adults who swore they were too cool for it.

Inspired by the Frick's French Moderns show, this one-afternoon class blends Renoir-bright watercolor with hands-on basketry. No experience needed, just book your spot ahead.

The Steelers open the regular season at home against the Falcons, the first game at Acrisure this fall. Kickoff is at one, and the North Shore tailgates get rolling long before that.

The Harris screens Andrew Dominik's slow-burn Western, all Roger Deakins light and quiet dread, on the big screen where its long, gorgeous silences actually land.

Author Diana Kapp comes to Alphabet City for "The Last Free Women," her book on a daring escape from Afghanistan, in conversation with two of the women who lived it. Free, and exactly what City of Asylum does best.

🍽️ East Ohio Street is turning into a genuine Restaurant Row, with $600,000 in new city facade grants and fresh arrivals like a Filipino kitchen from Amboy and Butterfat Gelato in Deutschtown.

⚾ The Pirates pounded out 18 hits behind a sharp Bubba Chandler to take the series opener from the White Sox.

🩰 Jesse Factor channels Martha Graham and Madonna in a new solo piece, running this weekend at the Greer Cabaret downtown.

🍺 City Paper rounded up the week in Pittsburgh food, from a new beer school to some genuinely strange made-to-order convenience-store eats.

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