event Austin Pepper Festival?

Eephus Man

Eephus Man

Howdy, y'all.

This is the most basic of questions regarding another chile festival. Austin already has the Chronicle's Hot Sauce Festival, and there's ZestFest in DFW in the winter, and then there's the Houston Hot Sauce Festival in the fall.

What I want to know is if it's oversaturation to plan another chile festival, centered around harvest time (date target would be mid-October), that would feature the chilies themselves (from various farms), as *well* as product, and possibly live music/contests/awards (depending on interest).

There is no other chili festival in *Austin* at that time, but I want to attract from around the state and possibly from surrounding states.

The heart of the matter are the following, and I want your answers (and additional opinions) as chiliheads:

1. Is it "too much" to do such a festival as mentioned above, in regard to saturation?

2. Would you attend, if your personal schedule allowed?

3. What would you pay to get in, if anything?

3. As a vendor/product peddler, would you attend and pay a nominal fee for a space?

4. What features would you like to see in such an event, were it to take place?

Thanks for any help, y'all. I'm weighing my options now and will be making a decision very soon one way or another.
 
well... I would DEFINITELY help out with this venture. I have the musicians if we need them. Call me and we can talk about it... 844.1317
 
Thanks for the input so far, y'all!

I'm interested to hear back from more as well. Particularly vendors, growers, etc.

I'm not going to get my feelings hurt one way or another. I just want to make sure that if we do it, it's done right. I *think* there's room for it in the region, but I'm not sure yet...
 
Honestly I'd be surprised it it wasn't a popular idea.Oh and yeah of course I'd expect to pay in to such an event too. I think Zestfest has jumped up $5 from last year (unless my memory fails me) but it's still a small cost to have a great day out and sample so many tasty treats!
 
You would probably have kind of a hard time attracting vendors from out of the general vacinity. I have been a vendor at the Houston Chronicle Fest, and let me tell you, for a 1 day event (6) hours, sales were spectacular. People come to that event to buy product.

I think your best bet would be to partner up with one of the chili associations, ICS, or CASI and make it a side event at one of there cook-offs. Chili and chiles!

If we are able to do Austin this year (Austin Chronicle), hopefully we can meet up!

Best of luck,

Sam
 
Thanks for the feedback, Sam. After thinking on it, I'm a long way from any action in this regard. Although I'd like to do some more informal events in the Austin area around harvest time. There are currently none that I am aware of.
 
Sam, I will definitely meet you and your family if you make it to the Austin Chron. festival. I looked for you last year. Be happy you weren't there, it was 112 degreesthat day and the hottest day of the year in the hottest summer ever. My daughter and I left after 2 hours, it was brutal.


Eephus man, I agree that informal seems most realistic for our area.

Mike
 
capsidadburn said:
Sam, I will definitely meet you and your family if you make it to the Austin Chron. festival. I looked for you last year. Be happy you weren't there, it was 112 degreesthat day and the hottest day of the year in the hottest summer ever. My daughter and I left after 2 hours, it was brutal.


Eephus man, I agree that informal seems most realistic for our area.

Mike
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Thanks for the input, Mike. And you nailed it, man. We lasted about 45 minutes at the festival this year. My kids were overheated, and it was just plain miserable. Dust, heat, crowds. It sucked. Sauce was good, though!

They need to move it to earlier or later in the year.
 
So what can be expected at the Austin festival apart from miserable weather conditions? A lot of vendors? I almost made the trip from Dallas last year but for some reason I thought it was a tiny affair. Is it worth the trek?
 
Ringside said:
So what can be expected at the Austin festival apart from miserable weather conditions? A lot of vendors? I almost made the trip from Dallas last year but for some reason I thought it was a tiny affair. Is it worth the trek?
Click to expand...

I'm inexperienced in the way of these festivals, but this one is a centerpiece of cafeteria-style lines to taste test satellited by booths of various sauces, implements, etc. The booths are fine, and the tasting lines are fun. But if you want to discover new stuff in the lines, good luck. They were understaffed, underinformed, and largely unmarked (maybe they were supposed to be for judging anonymously, but it was unclear).

Honestly, it was so bloody hot that it was truly hard to concentrate. There was more precipitation from perspiration than Austin had seen in months. If you like suffering, then come on down. :)

All that bitching aside, I found one badass chutney there, two really good green salsas, and one decent hot sauce.
 
