Kennywood debuts new park enhancements for ’26 season

The West Mifflin-based amusement park will open for its 128th season on April 18.

Kennywood is gearing up for its April 18 opening day with new food options, ride tributes, beautification projects, weekend events and celebrations for America’s 250th birthday.

Kennywood is in full spring bloom as it prepares to open for its 128th season on April 18. Jeff Helsel / Mon Valley Independent

Kennywood Park will open for its 128th season at 11 a.m. April 18.

The West Mifflin park, founded in 1898, offers a mix of modern thrills and classic rides, including seven roller coasters, Kiddieland, and several attractions that cannot be found anywhere else.

“Opening Day at Kennywood is one of those moments Pittsburgh looks forward to all year,” said Kennywood General Manager Ricky Spicuzza.

“With Celebrate Kennywood Weekends, new food

The Whip, Kennywood’s oldest surviving flat ride, turns 100, and now features a new cursive ride logo. Jeff Helsel / Mon Valley Independent

experiences, and milestone anniversaries for some of our most beloved rides, we’re giving guests even more reasons to make new memories while reliving the classics.”

The 2026 season marks the park’s first under Herschend, a family-owned attractions company in suburban Atlanta that bought Kennywood, along with Sandcastle and Idlewild, last spring.

Herschend is the world’s largest family-held themed attractions company, with a portfolio of over 40 family entertainment brands across North America, including

EJ Randolph, director of in-park revenue at Kennywood, carries a tray of white chocolate sweet potato cupcakes inside the Carousel Burger Co. during a media preview of the park on Wednesday. Jeff Helsel / MVI

destinations, resorts, theme parks, water parks, immersive experiences, and content enjoyed by audiences worldwide.

During a media day preview of the park Wednesday, the Mon Valley Independent had the chance to tour the park, and check out the new additions for the 2026 season – including new food offerings, and much more.

Enhancements

Guests will notice several park enhancements as they emerge from the tunnel entrance, as the park got fresh paint, updated pathway paving and more to spruce it up.

“(The 128th season) is a really big deal this year,” said Lynsey Winters, director of communications for Herschend. “While there is nothing major this year in terms of a ride announcement, we really focused on enhancing the overall guest experience… that Kennywood pride and tradition are still going to remain the same.” When guests enter the park, they will go through an enhanced security screening procedure that was introduced a few years ago.

Extra security units will be added to speed up the lines while entering the park, according to Herschend regional director of marketing Taylor Bulischeck, a White Oak native who started working at Kennywood as a teenager.

“We’re excited to be able to enhance just the overall experience of coming into the park, and having a welcoming experience,” Bulischeck said. “We had some challenges with Fall Fest and stuff getting people into the park quickly just due to the volume in the short amount of time. So, we’re looking for that to be an overall better experience this year getting people into the park.”

There are also new benches throughout the park, including specialized red benches at the Thunderbolt rollercoaster. They were delivered to the park Tuesday, according to Bulischeck.

Anniversaries

Kennywood has unveiled two all-new ride logos celebrating milestone anniversaries for The Whip and to celebrate the Phantom’s Revenge being nominated as a USA Today 10Best rollercoaster.

The first version of The Whip opened in 1919, and was a 12-car model, according to Bulischeck. The current ride version is a 16-car model that opened in 1926, and has moved many locations over the years – moving to the area of the park titled “Lost Kennywood” in 1995.

At 100-years-old, The Whip had some renovations done this year, with new decals painted on the cars to celebrate the anniversary.

New fencing will also be at the ride, and the wooden areas will be repainted during the days Kennywood is closed before they open the park daily, according to Bulischeck. Daily operations start around Memorial Day and continue through the summer.

“We’re excited to give this ride some love and attention,” Bulischeck said. “It is one of our good family rides.”

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Phantom’s Revenge, the park has rearranged the coaster cars to alternate between green and purple, upgraded the station and has re-recorded the original ride sounds and added it back to the queue line.

According to Bulischeck, one of the biggest projects this year was outfitting the cars with a different color on each train, which hasn’t been done before. He said this is a “special anniversary edition” with new decals to commemorate the 25th anniversary as well.

Since the cars are mechanically the same, Bulischeck said mechanics were able to merge the cars together, which has never been done at the park, and the combination is a call back to when the ride opened that had fiberglass cars that were both green and purple.

