Pittsburgh's Rivers of Fire

06/17/2026

Very excited to be a part of this lineup! Our competition on October 10 is already full, but the waitlist is still open!… to step in for those who back out😜

🏆🔥 Think you've got what it takes?

Check out our official Road to the Americas Title Belt Matches across the United States and battle your way towards championship glory. From Florida to Texas, Michigan to California, every match is a chance to earn your place on the road to the top.

🇺🇸⚔️ Thirteen official belt matches. One Americas title.

Apply now and join the competition at:

🔥 LEAGUEOFFIRE.COM 🔥

🌶️🏆

Pinellas Pepper Fest
Boston Hot Sauce Festival
Detroit Hot Sauce Festival
Heat and Harvest
Waves & Flames Pepper Fest 2026
Swla's Hot Sauce Fest
Ozark Flame & Flavor Festival
I Like it HOT! Festival
Wabash Valley Pepper Fest & Hot Sauce Expo
Blaze for the Brave
Pittsburgh's Rivers of Fire
Lone Star Mastiffs Farms

2026 Prize Sponsor - SpiceQuest
2026 Season Sponsor - Bean’s Hot Sauce Co

06/02/2026

🔥 We’re thrilled to reveal another contestant for the 31st Road to the Americas Belt Match - the Pittsburgh Title! The title returns for its second year! 🌟🌶️

Tim ‘Get Sick and Destroy’ Getzik will be joining the fiery table. Only 2 seats remain - think you got what it takes?

Apply here: https://leagueoffire.com/

📅 WHEN & WHERE
🗓 Saturday, 10 October 2026
📍 Pittsburgh's Rivers of Fire Hot Sauce Festival presented by Hammajack Sauce
📍 Velum Fermentation, 2120 Jane Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203, USA
⏰ Saturday: Noon till 7 PM (ticketed event)

🏆 WHAT’S AT STAKE?
The Pittsburgh Road Champion will:
🏅 Keep the official Championship Belt forever
🔥 Secure a guaranteed seat at the 8th Americas Title Belt Match 2027
🌎 Receive an invitation to the 4th Intercontinental Title Belt Match 2027
💰 Win the $200 SpiceQuest Cash Prize

This celebration of spice will once again crown the Pittsburgh Champion 2026! Dean Leverett captured the title in 2025 - but who rises this year? 🏆✨

Hosted by the one and only Harvest912's Tad & Kit.

🌟 WHO CAN COMPETE?
We currently have ONLY 3 spots left for daring LOF athletes from the USA, Canada, and across the Americas 🌍

⚠️ If spots remain, brave festival-goers may get the chance to walk on and compete on the day!

🎯 APPLY HERE:
🔥 https://leagueoffire.com/

🔥 FRIDAY NIGHT PREVIEW - FREE ENTRY
No hot sauce vending or bottle sales on Friday night - just a relaxed “warm-up” before Saturday’s chaos 🌶️

Enjoy:
• Craft vendors
• Trivia
• Mobile pepper-themed escape room
• Hot sauce wing samples from Cold Friends Kitchen
• Hot sauce tasting & voting for your favourites
• Meet and read about the League of Fire competitors competing on Saturday

Then Saturday turns the heat ALL the way up 🔥

🎉 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
🌶️ League of Fire Pittsburgh Belt Match 2026 - Main Event
🌶️ 22 hot sauce vendors from mild to wild
🌶️ Ice bath challenge with Nervana Health benefiting Animal Friends for Veterans
🌶️ Scavenger hunt prizes
🌶️ Fire & aerial show by Iron City Circus Arts
🌶️ “Hot Talk” live wing interview challenge by Positively Pittsburgh Podcast
🌶️ Mobile escape room
🌶️ Pinball games
🌶️ Food trucks & ice cream

💥 SPECIAL THANKS
Huge thanks to Hammajack Sauce for partnering with League of Fire to bring this incredible event to life ❤️

