Pizza Fest

Pizza fest? Is this a joke?
Went here around 7pm and there are a lot of people in the place.
Visited different booth and noticed that the pizza werent even good looking. Its just like a pile of shit over the table.
The vendore was also very rude, cant even maintain a nice tone of voice.

We went to the «fest» today and were unbelievably disappointed. We had to pay our $ 5 donation only to be greeted with a line that almost went the length of the entire block. Furthermore, there were only 3 vendors that’s it! How is anything with 3 participants called a fest? The 3 vendors were also overpriced. I would not recommend anybody to go to this until the organizers get it together and actually bring an abundance of pizza vendors. This is Chicago that should not be a problem.

Very disappointing. The band, Supernaut, was good. We were able to walk the whole festival in less than 30 seconds. There were a lot of fried food vendors, but I was there for the pizza. There were only 3 pizza vendors, they were very good nonetheless. Georgio’s Pizza was serving deep dish which was very good. The other vendor baked their pizza in a brick oven which turned out very good! But I think it was a good experience and I don’t think I may come back again. I thought one of the things Chicago is famous for is pizza but I guess no one wanted to participate in the fest.

So went to the new, improved pizza fest after a two year hiatus. My main reason was to see Berlin, one of my favorite bands from the 80’s. They were quite good and deserve 5 stars. The pizza part of festival? Only had 3 choices in pizza. Enough said.

I stayed for roughly about an hour, partly because I was searching for where the other vendors could be for 40 minutes, the other 20 minutes I waited for Ashton Kutcher to come out and tell me I had been punked. I believe there was a remarkable 6 vendors there, three of them being a bar or pub that makes pizza for the drunken masses.
For a city that has basically reinvented pizza, the pizza fest is a complete waste of time. They all basically had pepperoni, cheese, and one special pizza. The only vendor that looked awesome was pronto za and that one had a line of about 90 people hoping to get one slice of goodness among that absolute garbage that was being served.
Next time I want to have a pizza fest I’ll order three different pizzas from Dominoes down the street and save the effort of walking to that lame festival.

Completely horrible is exactly it. Only 4 or 5 vendors, and only the calamari and beer were good. Long lines and pizza that looked mediocre at best. There were also few random vendors and carnival games, but not very festive.

What kind of Pizza Fest has 4 vendors?! We live in CHICAGO!!! THERE ARE TONS OF PIZZA PLACES!!! WTF!!!
The lines for pizza were outrageous (b/​c two vendors, half of them, ran out of pizza) and they were very mediocre.
This sucked.
The best part of this was the pineapple drink vendors… awesomely refreshing.

I fell into the same trap other reviewers did thinking «oh, last year was the first year, this year will be much better!»
No. It wasn’t. There was sort of pizza. And it was sort of a festival. But it was NOT a Pizza Fest. I took out of town friends there and they were so disappointed we left after 15 minutes with tickets still left in our pockets.
So sad… this could be such a COOL and FUN event, but it was not.

I“m going to agree with the other reviewers. Now, I’m an avid street fest-​goer. Rib fest is my favorite. Chicago does ribs damn well. So the concept of Pizza fest sounds amazing. However, the concept of how amazing this could be did not come to fruition.
I tried to give them a bit of credit… last year WAS the first time they tried out Pizza fest. It was a flop. So, I figured that, perhaps, they got their act together this year. There were a couple more vendors than last year… but I hadn’t heard of any of the pizza places. Where were my favorite places like Pie Hole, My Pie, Piece, Santullos??? I was disappointed. It’s doubtful that I’ll give it a round 3 next year. I don’t want to be let down again.
It really is a great concept though…

I’ll just echo what was said. Friends and I got there around 7ish. I
First I went to one booth. They were fresh out of pizza.
Then we got on another line. I decided to hop over get a root beer float while we waited. They were out of ice cream… and their pizza pretzels.
We got to the front of the line we waited on. They were out of pizza.
We got on another line. Got to the front. They were out of cheese pizza. None of us eat pork. Guess what the other option was?
Not making this up. What a waste. I got two slices out of it and both were bad (who uses a sweet sauce on pizza?)

