Beloved Iowa Food Festival Won’t Be Going On This Year

Some sad news for Iowa foodies.

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For the past six years, a festival has been celebrating all things cheesy, crusty, and saucy in Iowa. Pizza Fest in the District brought together pizza lovers, vendors, and chefs to Des Moines for one day in Ankeny.

Pizza and food vendors from all over the state would come together for a day of pizza tasting and fun activities. Also, each year there has been contests where experts and event attendees voted on some of their favorite pizzas.

It's become a major achievement to be awarded the coveted Pizza Fest pizza peel. Usually this event takes place in June, and it seemed like there was radio silence from the organizers of the event.

At the end of March, we finally heard from the team behind the Ankeny pizza festival.

Due to other events coming to that area of Ankeny, Pizza Fest will not be back this summer. The official ruling is that the organizers are "taking a break" from the event.

Des Moines officials will be bringing in a concert series event that will occur four times throughout the summer.

"We have had a lot of questions surrounding 2023 Pizza Fest, so we wanted to let you know we are taking a break from Pizza Fest to bring new events to The District."

Read the full statement from the organizers down below!

An eatery in Cedar Falls was even crowned one of the best pizza places in the state two years in a row. Read more about this pizza place here and how they've been repeatedly named one of the best spots in the state for the food staple.

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