Big Green Truck Pizza Feeds 4,525 People to Take World Record
Months into a marketing campaign to promote the Connecticut pizza industry, the city of New Haven broke a world record for the largest pizza party. The 10th annual Apizza Feast hosted 4,525 people for the Sept. 12 event, according to organizers. The Apizza Feast is held in conjunction with the New Haven Grand Prix, a twilight cycling event.
Pizza was provided by Big Green Truck Pizza, which operates a fleet of mobile pizzerias in Connecticut. All told, the company made 625 18-inch New Haven-style pizzas totaling 10,000 slices.
Courtesy of Big Green Truck Pizza
Big Green Truck Pizza owner Liane Varipapa Page credits her staff with “doing the hard stuff” while she served slices to party-goers. “We had 26 staff members making pizza,” Page says, adding that it took six trucks and two trailers to pull off the record-breaking feat. “My team worked diligently and relentlessly, not only while there but days ahead of time on logistics, timing and counts.”
Page adds that the trucks were never behind, calling them, “a well-oiled machine.”
“There was no conflict, and everyone had a smile on their face, which was all I asked of them,” Page says. “It was surreal. I cannot praise my crew enough! Being part of the Guinness Book is just fascinating!”
The previous record was set in January 2023 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the World Pizza Champions and Andolini’s Restaurant Group fed 3,357 people.
Thomas Bradford, an adjudicator for Guinness World Records, certified the New Haven event, which was organized by Colin Caplan, founder of Taste of New Haven. Bradford confirmed that Apizza Feast attendance bested the previous record holder by 1,168, declaring, “Congratulations, New Haven! You’re officially amazing!”
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker was quick to praise the city for coming together to set a new world record.
“New Haven has once again demonstrated its pizza supremacy, and why the Elm City is the pizza capital of the country and the world,” Elicker said in a statement. “With 4,525 pizza party participants, the love for pizza and New Haven was literally palpable and on clear display. It was truly a magical, one-of-a-kind New Haven night. New Haven ah-beetz simply can’t be beat!”
