Hammajack Heat Co Created and Hosted Pittsburgh's First Ever Hot Sauce Festival & We're Doing it Again in 2026!
We have really enjoyed the hot sauce festivals that we have attended in other city's. We couldn't believe when we realized that Pittsburgh doesn't have such a festival! Pittsburgh has SO MANY different festivals for all types of food and beverage. Why not hot sauce??? So we created one!
The inaugural “Pittsburgh’s Rivers Of Fire” was on Saturday, October 4, 2025 in the South Side of Pittsburgh at Velum Fermentation! It went better than ANYONE expected!
Velum is a large, fun brewery in the South Side of Pittsburgh. In addition to what we offer as part of the festival, Velum be provides their beer and non-alcoholic beverages. Their in-house food truck, Cold Friends Kitchen, is also there in addition to other food vendors that participate in the festival.
1) We host have many local and not-so-local small batch craft hot sauce makers, who pride themselves in their craft.
2) There is plenty of food to purchase to accompany hot sauce sampling.
3) The feature competition will AGAIN be a League of Fire hot pepper eating contest! (This was a HUGE hit among festival-goers!)
4) Bring a swim suit or change of clothes that can get wet, and cool off in a tub of ice provided by Pittsburgh Tub Club to benefit the local charity "Animal Friends for Veterans." Or take the full "Fire and Ice" challenge and eat a hot pepper then get an ice bath to double the donation to Animal Friends and Veterans!
5) An aerialist provides entertainment in the air, including a brief period of offering hot sauce samples from the air 😳 as well as a fire show!
6) Watch "Pittsburgh's Hot Talk" (our version of “Hot Ones”) where a local podcaster conducts the interviews. (Interviewees in 2025 included Alex of www.AlexEatsTooMuch.com, local comedian Blair Grillz, and Fungi Flows - local freestyle rapper who broke the Guiness World record for free-style rapping for 50 hours straight.)
A DJ and a large room full of pinball machines, pool tables and air hockey will also provide entertainment!
Every Yinzer who loves hot sauce (or just great flavor!) will want to be there!!!
