No wieners crowned: Bockfest canceling 2023 Sausage Queen pageant 🌭

Bockfest will return to Cincinnati next month, albeit without one key ingredient: the Sausage Queen pageant.

"We're taking a year off from doing Sausage Queen," Steve Hampton, executive director of the Brewery District Community Urban Redevelopment Corp., which puts on a number of Bockfest events, confirmed to The Enquirer.

Hampton said the nonprofit group was pressed for time to set up the popular pageant and lacked key organizers for the event.

"We made a later decision to go forward with the festival ‒ with the increase in costs and everything, we didn't have a firm go-ahead until much later than in the past. So, we haven't had as much time to pull together some of those outside events," he said. "Some of our folks who have helped organize it in the past weren't able to do it this year, so it was a combination of those two things."

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Preliminary rounds for the gender-neutral pageant are a big part of the lead-up to Bockfest, which, this year, will be held March 3-5 in Over-the-Rhine's Brewery District. Entrants are judged on personality, presence and talent, and the crowned queen traditionally helps lead the Bockfest Parade.

Hampton says organizers are aiming to bring the pageant back next year.

"We love the event. It's obviously a big part of Bockfest," he said. "Hopefully we'll be able to bring it back next year."

Some former Sausage Queen royalty are working to resurrect the pageant in time for this year's Bockfest. The Enquirer will update this story once details are confirmed.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati's Bockfest canceling 2023 Sausage Queen pageant