The festival showcases "all thingspickled," including pickle-flavoredbeer andcocktails, pickleice cream, and other pickled foods such asdilly beans andkimchi.[2][4][5] It also features live music, children's activities, and an annualpickle juice drinking competition, the winner of which is crowned the "Mayor of Picklesburgh".[3] The festival's centerpiece is a 35-foot-long (11 m)Heinz pickleballoon.[6]
Picklesburgh was voted the "best specialtyfood festival in America" inUSA Today readers' polls in 2019, 2020, 2023, and 2025.[7][8]
The inaugural Picklesburgh festival took place on July 17 and 18, 2015, on theRachel Carson Bridge inDowntown Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania.[2] Organized by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, a non-profit organization, and sponsored primarily by Pittsburgh-basedHeinz (nowKraft Heinz), the festival was inspired by Pittsburgh's rich history ofpickling.[9][10] Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership president Jeremy Waldrup explained that pickles "speak to the ethnic, cultural history of Pittsburgh, as amelting pot forEastern European ethnic communities",[11] although numerous countries ofWestern culture with significant diasporas in the United States, likeGermany andPoland, also employ pickling in their national cuisines. According to Waldrup, the festival was also inspired by the growingfarm-to-table movement and the trend ofurban homesteading.[9]
At Picklesburgh 2016, the second annual festival held at Rachel Carson Bridge, Heinz debuted their first new pickle flavors in over 50 years.[12] The 2017 festival was held at the nearbyRoberto Clemente Bridge, where it also took place in 2018 and 2019, gradually taking up more abutting street space each year.[13][14] Having begun as a two-day festival in 2015, a three-day schedule was established in 2018,[15] although a four-day schedule was used in 2024 before returning to three days in 2025.[16][17] Picklesburgh was canceled in 2020 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, but it returned in 2021 with additional safety precautions on theAndy Warhol Bridge.[18]
In 2022, the festival returned to its original locale on the Rachel Carson Bridge, with food vendors along the neighboring 10th Street Bypass.[19] Picklesburgh 2022 drew 90,000 attendees, leading organizers to periodically close the Rachel Carson Bridge to preventovercrowding.[20] Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership director Jack Dougherty remarked, "At times, especially during our peak hours, it would get very crowded and just kind of become a little uncomfortable for everyone in attendance."[21]
In response, for its 2023 installment, the festival was relocated to a larger venue occupying three blocks of theBoulevard of the Allies betweenStanwix Street and Smithfield Street, and alongMarket Street intoPPG Place.[6] Even with its larger location, Picklesburgh 2023 still saw enormous shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, with attendance more than doubling to 200,000 visitors.[22] Amid mid-summer heat and huge crowds, 16 attendees were hospitalized due toheat exhaustion and other ailments.[23]
Contestants prepare for the pickle juice drinking competition at Picklesburgh 2022
Since its founding in 2015, every Picklesburgh festival has featured apickle juice drinking competition as its headline event.[24] In the competition, contestants race to drink aquart-sizedjar of pickle juice without regurgitating, spilling, or leaving any juice in the jar.[10][24] The winner is dubbed the "Mayor of Picklesburgh" and receives a belt and a $500 cash prize, as of 2023.[10][25]
The 2023 champion and reigning "Mayor of Picklesburgh" is Pittsburgh native Dan Koba, who drank the jar of pickle juice in 7 seconds.[24] The all-time record was set at Picklesburgh 2022, whenWisconsin-basedTikTok content creator Jalen Franko won the competition by drinking the quart of juice in 4.5 seconds.[26]
^abcSheridan, Patricia (July 23, 2023)."A brine time in Picklesburgh".Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.Archived from the original on November 1, 2023. RetrievedNovember 1, 2023.
