THE OFFICIAL FESTIVAL APP
We want you to have the ULTIMATE Hot Sauce Festival experience.
Most festivals you wander the massive sea of vendors, stop at a few that catch your eye, but almost always leave with that feeling of wondering what you missed. Well not at this festival, friends. The 6th Annual Washington State Hot Sauce Festival has created a dedicated app that personalizes your entire Hot Sauce Festival experience. It learns your tastes, seeks out the specific sauces you'll love out of hundreds out there, navigates you straight to them, pings you when food trucks are running deals, and keeps the whole day organized so you don't miss a single thing. It's like having your own personal tour guide giving you all the insider tips and tricks the whole time.
If you're not here to try hot sauces, the app has a completely unique experience designed specifically for you.
To get started, scan the QR code at the gate, choose your path and add the app to your home screen. Your festival experience just got kicked up to eleven! And we guarantee you won't get any annoying spam once the festival is over.
THE HOT SAUCE SIDE
Find Your Flavor
With hundreds of sauces across 40+ booths, you could wander all day and still miss the ones you'd actually love. The app fixes that. Answer 7 quick questions, get your Hot Sauce Personality, and the app hands you a ranked list of specific sauces — by name — with a reason each one fits your taste and an interactive venue map to help you find everything.
Take the Quiz
Answer 7 quick questions — heat tolerance, flavor preferences, ingredients you love (and hate), and what you're looking for in a sauce.
Get Your Archetype
The app reveals your Hot Sauce Personality — one of 8 unique archetypes with a full-screen reveal moment. Are you a Fermentation Nerd? A Heat Seeker? A Flavor Chaser?
See Your Matches
Get a personalized list of specific sauces ranked just for you — Perfect Matches, Crossover Picks, and a Wild Card to push your palate.
Follow the Map
Every match card shows the sauce name, vendor, booth location, and a plain-language reason it fits your profile. Tap "Get Directions" and the interactive venue map pins exactly where to go.
Your Personalized Match List
Instead of just methodically going to each booth to see if they have what you're looking for, wouldn't it be cool if you already knew every booth and every sauce you were going to like? The app takes the information you provided to create your Flavor Profile and curates a list specifically for you. It's even smart enough to recommend some sauces that aren't perfect but you should definitely try. And it gives you one hidden gem — maybe something new or limited edition.
Perfect Matches
Sauces that align exactly with your flavor profile — these are your can't-miss picks.
Crossover Picks
Not a perfect match, but close enough that you'd kick yourself for skipping them.
Wild Card
One curated stretch pick — something outside your usual lane that you should absolutely try anyway.
Navigate the Festival
40 vendor booths spread across a big outdoor field can get overwhelming fast. The app has a full interactive venue map so you always know where you are and where you're headed. Tap any vendor, food truck, or landmark to get details and directions — it links straight to Apple Maps with the pin already set.
Interactive Venue Map
A tappable map of the entire festival grounds — every vendor booth, food truck spot, and landmark. Tap anything to see who's there and get directions.
Booth-by-Booth Grid
The app also has a schematic booth map organized by section — 44 booths across 8 pepper-named zones, from mild Shishito Row all the way to Scorpion Row. Find your next stop fast.
At the Booth
When you walk up to a booth, there will be a QR code specifically for that vendor. Scan it and the app instantly lets you know which of their sauces is on your list. Rate each sauce and take tasting notes like a pro — and when you do, the app logs it to your Favorites. Tell the app you bought a sauce and it remembers that too.
There's nothing worse than trying to remember what that sauce was you loved — the one you bought, finished, threw the bottle away, and now can't find anywhere. Months later you're describing it to someone: "it was kind of smoky, dark label, booth near the back..." Now you just open the app and look it up. Vendor, sauce name, your notes, whether you bought it — it's all there.
And we encourage you to visit every booth you want to, not just your matches. If a vendor doesn't have a sauce on your list, the app will still give you recommendations on what to try when you scan their QR. Talk with the vendors, get to know them. This is what the whole Washington State Hot Sauce Festival experience is about! When you're ready for your next experience, click the What's Next button and the app will get you back on your journey.
People's Choice Voting
We don't want you to just come try hot sauces, grab all your favorites and hit the road. We want to hear every detail about your choices — and tell everyone else!! Every attendee gets a vote in three categories — Best Sauce, Best Booth, and Best Artwork — and you cast all three right in the app. By the time you've tasted your way through the festival, you'll have ratings and tasting notes on every sauce you tried. The app lets you go back through your Favorites, compare them side by side, and see how your own scores stack up before you cast your vote. You're not guessing — you've got the receipts.
Best Sauce
Flavor, heat, balance — which sauce stopped you in your tracks?
Best Booth
Setup, decorations, friendliness — who brought the best overall experience?
