Festival Patch Archive

EVERY PATCH MARKS A MISSION.
Every SpaceBurgh Festival leaves behind more than memories. It leaves a patch that captures a chapter in our story.

Select a patch to explore that year's festival, revisit the highlights, and see how our community has grown together.
ARCHIVE STATUS

3 Festivals
15,000+ Participants
Growing Since 2024
Mission 01

SpaceBurgh Festival 2024

October 19, 2024
Market Square, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 10,000+
Astronaut  Warren "Woody" Hoburg
Mission Complete
The Beginning
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Every tradition begins with a first gathering.

The inaugural SpaceBurgh Festival transformed Pittsburgh's Market Square into a place where science, creativity, and curiosity came together. Mission 01 marked the beginning of a tradition dedicated to bringing people together through exploration, discovery, and a shared belief that the future is something we build together.
Mission Record
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The first SpaceBurgh Festival welcomed approximately 10,000 visitors to downtown Pittsburgh and featured NASA astronaut Warren "Woody" Hoburg, whose keynote and conversations with attendees became one of the defining moments of the day.

Across Market Square, local organizations, educators, artists, robotics teams, and community partners created a festival that celebrated exploration in all its forms—from engineering and astronomy to creativity, making, and lifelong learning.
Artifacts From Mission 01
A Defining Moment
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Mission 01 demonstrated that Pittsburgh was ready for a different kind of science festival.

Instead of simply showcasing technology, the festival invited people to participate, ask questions, build connections, and imagine the future together. It revealed a community eager for spaces where discovery could feel approachable, creative, and deeply human.The relationships formed during this first gathering would become the foundation for every mission that followed.
Legacy
Every archive has a first page.
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Mission 01 captured more than a successful event—it documented the beginning of an idea that continues to grow. The inaugural festival established SpaceBurgh's commitment to making science, technology, creativity, and exploration accessible, welcoming, and community-centered.

Every mission since has built upon what began here.
Next Mission
MISSION 02: SpaceBurgh Festival 2025.

Continue through the archive to see how the community continued to grow.
Mission 02
SpaceBurgh Festival
2025
October 5, 2025
Riverview Park
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 2,000+
Allegheny Observatory
Mission Complete
Mission Record
The 2025 SpaceBurgh Festival brought the community together at Pittsburgh's historic Allegheny Observatory, inviting visitors to explore the building and grounds through observatory tours, hands-on science, robotics, and space-inspired activities.

Throughout the day, SOAR: Society of Astronautics and Rocketry launched rockets from the grounds, while robot demonstrations, elephant toothpaste experiments, music, and activities from community partners filled the festival. KDKA News also stopped by to capture some of the day and the growing community around SpaceBurgh.
Artifacts From Mission 02
A Defining Moment
Mission 02 brought SpaceBurgh to the historic Allegheny Observatory, trading the bustle of Market Square for a place where generations of Pittsburghers have looked toward the sky.

Observatory tours, rocket launches, robotics, science demonstrations, and music turned the grounds into a place for exploration and discovery. The setting changed, but the idea at the heart of SpaceBurgh remained the same: bring people together around curiosity and give them room to explore.

2025 showed that SpaceBurgh was becoming more than a single festival in a single place. It was a community that could keep evolving.
Legacy
legacy text
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