Buy your tickets to The Long Island Pizza Festival

If you’re into pizza, you’ll want to mark your calendar for Sept. 19, the date of the second annual Long Island Pizza Festival. You’ll also want to click on thelongislandpizzafestival.com as soon as you've determined that you're free.

Last year’s maiden voyage, at Mill Dam Park in Huntington, was such a success that organizers Frank Antonetti, Corey Gluckstal and JB Woodworth have upped the ante for 2026: The event will move to the outdoor plaza at the Nassau Coliseum. While they expected about 1,000 people in 2025, more than 2,500 showed up. This year, they will sell 7,000 tickets, and Antonetti expects to sell out.

"It’s not just about the space," Antonetti explained. "We don’t want to overload our pizzerias, and we don’t want it just to be lines everywhere."

In Mill Dam Park, 20 pizzerias set up shop around a central dining tent. Guests roamed from table to table, sampling all the styles available on Long Island — classic New York and Sicilian, Neapolitan, Roman, Detroit, combos thereof and twists theron. At Nassau Coliseum there will be 30 purveyors, from Americano of Syosset to Zozo’s on the Bay of Bayville. Among others filling in the alphabet are Dario’s of West Hempstead, Donatina of Patchogue, Dough & Co. of Huntington and Oyster Bay, Galleria of Merrick, Grotta di Fuoco of Long Beach, King Umberto of Elmont, Onion Tree of Sea Cliff and Tori T’s of Malverne.

Antonetti is working with event sponsor Marra Forni to see that every pizzeria has an oven comparable to its "home" oven. In that respect, the pizza trucks slated to attend — Serpico’s Bread Co., Our Pizza, Pizza Passeggio, Pizza by Tano — may have an easier time of it.

There will be two tasting sessions (noon to 3 p.m. and 4 to 7 p.m.) and a $75 ticket entitles the bearer to unlimited pizza during one session. (It’s $25 for kids under 12 and free for kids 5 and under.) Holders of VIP tickets ($250) can eat their fill throughout both sessions, and repair to a VIP area where they will enjoy VIP experiences yet to be finalized.

Throughout the day there will be pizza seminars and demos, a vendor village, crafts for kids and live music. At 7 p.m., Michael DelGuidice (Billy Joel band stalwart and a performer in his own right) will cap the day’s activities with a set.

Parking is not included, nor are the various beverage options. Last year there was only beer and wine; this year there will also be liquor, including Aperol spritzes and negronis.