The 8th Annual Cisco TX Pie Fest opens downtown at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17. That same hour, the judges start on the contest pies, and they keep at it until 1 p.m. The pies that compete for the $1,000 grand prize don't go on sale until 1:45 p.m., and you buy them a few blocks from the 40-foot buffet everybody talks about. Pie Fest really has two separate pie supplies running on two separate clocks. If you want both kinds, plan your Saturday around that later hour.
The buffet starts at 10, and the contest pies are being judged
The buffet is inside the historic Conrad Hilton Center at 309 Conrad Hilton Blvd., and the organizers bill it as a 40-foot pie buffet. The Eventeny ticket page lists a single piece at an $8 base price and all-you-can-eat at a $15 base price, with fees and taxes on top. We didn't find a separate general-admission ticket on that menu.
The buffet has relied on home bakers before. In October 2025, the Cisco Press section of Eastland County Today ran a call from Cisco Strong asking volunteers to bake pies for the buffet. We haven't seen a 2026 version of that call with drop-off times. If you're thinking about baking for the buffet this year, check with the organizers directly before you go by last year's instructions.
The contest runs on its own track. According to the official contest rules, entries come in four categories:
- Cream: the filling is cooked on the stove and poured into a precooked crust
- Fruit: the filling is mostly fruit
- Nut: the filling is mostly nuts
- Custard: the filling is poured into the crust and baked in the oven
Every entry has to be scratch-made, crust included. Each one comes in as two identical pies in disposable 9-inch pans with plastic lids, along with the recipe for both filling and crust. The first entry costs $15 and each additional entry costs $10. Each category pays $100, $75 and $50, and one of the four first-place pies takes the $1,000 grand prize.
Where the contest pies end up
The rules include a line that changes how the afternoon works. Every pie submitted becomes Cisco Strong's property, and it's sold or auctioned to support the group's mission. With two identical pies required for every entry, each baker who signs up puts at least two scratch pies into that afternoon sale.
All of that pie goes through Wildflowers Florist at 702 Conrad Hilton Blvd. Bakers drop off entries there on Friday, Oct. 16, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., or Saturday from 8 to 10 a.m. The shop also has pans and lids available from Oct. 12 through Oct. 16, or bakers can buy their own. At 1:45 p.m., the pies come back out of the same shop. Here's how the contest side of Saturday runs:
| Time | What happens | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 8 to 10 a.m. | Last window for contest drop-off | Wildflowers Florist, 702 Conrad Hilton Blvd. |
| 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Judging | Judges only |
| 1:30 p.m. | Awards ceremony | The Pavilion |
| 1:45 p.m. | Auction of the winning pies | The Pavilion |
| 1:45 p.m. | Slices of the winning pies on sale | Wildflowers Florist |
| 1:45 p.m. | Whole pies on sale | Wildflowers Florist |
At 1:45, three things happen at once in two places. If you want to bid on a winner, be at the Pavilion. If you want a slice of a winning pie or a whole pie to take home, be at Wildflowers. A household that splits up can cover both. Questions about the contest go to Amy O'Brien Glenn at 254-629-2222, the contact listed in the rules.
Filling the morning around that hour
With the contest pies out of reach until early afternoon, most of the other scheduled events land in the morning.
The pie-eating contest starts at 11:30 a.m. on the Legacy Park Stage. Entry is $10 and open to ages 16 and up, with a parent or guardian signature for anyone under 18. Contestants get five minutes and can't use their hands or utensils. First place pays $400, second pays $200 and third pays $100. First place in the pie-eating contest pays four times what a category winner gets in the baking contest.
The Cisco Chamber of Commerce car show runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. alongside Pie Fest. The festival map calls it the Big Dam Car Show. Cars start setting up at 8 a.m., and the check-in deadline is 10. It wraps up about 15 minutes after the contest pies go on sale, so you can catch both.
The festival map puts these elsewhere around downtown:
- Vendor booths around Joe Wheatley Circle and other downtown spots. The 2026 roster includes Barnyard Kettle Corn, Alexander Forge, 4L Engraving, Beaty Cattle Company and Bees & Biscuits.
- Food booths at the Pavilion, with food trucks near Legacy Park and along Conrad Hilton Boulevard.
- A kids' area with bounce houses and face painting, plus pie-in-the-face at the Legacy Park Stage.
