diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 964fc52..9a069f9 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 # This is necessary for Xenial builders
 # BUG: https://github.com/openstack-charmers/zaza-openstack-tests/issues/530
 lxml<4.6.3
+pyparsing<3.0.0  # pin for aodhclient which is held for py35
 aiounittest
 async_generator
 boto3
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index fb4377d..d90e716 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ install_require = [
     'PyYAML',
     'tenacity',
     'oslo.config<6.12.0',
+    'pyparsing<3.0.0',  # pin for aodhclient which is held for py35
     'aodhclient<1.4.0',
     'gnocchiclient>=7.0.5,<8.0.0',
     'pika>=1.1.0,<2.0.0',