Best Artwork
Label design, creative naming, original art — who made the best looking bottle?
Voting opens at 11 AM Saturday and closes at 3:45 PM Sunday. Winners are announced at the awards ceremony on the main stage Sunday afternoon at 4 PM.
Live Leaderboard
Want to know who's winning? The app has a live leaderboard that updates in real time as votes come in across both days. Watch the standings shift all weekend — your favorite might be leading Saturday night and in a dogfight by Sunday morning. The leaderboard is also up on the big screens around the festival so the whole crowd can follow the race. Check it obsessively. We won't judge you.
Live Vote Standings
Real-time leaderboards for all three People's Choice categories, updated live throughout the festival. Wanna see something cool? Walk up to one of the Leaderboard screens right before you cast your vote on your phone and watch your vote tallied before your eyes in real time on the Leaderboard. Follow the race all weekend and see who wins Best Sauce, Best Booth and Best Artwork. The leaderboard shuts down at 2:30 PM on Sunday. Voting closes at 3:45 PM Sunday and winners are announced at 4 PM.
Food Truck Perks All Day
The food trucks aren't just there to feed you — they're part of the in-app festival experience. Mark your favorite food trucks in the app. Throughout the day, trucks will offer limited-time discount windows. If a truck is on your list during their window, the app will send a notification straight to your phone. Purchasing food also helps you collect Merchandise Discounts throughout the day. Each purchase you earn 5%. You can earn up to 20% off your one-time purchase at the Merc Booth. This offer can't be combined with any other offer, but it is a really nice bonus you can earn for doing something you were probably already going to do anyway.
Flash Deals
Food trucks drop limited-time discount windows throughout the day. The app notifies you when a deal goes live — don't miss it.
Purchase Credits
Scan the QR code at each food truck after your purchase to earn merchandise discounts. More food purchased = bigger discount at the merch booth.
5 Trucks · 6 Menus
Grillin' Gorilla, Dawg Eat Dogs, Rainier Pizza Co., Morena's Mexican Food, and Gonzo Panini. Mason's Cheesecakes is served from inside the Grillin' Gorilla truck.
Find Your Tribe
Once you discover your archetype, see how many other attendees share your Hot Sauce Personality — live counts update throughout the festival on the app home screen and the big-screen TV displays. Rep your tribe and see which archetype takes over the fest.
Sunday Is a Big Deal
Sunday isn't just Day 1 with fewer people. We've loaded it up. People's Choice voting for Best Sauce, Best Booth and Best Artwork closes at 3:45. All the awards are handed out on the Main Stage at 4 PM. This year's new Archetype Prize Pack drawings happen Sunday too, and you must be present to win. Sunday is where it all comes together, and the app makes sure you're ready for it.
Your Day 2 Hit List
The app builds you a fresh Sunday list of everything you didn't get to on Day 1 — unvisited matches re-ranked and reframed as a "go deeper" experience. New day, new energy, new sauces to find. Plus you'll want to be there for the awards and to claim your prize if your name gets called — and you must be present to win.
PRO TIP: Did you know you can retake the quiz? Answer slightly differently and get a whole new profile for Day 2!
Win a Prize Pack
Hot Sauce fans — the app isn't just a guide, it's your ticket to winning. Complete all four steps to be automatically entered into the Archetype Prize Pack Drawing on the main stage Sunday. The prize pack includes a bottle of hot sauce from each vendor that matches that Archetype, a custom insulated growler with all the hot sauce festival vendor's stickers — including McMillin Brewhouse, which means you get a discount on future growler fills at the brewhouse. But wait, there's more — you'll also get your first growler fill free AND an official 6th Annual Washington State Hot Sauce Festival t-shirt. You must be present to win — so make sure you come back Day 2 to win these amazing Prize Packs!
Complete your Flavor Profile
Follow @McMillinFarmCollective on social
Follow each of your matched vendors on social
Cast all 3 People's Choice votes
Exclusive Early Access
Hit the Ground Running
Don't wait until festival day — download the app now, build your flavor profile, and get your personalized sauce matches before you even walk through the gate.
Get a Head Start →THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FESTIVAL
Getting dragged here by a Hot Sauce Fanatic? No worries — we've got a whole experience designed just for you.
The Washington State Hot Sauce Festival isn't just about hot sauce. There's a whole other side of this event waiting for you — food trucks, craft beer at the McMillin Farm Brewhouse, artisan vendors with things you've never seen before, and an app experience built specifically for people who didn't come here for the heat. The Unexpected Experience. Perhaps you'll be the one doing the dragging next year?
Your Festival, Your Way
When you open the app at the gate, you'll see two paths. One for those crazy people who want to burn all their taste buds, and one for the more sensible people like you. Choose your path and the app becomes your personal guide to everything the festival has to offer — no heat required.