I was going to give the 2008 event a review, but Megan G. said exactly everything I wanted to say. One of the beers was good. All of the pizza was bad, and none of it was worth the long parking-​lot wait. And the 5 bucks to get in? Not worth even a penny of it.
Pizza fest? Do it right or don’t do it at all. Chances are slim I’ll give it another shot next year.

Completely horrible — I read the bad reviews from 2007 before going to Pizza Fest yesterday but figured the organizers probably learned something from last year’s problems. They didn’t — it was exactly the same situation the 2007 reviewers described all over again.
There was a $ 5 «suggested donation» to get in (that we shouldn’t have paid) and only four or five pizza vendors. Just like everyone said happened last year, my friend and I got in line for Red Ivy pizza, waited 20 minutes in line, and then they ran out of pizza and told us it would be a 20 – 25 minute wait until more pizza arrived. Red Ivy pizza didn’t even look that great, so we bailed and went over to another line. We waited in that line for 20 minutes, and then they ran out of pizza, too. At this point more pizza had arrived for Red Ivy, but the line was probably another 20 minutes long. By then, I was hungry, cranky and just wanted to blow our food tickets (yes, tickets — so you’re committed to spending money, even if you can’t actually get any food) and leave. We wound up getting still partially frozen and not very good pizza pretzels from Goose Island.
In addition, this festival is very small (just a parking lot) and there’s nothing going on but the super long, slow moving, and ultimately fruitless lines for you to wait in. Total waste of time and money.

Psssst! Pizza Fest. Yeah you. It was a BAD idea to schedule your debut on a weekend of the Taste. Also it was a really BAD idea to have only three types of pizzas. Three? That does not constitute a «fest». No, sir.
I showed up to meet my friends around 6:30-ish on Saturday. They had purchased tons of tickets thinking they were going to shovel down many many different types pizza. Instead, they ended up giving their tickets to me and I got some free beer. The beer tent was organized and efficient so that was a plus. The music was bad, bad, BAD. Don’t put sleeper music on at night — that’s when things should be rockin’.
All in all, not so bad for a regular Chicago summer street fest, but a pizza fest? That’s just false advertising.

Did they really have the nerve to call this Pizza Fest? In the city of Chicago? I’m surprised the organizers weren’t run out of town.
My wife and I showed up around 6:30pm on the first night, each paying our $ 5 donation, bought $ 10 worth of tickets, and made our way through the walkway of festival vendors selling jewelry, artwork, etc. When we got to the main festival area (an asphalt parking lot), we were stunned to see the size of the lines awaiting pizza. However, more shocking was that there were only three lines (not counting small lines for Goose Island and a piña colada stand). Surely, this couldn’t be right! We scanned the festival area, and sure enough there were three pizza vendors.
We got in line for the Caponies Trattoria booth. The line was extremely slow moving. How long does it take to exchange tickets for pizza? After thirty minutes, we reached the front of the booth only to be told that the only pizza left was sausage. My wife didn’t want meat so we left and headed over to the Vinci booth only to find them already packing things up due to running out of pizza (the festival went on until 10pm).
So, we now only had one option, Red Ivy. We got in line and slowly made our way to the front, only to be halted for what seemed like forever. What was the delay, you ask? We had to wait while the restaurant delivered more pizzas to the festival. That’s right. The pizza wasn’t even made on location. So over an hour at the festival, we finally get a slice of pizza at Pizza Fest. Was it good? Yes, but defiantly not worth everything we went through to get it.
Another problem other than the lack of vendors was the lack of pizza options. There were no representation of Chicago deep dish, pan, or stuffed to be found. And the only varieties being sold were pepperoni, sausage, and cheese. Lame.
The only reason that Pizza Fest is getting any rating other than one star from me is for the entertainment. The headliner for Friday night was Over the Rhine, who put on a great show and was the saving grace of the evening.
If this festival wishes to become an annual event, there’s going to have to be a serious rethinking of what Pizza Fest should be. First hint: Nothing like the first one!

The pizza fest website said 20 different pizza places and each slice was $ 1. There was only three pizza places, one place there pizza was $ 2 a slice and the other one was $ 4. $ 4 for a slice a pizza, no way!
Next year if they do a Pizza Fest again it better live up the the ‘fest’ part.