The Phantom is currently in the running as the second best coaster in the country by USA Today 10Best, and the park is hoping to get the coaster back to number one. The ride was nominated as the number one coaster last year.

Food locations

There are also two new food locations — the Centennial Grill and the Big Dipper ice cream stand.

Located in Lost Kennywood in the old Primanti’s location, the Centennial Grill will offer cheesesteaks, tater tots, and other beloved theme park classics that members of the media were able to try on Wednesday.

They used to serve cheesesteaks a couple years ago, but when that item was taken away, Bulischeck said many guests requested for the food item to come back, and they are excited to have the new addition.

The Big Dipper hard-serve ice cream stand, located in the old Millie’s Ice Cream location near the ride Noah’s Arc, will offer hand-dipped ice cream and banana splits.

“We are also going to have a variety of flavors available,” Bulischeck said. “We are also bringing the banana split to Kennywood. There will be other new frozen novelties that guests will be able to have.”

The sweet treat location is a tribute to the Dipper roller coaster that called Kennywood home from 1948 until 1984. The location was undergoing painting on Wednesday to look like the original coaster.

“This year, we are kind of really trying to get back into our history to inform what we are doing in the future,” Bulischeck said. “The Dipper roller coaster was where the Raging Rapids sits today.

“We are actually using some reference photos of the Dipper station to kind of inform the color palette, the look and feel of the building,” he added. “You will see from the logo and some of the design elements it is really going to call attention to that coaster and that time frame from all of the design we are putting into the building.”

Events

The USA Today 10Best nomination for Theme Park, which Kennywood is in the running at the third spot, will kick off the season with an all-new event to honor a favorite summer tradition – a visit to Kennywood.

Celebrate Kennywood Weekends will run every Saturday and Sunday, April 18 through May 10.

The new event combines the love of everyone’s favorite Potato Patch fries, thrill rides, and good old-fashioned Kennywood nostalgia for eight days.

There will be photo opportunities with old photos of the park, a trivia show at the Kennywood stage and a walking history tour in the Kennywood Junction area of the park.

There will be potato-themed foods, including loaded cheesesteak fries, rosemary truffle fries, buffalo pierogis flatbread, loaded maple cinnamon sweet potato waffle fries, and more near the lagoon part of the park. The media was able to try some of the menu items on Wednesday as well.

“This event really takes nostalgia into consideration,” Bulischeck said. “It’s really built on all the memories that people built and made here. Kennywood is such a fun, quirky and unique park, and we wanted to celebrate all of the weird aspects of it.”

Ahead of the NFL Draft coming to Pittsburgh this month, Bulischeck said the park will be prepared for the influx of possible tourists to the park.

“So many people are going to be in the city, but we will be here and ready and open for anyone who wants to come and experience the park,” he added. “It is going to be crazy those few days, so we will be interested in how that pans out. We’re super excited that it’s going to be in Pittsburgh.”

Other Kennywood events this year include the Bites and Pints Food and Drink Festival on Memorial Day weekend.

There will be a return of two countries, France and Germany. Running weekends through June 28, this tasting event features unique foods from across the world and paired beverage tastings.

Kennywood will also take part in America’s 250th birthday with All-American Summer, headlined by a fireworks spectacular on July 4, which is one of the biggest firework shows in the park’s history. Special activities and drone shows will occur every Saturday and Sunday, July 11-26.

“It is going to be an entirely new show,” Bulischeck said. “We are excited to bring that to our guests. It is something that has been a fan favorite, and kind of takes all the feedback we received to make the show the best we have had yet.”

The 76th annual Fall Fantasy Parades return daily Aug. 1-17 and 22, followed by the day-to-night fall event, Phantom Fall Fest, which runs select days from Sept. 11 to Nov. 1.

Kennywood will wrap up the 2026 season with Holiday Lights running select days from Nov. 13 through Jan. 3, 2027.

“We have a full season of events here at Kennywood,” Bulischeck added. “I think that’s part of what makes Kennywood so special is because we have people who really do genuinely care about the park and its success and just the overall impact it has on the community because they are so closely tied into it.”

Right now, guests can save up to 45% on tickets and season passes during the park’s Opening Sale. Select passes include a variety of perks like free access to all seasonal events, discounts on food and retail, free guest tickets, and more.

To learn more about all that’s new this season and to purchase Season Passes, visit Kennywood.com.