Seattle’s pumpkin-beer season is getting an early calendar entry, with Elysian Brewing’s Great Pumpkin Beer Festival returning to Capitol Hill for a one-day bash this fall. The 22nd annual event is set for Saturday, October 3, and tickets go on sale Wednesday.
More Than 60 Pumpkin Beers Pour Into Capitol Hill
The festival will run from 4 to 10 p.m. at Elysian’s Capitol Hill brewery, where more than 60 pumpkin and fall-harvest beers from Elysian and guest breweries are expected to be poured. According to Elysian Brewing, the 21-and-over event will also include music, food options, a costume contest and a pumpkin pie-eating contest.
The centerpiece remains the festival’s famously oversized pumpkin keg: a several-hundred-pound pumpkin that is carved, scorched, filled with beer, sealed and conditioned before being tapped at the event. It is, essentially, a very large gourd with a very specific job description.
Festival Returns To Its Original Home After Seattle Center Years
The Great Pumpkin Beer Festival began as a small Capitol Hill event featuring four Elysian pumpkin beers and four guest breweries before growing beyond the brewpub and moving to Seattle Center. FOX 13 Seattle reports that the festival now draws about 6,000 pumpkin-beer drinkers on average each year.
The event returned to Elysian’s original Capitol Hill location in 2025, and organizers are keeping it there for this year’s edition. The brewery says tickets have sold out in past years, so the single-day format may make the ticket window feel a little more competitive than a casual stroll through the seasonal aisle.
When And Where To Get Tickets
Tickets become available Wednesday through Elysian Brewing’s website, roughly two months before the festival. The event will take over the brewery at 1221 E Pike St. and portions of nearby 13th Avenue and Pike Street, according to the brewery’s event listing.
For those who would rather sample the season from the couch, Elysian’s pumpkin variety pack featuring Night Owl, Punkuccino and Great Pumpkin is also back on store shelves, FOX 13 Seattle notes.