💰 SpiceQuest PRIZE FUND
SpiceQuest - LOF’s exclusive PRIZE SPONSOR - is backing the contest with a massive $555 prize fund:
🥇 Winner: $200
🥈 Runner-up: $75
🔥 All other competitors: $35 each

👉 https://spicequestlabs.com/

🌶️ BELT MATCH & HOT SAUCE ROUND SPONSOR
We are proud to welcome Bean’s Hot Sauce Co as both the Belt Match sponsor and one of the official hot sauce round sponsors 🔥

👉 https://beanshotsauceco.com

🔥 HOT SAUCE SPONSOR OPPORTUNITY
We are currently looking for ONE more hot sauce sponsor to test the competitors to their limits.

💌 Interested?
📧 [email protected]

🎟 SATURDAY TICKETS:
https://yinzmart.com/product/rivers-of-fire-festival-ticket/

🌶️ Facebook - Pittsburgh's Rivers of Fire
🌶️ Website - https://www.pittsburghsriversoffire.com/
🌶️ Instagram - https://instagram.com/pittsburghs.rivers.of.fire/



Hammajack Sauce Harvest912 Velum Fermentation Bean’s Hot Sauce Co SpiceQuest
Pittsburgh's Rivers of Fire

06/01/2026

Join the hot fun at Velum Fermentation Oct 10!

05/21/2026

You won’t want to miss this match Oct 10! Get your tickets now!

🗣📣 HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!

🔥 We’re thrilled to unveil the official poster for the 31st Road to the Americas Belt Match - the Pittsburgh Title! The title returns for its second year! 🌟🌶️

📅 WHEN & WHERE
🗓 Saturday, 10 October 2026
📍 Pittsburgh's Rivers of Fire Hot Sauce Festival presented by Hammajack Sauce
📍 Velum Fermentation, 2120 Jane Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203, USA
⏰ Saturday: Noon till 7 PM (ticketed event)

🏆 WHAT’S AT STAKE?
The Pittsburgh Road Champion will:
🏅 Keep the official Championship Belt forever
🔥 Secure a guaranteed seat at the 8th Americas Title Belt Match 2027
🌎 Receive an invitation to the 4th Intercontinental Title Belt Match 2027
💰 Win the $200 SpiceQuest Cash Prize

This celebration of spice will once again crown the Pittsburgh Champion 2026! Dean Leverett captured the title in 2025 - but who rises this year? 🏆✨

Hosted by the one and only Harvest912's Tad & Kit.

🌟 WHO CAN COMPETE?
We currently have ONLY 3 spots left for daring LOF athletes from the USA, Canada, and across the Americas 🌍

⚠️ If spots remain, brave festival-goers may get the chance to walk on and compete on the day!

🎯 APPLY HERE:
🔥 https://leagueoffire.com/

🔥 FRIDAY NIGHT PREVIEW - FREE ENTRY
No hot sauce vending or bottle sales on Friday night - just a relaxed “warm-up” before Saturday’s chaos 🌶️

Enjoy:
• Craft vendors
• Trivia
• Mobile pepper-themed escape room
• Hot sauce wing samples from Cold Friends Kitchen
• Hot sauce tasting & voting for your favourites
• Meet and read about the League of Fire competitors competing on Saturday

Then Saturday turns the heat ALL the way up 🔥

🎉 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
🌶️ League of Fire Pittsburgh Belt Match 2026 - Main Event
🌶️ 22 hot sauce vendors from mild to wild
🌶️ Ice bath challenge with Nervana Health benefiting Animal Friends for Veterans
🌶️ Scavenger hunt prizes
🌶️ Fire & aerial show by Iron City Circus Arts
🌶️ “Hot Talk” live wing interview challenge by Positively Pittsburgh Podcast
🌶️ Mobile escape room
🌶️ Pinball games
🌶️ Food trucks & ice cream

💥 SPECIAL THANKS
Huge thanks to Hammajack Sauce for partnering with League of Fire to bring this incredible event to life ❤️

