diff --git a/src/config.rs b/src/config.rs
index 56129407..c7fce635 100644
--- a/src/config.rs
+++ b/src/config.rs
@@ -298,6 +298,9 @@ pub struct General {
     pub admin_username: String,
     pub admin_password: String,
 
+    #[serde(default = "General::default_validate_config")]
+    pub validate_config: bool,
+
     // Support for auth query
     pub auth_query: Option<String>,
     pub auth_query_user: Option<String>,
@@ -367,6 +370,10 @@ impl General {
     pub fn default_idle_client_in_transaction_timeout() -> u64 {
         0
     }
+
+    pub fn default_validate_config() -> bool {
+        true
+    }
 }
 
 impl Default for General {
@@ -402,6 +409,7 @@ impl Default for General {
             auth_query_user: None,
             auth_query_password: None,
             server_lifetime: 1000 * 3600 * 24, // 24 hours,
+            validate_config: true,
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/pool.rs b/src/pool.rs
index 2fd380ce..27ff8616 100644
--- a/src/pool.rs
+++ b/src/pool.rs
@@ -459,10 +459,12 @@ impl ConnectionPool {
                 // Connect to the servers to make sure pool configuration is valid
                 // before setting it globally.
                 // Do this async and somewhere else, we don't have to wait here.
-                let mut validate_pool = pool.clone();
-                tokio::task::spawn(async move {
-                    let _ = validate_pool.validate().await;
-                });
+                if config.general.validate_config {
+                    let mut validate_pool = pool.clone();
+                    tokio::task::spawn(async move {
+                        let _ = validate_pool.validate().await;
+                    });
+                }
 
                 // There is one pool per database/user pair.
                 new_pools.insert(PoolIdentifier::new(pool_name, &user.username), pool);