Do you love pizza? If so, Downtown Las Cruces is the place to be on Saturday, October 14, 2023, for the inaugural Las Cruces Pizza Festival, where pizza sampling, live music, contests, a car show, and more turn the Plaza de Las Cruces into an open-air pizzeria for the entire family. Vote for your favorite local pizza and dance the night away to live music by some of your favorite local favorites: Blaze the Nation, Sweet Nadine, Satisfied, DJ Rob-E, and DJ Heyser. It’s a full night of entertainment for the pizza lover in all of us!
A Night of Fun
Your ticket gets you entry into a wonderful world of unlimited pizza sampling and beer gardens with over 240 local and regional craft beer selections. Local vendors will be on hand to offer samples of over 20 different styles of pizza. Vote for the best slice in town, take part in the dough tossing contest, play water pong and cornhole, enjoy giveaways and surprise entertainment. And for dessert, snack on churros, candy apples, cotton candy, aguas frescas, caliches, and more!
The Love Las Cruces Car Show will line Main Street from 5 – 9 p.m., featuring customs, classics, lowriders, cars, trucks, and even bikes. All donations go to support community gardens and food pantries, graffiti clean-up, trash pickup events, and Las Cruces themed murals by local artists.
The Pizza Vendors
On hand to dish out samples will be the Green Chile Paddy Wagon, offering BBQ Brisket Pizza, Brisket Pizza, and Vegan Pizza. T-Birds will also be there with samples of their FOI Pizza (ranch, chicken, pepperoni, jalapeño, American), the Gnarley Darley (pineapple, pepperoni, sausage, bell pepper, black pepper), the Cali Girl (pineapple, ham, pepperoni, mushrooms), Lil EZ ( bacon, sausage, olives, shroomz, bell pepper, anchovies), the Eazily Done (5 cheese: cheddar, provolone, pepper jack, mozzarella, muenster), and the Pizzadilla (quesadilla with red sauce, pepperoni and asadero).
Valley Pizza will also be setting up shop to hand out samples of their Pesto Deluxe, Supreme, Mediterranean, Hawaiian, Pepperoni, and Cheese. Rounding out the vendors will be Road Runner Pizza, with sample of their Pepperoni, Pepperoni Green Chili, Real Cheeseburger, Spicy Hawaiian, Peppy Pesto and Conquistador pizzas.
Entertainment
Hosted by El Paso comedian and emcee Jerry Karrnes, the Las Cruces Pizza Festival will present a full evening of live music and activities, directed from the Plaza de Las Cruces stage.
- 6 – 7 p.m. – Blaze the Nation
- 6 – 10 p.m. – Love Las Cruces Car Show on Main St.
- 6:45 p.m. – Frozen Custard Eating Contest for ages 12 and under, DJ Rob-E
- 6:50 p.m. – Kid’s Pizza Eating Contest for ages 12 and under, DJ Rob-E
- 7 – 8 p.m. – Sweet Nadine
- 7 p.m. – Teen’s Pizza Eating Contest for ages 13 – 15, DJ Rob-E
- 8 – 9 p.m. – Satisfied
- 8 p.m. – Adult Pizza Eating Contest for ages 16 to adult, DJ Rob-E
- 8:10 p.m. – Speed Box Building Competition,
- 8:30 p.m. – Pizza Dough Tossing Competition Round 1
- 9 – 10 a.m. – Sweet Nadine
- 9 p.m. – Pizza Dough Tossing Competition Round 2, DJ Rob-E
- 10 – 11:30 p.m. – Satisfied
- 10 p.m. – Best Slice Award Winner Announced, People’s Choice
- 10 p.m. – Pizza Dough Tossing Competition Round 3, DJ Rob-E
- 11:30 p.m. – 12 a.m. – DJ Heyser with Country Jams
Sponsors for the Las Cruces Pizza Festival include Party Tenders, Rad Retrocade, D2 Designs, Shaharazad Booth Law, iVee League Solar, and Hutton Broadcasting.
Tickets
General admission tickets include all access entry to live music and entertainment, one branded Las Cruces Pizza Festival Bamboo Sampling Board, unlimited photos, tented seating and unlimited pizza sampling while supplies last. All ages are welcome, but you must be 21+ to enter the beer gardens and drink. Minors 12 and under are free with legal guardian. There is also a $5 military discount at the gate.
VIP tickets include everything listed above, plus VIP line to beer gardens all night, with 1 drink ticket, VIP line to pizza vendors all night and three pizza slice tickets redeemable at any pizza vendor, a Las Cruces Pizza Festival t-shirt and other surprise Las Cruces Pizza Festival swag.
Tickets will be available at the gate, but advance ticket holders will be given preferential treatment before walk-ins if fire code occupancy is reached. Cash and credit will be accepted at the gates. There will also be ATMs available, but you are encouraged to bring your own cash to avoid the lines.
For more information, or to purchase advance tickets, visit the website.
Posted by LasCruces.com