💰 SpiceQuest PRIZE FUND
SpiceQuest - LOF’s exclusive PRIZE SPONSOR - is backing the contest with a massive $555 prize fund:
🥇 Winner: $200
🥈 Runner-up: $75
🔥 All other competitors: $35 each

👉 https://spicequestlabs.com/

🌶️ BELT MATCH & HOT SAUCE ROUND SPONSOR
We are proud to welcome Bean’s Hot Sauce Co as both the Belt Match sponsor and one of the official hot sauce round sponsors 🔥

👉 https://beanshotsauceco.com

🔥 HOT SAUCE SPONSOR OPPORTUNITY
We are currently looking for ONE more hot sauce sponsor to test the competitors to their limits.

💌 Interested?
📧 [email protected]

🎟 SATURDAY TICKETS:
https://yinzmart.com/product/rivers-of-fire-festival-ticket/

🌶️ Facebook - Pittsburgh's Rivers of Fire
🌶️ Website - https://www.pittsburghsriversoffire.com/
🌶️ Instagram - https://instagram.com/pittsburghs.rivers.of.fire/



Hammajack Sauce
Harvest912
Velum Fermentation

04/27/2026

We are slightly expanding our hot sauce festival at this year. For our 2nd annual event, we will be warming things up with a Friday night “Preview Night” before the full🔥festival on Saturday!

We plan for this warm up event to run 5 - 9 pm. The Cold Friends Kitchen food truck will be there, along with a mobile escape room, a 60 - 90 minute trivia game, hot sauce sampling (and voting!) and more! We also plan to have a vendor market featuring local makers.

If you are a local maker and can offer at least one pepper or hot sauce-themed item for sale, feel free to apply to vend at our event.

Since Instagram won’t let me share a link to the application here, DM me or comment “FORM” in the comments and I will send you a link to apply.

04/08/2026

Did you participate in our scavenger hunt last year?? Give a shout out to Masterminds - organizer of that activity! They will be back again this year with MORE than a scavenger hunt. Stay tuned for details!!!

Hello to our faithful and loyal Masterminds! (And Brian Pontzer!) We are always looking to grow and expand, and part of that is beating the Facebook Algorithm at its own game. And that means, as much as I hate to ask, I am hoping to get some reviews on our page.

So if you have been to an event held or hosted by Masterminds Entertainment , and had a good time please drop us a review! Business owners/ activity planners/ managers, The Tannery Bar & Grill, Pine Inn Restaurant & Lounge, Temerity Aleworks Ltd, The Dead Canary Brewing Company, Sandfly Brewing Company, Asylum Pro Wrestling, Pittsburgh's Rivers of Fire even food trucks like La Vita Bella Pizza and Leaping Leo’s if you could drop us a review for drawing people in for you, we would appreciate it!

If you haven't had a great experience, be it as a participant or business, please reach out and let me know what to do better! (Except you Brian, nobody cares what you have to say!)(Jk!)

Thanks all!

03/13/2026

Ok Home and Garden what is your favorite sauce?! We want to know!! Pick one of these 4! (We have more!)

02/17/2026

New this year! Competitors in the League Of Fire competitions will ALL receive a cash prize!!! Listen to this awesome message. Competitors in our Oct 10 competition will qualify for this!

01/18/2026

Another NEW addition to Pittsburgh’s Rivers of Fire this year!

We are SO EXCITED to announce that award-winning, Hot Ones-featured Black-Eyed Susan Spice Co. from Baltimore will be joining us!

Their spice blends have earned multiple food awards. Their “Red Flag” sauce was featured in the Hot Ones Season 24 lineup. In October, you can taste what they’ve got right here in Pittsburgh!

01/15/2026

🔥

ROUND 2... SPICE!!!!

We are beyond thrilled to announce that we will be returning as a vendor for the 2nd annual .rivers.of.fire created/hosted by / Hammajack Sauce !!!

We had an outstanding time at this event last year, meeting so many new people, seeing some old friends, and slinging a ton of sauce. You NEED to put this one on the calendar!!!