Windsor Pizza Festival: Dates, Pizzerias, Passport & Photos

When is the next Windsor Pizza Festival?

The 2027 date has not been announced. The 2026 edition ran on the last Saturday of September (September 26) from 12 pm to 5 pm at City Hall Square, and the City of Windsor and Tourism Windsor Essex have signalled they want it to become an annual event. This page is the permanent home of the festival on WindsorPizza.ca: when the next date is confirmed it will be posted here first, along with the pizzeria lineup and the Passport rules. Below is the full recap of 2026.

Windsor Pizza Festival 2026: what it was

On Saturday, September 26, 2026, the City of Windsor, Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island and Experience Windsor turned City Hall Square into a one-day celebration of the “Pizza Capital of Canada.” Eleven pizzerias set up tents in a row along the square from noon to 5 pm, each selling a $2 Passport slice, with live music on the Windsor sign stage, a drinks tent pouring local craft beer, wine and cider, lawn games, face painting and a “Where Canada Begins” photo frame. Admission was free and the square was full from the first hour: by mid-afternoon the lines at the busiest tents ran twenty deep.

WindsorPizza.ca was there with a camera. This page is the record of who served, what the Passport looked like, and where to find every festival pizzeria the other 364 days of the year. If you want the story of the pizza itself, read what makes Windsor-style pizza different.

The eleven pizzerias

These are the pizzerias on the official festival Passport, in the order they appear on the card. Every one has its own page on WindsorPizza.ca with photos from the day.

1. Armando’s Pizza

• Style: Windsor-style, with a Detroit-style banner on the tent
• Listing: Armando’s Pizza – South Windsor (10 locations across the county)
• At the festival: The award-winning chain that took Windsor-style to the Las Vegas Pizza Expo came with its “Since 1967” branding and a Detroit-style banner, a reminder that the Cabana Road and Amherstburg stores now bake the square pan pie too.

2. Capri Pizzeria

• Style: Old-school Windsor-style, family-run since 1972
• Listing: Capri Pizza – Dougall (the original) (10 locations)
• At the festival: Balloons, a heated display case and a steady line. Capri’s Dougall Avenue store dates to about 1960, which makes it one of the oldest names in the square.

3. OG Pizza (Original Guys Pizza Pies)

• Style: Windsor-style thin crust, hand-tossed and stone-baked
• Listing: OG Pizza – Windsor (Banwell) (10 locations)
• At the festival: The only tent with a prize wheel, staffed by a crew in pink OG shirts. OG has won Best Pizza in the Best of Windsor Essex awards three years running.

4. Professor Zaaa’s Pizza

• Style: Detroit-style deep dish and an elevated Windsor-style, with a large vegan menu
• Listing: Professor Zaaa’s Pizza – Riverside
• At the festival: The Riverside independent with the cartoon-professor logo was one of the few tents serving a square pie; see our Detroit-style pizza in Windsor guide.

5. Arcata Pizzeria

• Style: Windsor-style, family owned since the early 1950s
• Listing: Arcata Pizzeria – Dougall Avenue
• At the festival: “Quality at the right price” on the banner, three generations behind the recipe. Arcata was open before Volcano shredded its first pepperoni.

6. Antonino’s Original Pizza

• Style: Textbook Windsor-style: cornmeal crust, Galati cheese, shredded pepperoni to the edge
• Listing: Antonino’s Original Pizza – South Windsor (5 locations)
• At the festival: The Ciaravino family’s pizzeria, whose recipe the company says more than 40 area pizzerias trace their roots to.

7. Spago

• Style: Thin-crust Italian from Windsor’s best-known trattoria group
• Listing: Spago – Erie Street (Little Italy) (3 locations)
• At the festival: The first tent in the row, with a chalkboard menu and staff in whites, the sit-down restaurant of the eleven.

