Pizza Fest, which happens this weekend, will be Wichita’s biggest pizza party
Wichita Taco Fest was a fiesta for the ages. And now, a group called FestiveICT is about to throw another food event, this one a giant pizza party that will fill the plaza at Exploration Place on Saturday.
ICT Pizza Fest, an event started last year, will happen from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday on the outdoor plaza at Exploration Place, 300 N. McLean. It will be set up similar to Taco Fest: People who buy a $10 admission ticket will be able to sample slices for $2 apiece once inside.
Organizers have recruited 10 Wichita pizza makers, who will cook slices up hot on site using ovens donated by XLT Ovens. Organizers said last year’s Pizza Fest went well, but they decided to make a few key changes for the second year.
First, they decided to move the date up to avoid the rainy, cool weather they were faced with during last year’s event, which happened in November. They also moved the event from Wichita Area Technical College to a more centralized location.
They shifted the time, too. Last year’s Pizza Fest happened in the afternoon, but this year, it happens during the evening.
“It’s more of the dinner hour,” said Debbie Botefur, who handles marketing for FestiveICT.
The restaurants who signed up to participate in this year’s event: Electric Pizzeria out of Derby, AJs, Old Chicago, Heroes, Marcos, and Gambino’s and Pizza Hut. Kolace, the new restaurant at 13th and Tyler that serves that serves kolaches, will make a pizza version. LumpiaPalooza will prepare pizza-flavored lumpia rolls. And Mo’s Hut, a new Hawaiian barbecue food truck in town, will serve a Hawaiian-flavored pizza.
I’ll be on a panel of judges helping to determine the best slice. Last year’s winner, LMNO Pizza out of Mount Hope, can’t participate this year, so the title is anyone’s to claim.
The event will also include beer, wine and contests including dough-tossing and pizza box-folding. There will be yard games, giveaways and live music from Rudy Love Jr. and Rudy Love Sr. Among the adult beverage vendors this year will be Grace Hill Winery at the new Nortons Brewing Company.
FestiveICT is capping ticket sales at 3,000 so that the event won’t get too crowded. Advance tickets are $10 at ictpizzafest.com and all Mobilecomm locations. The day of the event, they’re $15. Children 5 and under will be admitted for free.
For more information, visit www.festiveict.com/ictpizzafest/
This story was originally published August 22, 2018 at 10:41 AM.