Op-ed: Boston Pizza Fest Is Not Worth The Hype
Boston’s Pizza Fest, canceled for the last three years, has made its way back and bigger than ever. On a bright and sunny weekend, people from all over the country made their way to Boston to try the best pizza the city had to offer. But from our perspective, we found that Pizza Fest hit like most birthday parties thrown for children under 5:
Good Intentions… Poor Execution.
From the get go, the event was seemingly organized. With tickets available for pre-sale and news teams at the ready, the event was ready for the masses…on paper, that is.
Walking up to the Fest at half eleven, the lines were already pretty long. Half an hour of waiting just to get in was not too bad when the line was moving, but on the hottest day of June, any stand-still felt like eternity. (Shout out to the couple from Ohio celebrating their anniversary that shared their story in line with us!)
The closer we got to the front, the closer we got to the ovens and the anticipation grew. And like getting to the front of a theme park line, getting up to the ticket tables put us among the hot, hungry, and irritated patrons battling to get through the last leg of their journey to salvation.
But after the ticket was purchased, the anticipated pizza-y salvation was far from delivered.
The Fest itself was just as repetitive, frustrating, and disappointing as the ticket buying experience. From one line to the next, patrons would wait for mediocre pizza hoping for a slice that really blows them away, just to be disappointed by a lukewarm ghost of a cheese slice. And due to the overcrowding, once you got your slice, you would be trampled by people trying to get in or out, with no space to even shove your pizza prize down your pie hole (pun intended).
Forgetting the crowds, and going back to basic needs—with all the heat and salty pizza goodness, you are bound to get thirsty. Don’t worry, Pizza Fest has you covered. Your options are: a $4.00 water bottle, $6.00 lemonade, or a $12.00 cocktail in a can. But hey, if you don’t want to pay through the nose, then be prepared for a dehydration fueled heat stroke. And, for us, that’s where the exhaustion set in.
After an hour and a half, we were pizzaed out and had to call it quits.
As we made our way to the exits, we noticed a few things: t-shirts were gone, it was progressively getting hotter, vendors were running low or running out completely, and the line had quadrupled in length while security simultaneously stopped allowing entrance. And the event still had six hours to go.
Our Verdict: A Great One Time Fling
Like that date from last weekend: fun for a first goer but, would we have done it again? Probably not. Out of ten slices of pizza, we found one (a pesto and goat cheese slice) that we felt was worth it. And with all of the crowds pushing and yelling to get through, eating and drinking our way through the Fest was not as enjoyable as walking through the beautiful North End to find our favorite pizzas in their natural habitats.
