Friday, September 4 It’s hard to imagine a bigger thrill than watching some of Pittsburgh’s best amateur boxers fighting on a rooftop. Tonight’s 12-bout event at the Steel City Boxing Club, Northside Vs. The Outside, will provide that thrill on top of The Priory Hotel. Tickets sold help fund the club’s outreach to at-risk children from across the region; food and drinks will be served.

Saturday, September 5 The Carrie Furnace has been lucky to become a piece of Pittsburgh history, rather than getting left to rot or get plowed over for a Brownfield site. Once part of the largest steel mill in the world, the Carrie is now part of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, and is being celebrated with today’s Festival of Combustion, in which kids and adults can create their own fire-molded artworks, from glass mosaics to casting molten lava. Music will be provided by The Bessemers and food by Iron Oven Catering!

Sunday, September 6 Brunch is quickly becoming popular in Pittsburgh, but special menus and the thrill of drinking on the Lord’s Day aren’t always enough. Sometimes, you need a drag show. Thankfully, from noon-2pm, Kierra Darshell has you covered with the Sunday Drag Brunch at James Street Gastropub & Speakeasy. The standard Bloody Mary bar and mimosas are available, but also the chance to see many of the finest drag queens and kings in the country.

Monday, September 7 While the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival runs weekends through the 27th, checking it out on Labor Day has always been a local favorite, especially when kids’ tickets are free. Come for the jousting and giant turkey legs, stay for the psychics that your mom will, years later, call “eerie.”

Tuesday, September 8 Today kicks off Britsburgh, a festival for those who, as the site says, are “passionate about the 250-year-old special relationship that Pittsburgh and the UK share.” Going until the 14th, the first event is a “Proper English Dinner” at Gaynor’s School of Cooking with a menu featuring “steak, Guinness, and cheese pie.” Oi.

Wednesday, September 9 Choreographer Beth Corning is combining her dance with two short works by Samuel Beckett for Beckett & beyond, a five-performance engagement at the New Hazlett Theater, on the North Side, starting Wednesday night. Featuring three dancers, all tethered to one another, the performance will explore existentialism with an international cast on a stage comprising a “floating landscape”.

Thursday, September 10 The Pittsburgh Anthology, the latest collection from Belt Publishing, came out last Tuesday and,with all the positive feedback coming in, it’s time to celebrate! Tonight’s Pittsburgh Anthology’s launch party offers books, shirts, drinks, and readings at 7 pm at Brillobox on Penn Avenue, a venue which a recent City Paper article says “nicely bridges Pittsburgh past and present.” Join us!

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