8. Oven 360

• Style: Fast-fired, build-your-own Italian pizza
• Listing: Oven 360 – Windsor (Walker Road) (6 locations)
• At the festival: Three ovens running under the tent and “Oven 360 Express” banners for the retail pizzas now sold at Sobeys and Foodland.

9. Naples Pizza

• Style: Windsor-style, family owned since 1984
• Listing: Naples Pizza – Dougall (17 locations)
• At the festival: The most locations of any name in the square and one of the longest lines of the afternoon.

10. Slices and Squares

• Style: Specialty pizzas by the slice, now a wood-fired catering operation
• Listing: Slices and Squares – Windsor
• At the festival: The one name on the Passport without a storefront; its Seminole Street restaurant has closed and the business now caters.

11. Sam’s Pizzeria

• Style: “Windsor’s original traditional pizzas”
• Listing: Sam’s Pizzeria and Cantina – Wyandotte West
• At the festival: The west-side institution, last on the card and one of the busiest tents in the row.

The Pizza Passport

Every visitor could pick up a Passport at the Tourism Windsor Essex tent. The rules were simple: visit at least five of the eleven pizzerias, buy a $2 Passport slice at each and get a stamp, then hand the completed card in for a chance to win an Ooni Karu 12 multi-fuel outdoor pizza oven and accessories, with the winner announced at 5 pm. The card doubled as a map of Windsor pizza: eleven logos around one pie, a fair snapshot of who defines the city’s style.

Everything else in the square

A live band played in front of the WINDSOR letters at the City Hall entrance all afternoon. The drinks tent poured local beer and cider (no alcohol past the festival signs), Virgin Radio 93.9 had a flag up, the fountains ran through the crowd, and a Galati Cheese truck was parked behind the tents, which is about as Windsor as it gets. Families queued for the “Where Canada Begins” photo frame on the lawn and the “I ❤ Windsor Pizza” banner by the food truck, and the kids’ area had Connect Four, sidewalk chalk and face painting.

Where to eat the festival pizzerias tomorrow

All eleven are on the Windsor-Essex pizza map. For the city ranking, see the best pizza in Windsor guide; for each town, the Tecumseh, LaSalle, Amherstburg, Essex, Kingsville, Leamington and Lakeshore pages. If you own one of the eleven, claim your listing and the festival photos are already on your page.

Frequently asked questions

When was the Windsor Pizza Festival 2026?

Saturday, September 26, 2026, from 12 pm to 5 pm at City Hall Square in downtown Windsor, Ontario. Admission was free.

Which pizzerias were at the Windsor Pizza Festival?

Eleven: Armando’s Pizza, Capri Pizzeria, OG Pizza, Professor Zaaa’s, Arcata Pizzeria, Antonino’s Original Pizza, Spago, Oven 360, Naples Pizza, Slices and Squares and Sam’s Pizzeria.

What was the Pizza Passport?

A stamp card: buy a $2 Passport slice at five or more pizzerias, collect five stamps, and hand it in at the Tourism Windsor Essex tent to enter the draw for an Ooni Karu 12 pizza oven.

Who organized the Windsor Pizza Festival?

The City of Windsor with Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island and Experience Windsor, as part of the city’s “Pizza Capital of Canada” push.

Will there be a Windsor Pizza Festival in 2027?

Nothing has been announced. Given the turnout in 2026, we expect it to return; this page will be updated when a 2027 date is confirmed.

Why is Windsor called the Pizza Capital of Canada?

Windsor has more independent pizzerias per capita than any Canadian city and its own style, born at Volcano Pizzeria in 1957. A 2024 Postmedia poll named it Canada’s favourite pizza city. Our Windsor-style pizza guide explains the style.

Sources

• WindsorPizza.ca photographs and notes from City Hall Square, September 26, 2026
• City of Windsor, “Experience a Slice of Windsor This Weekend”; Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island festival listing; Windsor Pizza Festival Passport (printed card)
• Windsorite.ca and Biz X Magazine festival previews

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