In regard to true chilehead shows, it doesnt compare. It is however a very large party. It's outside in a park with live music all day. Between 13,000-15,000 people. Big taste tent in the center to sample homegrown and resturaunt sauce competitions. 350 sauce entries last year. Best Red, Best Green, and Special Variety 1st place gets a plaque or something and 2nd/3rd get a certificate. Approx 7-8 names will make an honorble mention list in the Chronicle. The Melinda's sauce people were there this year and I got a couple of their products. To me it seems a little more mainstream or no up and coming saucemaker's.

I think I would mostly be dissapointed if I drove a long way to an event like this. I have heard a lot of great things about the Houston show. Would like to go.

It is miserably hot in August and I think the show people consider that as what it should be for the Hot Sauce festival. I will always go because it's local and it's fun to enter a sauce or two.

Mike
 
We were there as vendors the year before last. It was 100 degrees with about 90% humidity. I wore the flame suit. It is a 3 piece. It was pretty hot. There were 23 vendors. Most of the vendors were local (Texas). Haggis came all the way from Australia, and we made the short trek from Washington.
 
Sam here is a link to the 2011 winners. Did not see a vendor list.

Even with the down points I think the show is unique, and that fits well in Austin.

"Short trip from Washington"?

http://www.austinchronicle.com/Market/HotSauce/
 
[sub]In reply to Eaphus's original thoughts, [/sub]

[sub]I think if you want to do an event that features the chiles and not just the sauces, you need to get in contact with the local (or not so local) growers. Get them in at the start, get them to help volunteer with the organization. [/sub]

[sub]Few things to start thinking of-[/sub]
[sub]Venue- an established place?, get a location(restaurant or business) to sponsor it?, maybe like JungleJim's event that uses their parking lot. [/sub]
[sub]Advertizing- $$$?[/sub]
[sub]facilities- if you're just going to throw some tents out in a field, accomodations need to be made for crowd "comfort"[/sub]
[sub]Security/crowd control/ticket takers-[/sub]
[sub]Fencing or traffic control if you will be charging admission[/sub]
[sub]Parking?[/sub]



[sub]A great way to get a new event going, especially one like a chile festival, is to link it to a farmers market. They have resources in place to host events and often times they are just looking for someone to jump in and say "I'll help coordinate a chile festival". They don't have time to contact the growers and get them on board, but you and others do. [/sub]

[sub]FM have insurance for events. They often have an advertising budget. They have bathroom facilities. They know what's needed for event food service permits and can streamline the process.[/sub]

[sub]Man, this sounds like fun, and it's not even going yet! [/sub]

[sub]If you can get a grower to bring in a chile roaster and roast them right there......OH YEA! BABY!~ What other things cvan you bring in that are more chile related than just hot sauce making? [/sub]

[sub]Chile eating contests, of course, maybe a salsa making contest where the contestants have to use the same basket of ingredients or a mystery ingredient, a chile-wagon race for the youngsters (our local market does a zucchini race for the kids. They take a zucchini, put wheels on it and race them down a ramp). Might work if there were some HUGE chiles. Or a chile decorating contest.[/sub]

[sub]Name-That-Pod- blind taste testing chile eating contest[/sub]

[sub]And remember to invite the onion and tomato growing factions also! [/sub]

[sub]hope this helps a little~[/sub]
[sub]SL[/sub]
 
Wow! SL, does it ever! What a fantastic idea! I'm a FM frequenter at several locations, and I think I can convince at least one of them to bite on this idea. I love it! Thank you SO much.

And I think this would be less formal than a full event, but more "legit" and possibly something to build on. I can always purchase a rider for their insurance under my DBA and work out any sponsors/booth finance situations.

Now...I wonder which FM would be the best for the event in regard to location and day of week? :)
 
I might make the trip this year.....I love Austin anyway and would make a day out of it visiting the record shops that I love!

Thanks for the info.

The Houston show would be nice too!

- Ross.
 
Cool Ringside! I bet there will a few THP'ers there this year. I know its a long way off but we should plan to meet up in a central spot. I have told the Tear's of Joy guy, Brian about THP before. Maybe meet up at his booth or something.

I spent quite alot of time at Waterloo records 15 years ago. My oldest is 14!

Mike
 
I like to visit Tears Of Joy when in Austin too. It would be good but I'm already dreading that weather! As an Englishman this heat kills me!
 
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