Indianapolis Pizza Festival 2025

I realized we never did a writeup of our Indy Pizza Fest experience from August 9, 2025. As huge pizza fans, we bought the more expensive VIP tickets in March right when they went on sale. We were (and still are) true believers. We were hyped to try some places we've never been to before, and it looked like vendors had driven in from all over the state just to be there.

The logistics of having different kinds of high quality pizza ovens on Monument Circle, along with crowd control, a full massive stage, bathrooms and safety personnel, etc. It was an extremely ambitious event, especially for a first time event. In my day job I've planned free events for about 800 college students, and that takes months of prep. I can only imagine the amount of work it takes to plan a ticketed outdoor event in the heart of downtown with vendors cooking on the street on the hottest week of the summer.

Okay, now that I've sufficiently hedged my remarks, I can say that the experience at the event was not great. We showed up, like everyone else it seems, around lunch time - because we figured we'd just get a bunch of samples and that would count as our lunch for the day.

We stayed for about an hour and only got to try samples from 3 places. The issue was that everyone came at the same time, which really exceeded the capacity for the amount of space we had to move around. Everyone is was so patient and polite and that was actually part of the problem - people stood patiently waiting for the line to move, but didn't realize that they weren't actually in a line they were just shoulder to shoulder in a big mob.

The tents had enough samples, they were making them fast enough, that wasn't the problem. It's when someone finished their sample they had nowhere to go they were just locked in place standing in front of the tent.

We finally figured out that if we walked around to the side of the tent they would hand us a slice because like I said they had plenty, just nobody could get to them.

We went to the VIP tent to cool off in the shade, and they had some free beer and light appetizers. We were craving a place to sit down but they had mostly standing tables to maximize the amount of floor space.

I think the event could have benefitted from signs or some way to indicate who is in line for a booth and who is just standing near a booth, because there was no 'back of the line' since the entire mob was just one big line it felt like.

We did get to try Shin Dig pizza and they ended up winning. We still need to get downtown and check them out proper. Their Beez Sneez pizza had mozzarella, provolone, fennel sausage, hot honey, fennel pollen, and jalapeño.

If they do the event again I know I'd give it a chance and check it out. I don't think Chris would go back, he already doesn't like dealing with crowds downtown. The city needs more people who dream big and want to give it a shot, and I am happy to cheer them on.