Pittsburgh's Rivers of Fire

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Pittsburgh's Rivers of Fire

Saturday, October 10, 2026, noon - 7 pm
Free Peeview Night Friday, Oct 9, 5 to 9 pm
In the South Side of Pittsburgh at Velum Fermentation!

Those who attended last year know what a blast it will be!!!

10/26/2026

🔥🏆THE RESULTS ARE HERE! 🏆🔥

Guests tasted, they judged. They paired hot sauce with pierogis AND vanilla ice cream and more! The following are the official winners of the 2026 Pittsburgh’s Rivers of Fire Awards!🌶️🔥

🏆🌶️THE STEEL PEPPER
Best Overall Hot Sauce
🥇 Maestro’s — Mass-terpiece
🥈 Backroads Pepper Co. — Salty Pete’s Habanero Sauce

🌉🔥 THE BRIDGE BURNER
Best Super-Hot Hot Sauce
🥇 Pepper Boy — Shipwreck
🥈 Lee’s Homemade — Festival Fire

🥟🏆 PIEROGI BOSS
Best Hot Sauce Paired with Pierogis
🥇 The Sizzle Sauce — Extra Hot Sizzle
🥈 Uncle Jammy’s — Jalapeño Pear

🍦🔥 HOT SCOOP
Best Hot Sauce Paired with Vanilla Ice Cream
🥇 Spice Beast — Sweet Stinger Sauce
🥈 Tannenbaum’s — Blueberry, Sumac & Caraway Sauce

🌶️⭐ THE SPICY STANDOUT
Best Non-Hot Sauce Spicy Item
🥇 Two Ugly Mugs — Hot Honey Salsa
🥈 Forge Fried — Piri Party Peanuts

A HUGE congratulations to all of the winners and runner-ups!👏

And thank you to every maker who entered! The creativity, flavor and serious heat you brought to Pitfsburgh surely made judging these no easy task!

if you tried any of these at the festival, tell us your favorites in the comments!👇

Maestros' Sauce Co Backroads Pepper Company Pepper Boy Pepper Co. Lee’s Homemade Zack Mazur Uncle Jammy's Sauce and Seasonings Spice Beast Tannenbaum’s Botanical Hot Sauce Two Ugly Mugs Gourmet Salsa Forge Fried

10/16/2026

MAJOR Congratulations to Jeremiah!!! WINNER OF THIS YEAR’s Pittsburgh .of.fire Belt Match!!!

this video shows the last three contestants out of 10, including two Pittsburgh locals, Andrea Contes and Mike Ladik (aka “Chili Phil” )

it was an extremely close competition. They had to resort to a speed round to eliminate contestants!!!

And of course, the Pittsburgh crowd was cheering them on all along! We love our competitions.🖤💛🌶️

Do you want to see a League of Fire hot sauce and hot pepper eating competition again next October in Pittsburgh?

10/15/2026

Reminder that you can find links to every hot sauce vendor on our website www.PittsburgsRiversOfFire.com. Just click on their logo and it will take you to their site.

Hammajack Hot Pepper Sauce Maestros' Sauce Co Two Ugly Mugs Gourmet Salsa AJUANA EAT Pepper Boy Pepper Co. Uncle Jammy's Sauce and Seasonings Sonny Rose Ranch Is It Spicy? Sauce Co. Tinkertown Provisions MASTODON Tannenbaum’s Botanical Hot Sauce Lendora's Habanero Hot Sauce Black Eyed Susan Spice Company John Skvarj Zack Mazur Lee’s Homemade Revolutionary Hot Sauce Spice Beast Andre Baptiste

10/12/2026

Check out the full article at https://triblive.com/lifestyles/food-drink/pittsburgh-hot-sauce-festival-rivers-of-fire-returns-with-more-heat-flavor-and-vendors/

10/08/2026

Slightly edited schedule for Saturday. Mainly just pushed back the first aerial show a bit.

10/08/2026

Shoutout to .of.fire for providing the pepper eating contest again that was SO popular here in Pittsburgh last year! And a HUGE shoutout to Kit & Tad of who are running the contest again this year with help from .

Many thanks to for the BEAUTIFUL trophies! And thanks for their patience in working with our many requests. 😁

Thanks to for making the fire and ice challenge possible again this year!

HUGE thanks to for being amazing to work with and super supportive! they are big supporters of the local community.

many thanks to all of the vendors who believe in us enough to participate in this event. There are too many to list here, but you can see them all with links to their website websites at www.PittsburghsRiversOfFire.com.

And of course, all of this fun stuff is made possible this year by our sponsors, including .bank

COME ON OUT TO THE PITTSBURGH’S RIVERS OF CIRE hot sauce festival this Friday & Saturday!!! Friday is free preview (hot sauce vendors will not be selling, but you can see our schedule of event events for that evening ) 5 - 9 pm & Saturday noon - 7 is the main event tix are $15 that day or $10 if you get them before Saturday.

10/06/2026

We received official confirmation that Therapets will indeed have dogs with their care givers at our festival on Saturday, representing Animal Friends for Veterans Animal Friends Official animal_friendsinc !

There will be a different dog(s) with a different caretaker each hour between 1 PM and 4 PM.

So come down to see the pups, Guinness, Quincy, Rose, Charlie, Aniko & Baxter! They will be hanging out near the ice baths with Nervana Health | 50 S 7th St, Pittsburgh, PA

You don’t need to take the fire and ice challenge to visit the pups and even make a cash donation of your own if you would like.

For each person on Saturday (as they did last year), who genuinely attempts to complete the fire and ice challenge (eat a hot pepper and get an ice bath) we will donate $20 toward animal friends for veterans. Help us our goal of $1000!

Address

2120 Jane Street
Pittsburgh, PA
15203

Website

https://www.pittsburghsriversoffire.com/

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