Parking isn't assigned. The organizers list spots along Conrad Hilton Boulevard, behind Prosperity Bank, on the side streets, by Legacy Park, and in a lot on East 7th. If you're working around the 1:45 crowd, the boulevard spaces are closest to Wildflowers and the Pavilion. The East 7th lot gives you a way out that doesn't go through the middle of the festival. In 2023 the Abilene Reporter-News described cars lining nearby streets and a crowd in the hundreds.
We couldn't find a readable 2026 Saturday music lineup. The schedule on the festival site is posted as images, so check ciscotxpiefest.com before you head over if you want to know who's on stage.
Friday night is a different kind of pie
The festival starts the night before with a chicken pot pie dinner at the Conrad Hilton Center, Friday, Oct. 16, from 5 to 7 p.m. The ticket covers chicken pot pie, salad, dessert and a drink. Eventeny lists Stephen and Sheree Kline in the same time slot. Cisco Strong's sponsor packages describe it as the Chicken Pot Pie Dinner with live music. Contest entries can be dropped at Wildflowers until 6 p.m. that evening, so the Friday dinner overlaps with bakers bringing in their pies.
The building has its own story. The Cisco Chamber says Conrad Hilton came to Cisco in 1919 to buy a bank, stayed at the Mobley Hotel instead, saw how full the oil boom kept it, and bought it from Henry Langford Mobley. The chamber calls it the world's first Hilton. The museum inside has free admission. It covers Hilton's life and Cisco and Eastland County history, and it includes a display on Cisco's "world's largest swimming pool." The chamber lists hours as weekdays 9 a.m. to noon and Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. No Saturday hours are listed, so don't count on the exhibits being open during the festival.
Where the 1:45 money goes
Cisco Strong describes itself as a civic group of neighbors, friends and business owners. It supports projects that revitalize, restore and beautify the town. The group's 2026 sponsorship application set a $30,000 fundraising goal for this year's festival and listed projects it has already finished.
- The Triangle Project at Front and W. 8th streets, which included construction, landscaping, lighting, and setting the bronze Lobo sculpture on its pedestal
- Pecan trees for the Old Zoo Nature Trails and Cisco Dam area
- Little Free Libraries at both town parks, which the group bought and maintains
- Donations to Cisco SAFE toward its projects at Legacy Park
The fourth item connects back to Saturday, since the pie-eating contest and the stage are at Legacy Park, which the festival's money has helped build. Every contest pie bought at 1:45, plus the buffet tickets and sponsorships, goes toward that same list of projects.
The festival hasn't always been in October. When the Reporter-News previewed it in 2019, it was the third annual Pie Fest and was set for June 14 and 15. The baking contest had drawn 28 entries the year before. The $1,000 grand prize hasn't changed since then.
Downtown stops between the buffet and the sale
Conrad Hilton Boulevard is a good place to spend the time between a morning buffet plate and the afternoon sale. The Cisco Chamber member directory lists these businesses on or near the festival route:
- Blue Duck Italian Kitchen, 507 Conrad Hilton Blvd., which serves pizza, pasta, bruschetta and wine
- Broken X Winery, 516 Conrad Hilton Blvd.
- Bluebonnet Social, 709 Conrad Hilton Blvd.
- Log Cabin Collectibles & Custom Framing, 619 Conrad Hilton Blvd.
- Hip Chick Boutique, Too, 704 Conrad Hilton Blvd.
- JT Ranch Quilt Shop, 706 Conrad Hilton Blvd.
- The Open Door Store, 1001 Conrad Hilton Blvd.
For something besides pie on the way in, the directory lists Early Donuts II at 1002 Conrad Hilton Blvd. and Cisco Donuts at 1104 W. 8th. After the festival closes at 5, Muddy Mike's at 100 W. 10th is open until midnight on Saturdays, with the kitchen serving until 10. The directory listings aren't dated, so call ahead if you're planning around a particular shop being open on a festival Saturday.
The rest of October downtown
Downtown Cisco has one more October date. The chamber's 2026 calendar sets Halloween hours downtown from 4 to 6 p.m. on Oct. 31, followed by trick-or-treating in neighborhoods from 6 to 8. In Eastland, the chamber calendar lists a Ghostly Legends Tour on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 7 to 10 p.m. Boo! In the Garden is at Grimes Garden Pavilion on Oct. 31, starting at 5:30 p.m. and running until the treats are gone. The Ghostly Legends listing doesn't give a starting point yet, so check the Eastland Chamber closer to the date.
Ridge and Dutch Taylor sell land across Eastland County, and Saturdays like Pie Fest are part of what that land is close to. If you'd like to talk over a tract near Cisco or Lake Cisco, or anywhere else in the county, Ridge Tex Realty is a phone call away. Contact Us.