🍕 Discover Food Trucks
Six food trucks on site serving everything from smash burgers and burritos to wood-fired pizza, paninis, and cheesecakes. The app shows you who's out there, what they're serving and how to find them.
When you get into the Food Truck section of the app, you can choose any of the food trucks that sound good or you might want to try and add them to your favorites. The Food Trucks will be offering discounts throughout the day. By adding them to your favorites list you'll receive notifications whenever one of your favorites is running a special.
And your food truck purchases give you incremental merchandise discounts up to 20% off your purchase at the Merch booth. One purchase per discount, but you can combine multiple items for bigger savings. Offer can't be combined with other offers.
🍺 Discover the Brewhouse
Ice cold craft beer at the McMillin Farm Brewhouse featuring enough choices to satisfy any beer preference. And there's Hop Water on tap for the non-alcoholic drinkers.
All beers, seltzer, hard tea and hop water are made right here on the farm. During the seasons we incorporate ingredients we grow on the farm into our beer — rhubarb, corn and pumpkins. Find the brewhouse on the interactive venue map.
🛍️ Discover Artisan Vendors
Honey aged in whiskey barrels. Freeze-dried candy. Cast iron spatulas made from repurposed skillets. Things you never knew you needed until right now. The app surfaces the artisan vendors just for you.
🎁 Hot Sauce Concierge
By far one of the coolest features of our new WASHSF app is the Hot Sauce Concierge. We're assuming you've got at least ONE pepper head in your life. This app helps you find the perfect gift for your pepper heads. Answer a few quick questions about their taste and the app builds them a personalized sauce match list. If they aren't at the festival, the app creates a link for you to send them, they pick which sauces they want and hit the button. Their picks show up automatically on your screen and the app directs you straight to the vendors selling them. Now you're knocking out birthday and Christmas shopping early!!
Keep your eyes open throughout the app. Things might not be what they seem.
THE DEATH PIZZA EATING CHALLENGE
Saturday & Sunday · 3PM · Main Stage
You think you know hot? Oh honey. This is your warning: we are on a whole new level here. And should you choose to test our resolve in this matter, you will be looking at an outcome that will have a finality that is beyond your comprehension. And you will not be counting the days or the months or the years, but millenniums, in a place with no doors.
Each single ounce of this pizza has been engineered to make you question every decision that led you to this moment. The foundation of any great pizza is the dough, and that's where we started your eventual demise. Just picking up this pizza is going to start a chain reaction when your fingers start absorbing capsaicin through your skin. Whatever you do, don't rub your eyes! The "sauce" — and we use that term loosely — is a straight-up crime against your taste buds. And you think it's made with tomatoes! HA HA HA! Maybe you're thinking that cheese looks innocent. You'll realize that too was a mistake when your eyes start to water, your nose starts to run, and your soul briefly leaves your body from the steam rising up off this pizza before you even take a bite. We highly recommend you bring some goggles and gloves, a bib and a friend to help you off stage and get you to a nearby urgent care facility.
We double dog dare ya! We didn't come here to play games.
Actually — we absolutely came here to play games. The most delicious, most painful, most spectacular game you've ever seen played on a stage in front of hundreds of people who are absolutely going to film the whole thing and post it everywhere. That's right, your Aunt Clara is going to see you dry heaving on YouTube and show that at every family birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner if you lose. If you survive this, your unborn children will be taunted by THEIR classmates on how big of a loser their dad/mom is. So put on your game face and get busy livin' or get busy dyin'.
Saturday AND Sunday. 3PM. Main Stage. Both days.
Three contestants drawn live each day. Six total warriors across the weekend. Pre-registration happens inside our festival app — pick the day(s) you'll be at the festival, sign the waiver, you're in the drawing pool. That's right, we give you the opportunity to back out if you and your buddies signed up while you were drunk at your dart league. You must be 18+ and have at least some will to live — though we admire people who are on the fence about that last part.
The crowd will be massive. Your friends will be filming. Strangers will be filming. Hell, WE will be filming. For legal purposes obviously, but also to make sure your shame is on the internet until the end of time. Your dignity is entirely optional and frankly kind of gets in the way.
To everyone who doesn't get drawn on Saturday — don't you dare think about sneaking out the back. We see you. We know what you signed up for. We will be looking for you Sunday. The list doesn't disappear just because Saturday did.
And to the person who's been reading this with that little smile on their face, thinking "maybe..." — we're even willing to create a slight breach of etiquette by skipping the triple dare and going right for the throat —
WE TRIPLE DOG DARE YA!!! 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Pre-Register in the App
Sign-up happens inside the festival app — pick which day(s) you want to be in the drawing pool, sign the waiver, you're in.
All in one place, on your phone. Takes about a minute.
🌶️ Get the Festival App18+ only. You'll sign a digital waiver in the app before your name goes in the hat.