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Any chili-fests in the Midwest?

westin

westin

In the dollar menu thread, Salsa lady mentioned chili-fests... I didn't want to hijack that wonderful topic, so I thought I would post my question here.

Are there any chili related events in the mid-west? Kansas City, Springfield, Joplin, St. Louis, Tulsa, etc? I haven't come across any, but I thought someone here might know.

Just curious. :)
 
There is Zestfest in Texas, but other than that I do not believe there is one. SL put this together when another member, RS67, brought it up. This happened about 3 years ago and has been a huge success.
 
This is something that has been on my mind quite a bit in the last 6 months. Considering the fact that St. Louis is home to several hot sauce companies, Mr. Scott Roberts, and of course...me, I think it is about time to start putting one together in good ole St.Louie!

We tried to get an event going at the "Taste of St. Louis" festival a couple of years ago, but when the Board found out that we were going to have a pepper eating contest, they pulled out on us. There is definitely no shortage of venues, but I just do not have the time to put this together myself.

Scott Roberts is probably the guy to ask, I have never spoken to him personally, but he would know everyone in the area that would be able to help put one together.
 
St. Louis is a bit of a drive for me... [not too bad though... ~5 hours] - I would definitely be willing to make the trip though. Especially if it is baseball season. ;)
 
Well I would think we would want the local growers to be "in-season", which would put you smack dab in the middle of baseball season. July and August would be brutal, weather wise. Mid or late September would probably be ideal. Hopefully some of the other Mid-Westerners can chime in. I would definitely be up for helping organize such an event.
 
Y'all should do what we did, pm some locals and see what they say. Then post something bout it and get a destination in mind. Being that the first could be small, plan a day event. The NWCF is big enough we're doing a 3 day thing :party:
 
The NWCF is not really like a typical "fest" like Zest fest etc. where there are booths, vendors, etc.
We basically camp, cook, drink and stay up waaay too late. We have started alternating to each side of the Mountains,
(Eastern WA and Western WA). It's about a five hour drive either way, but a few come from as far away as Oregon, 7 hours?
A couple people will be flying in from SanFran and maybe even Atlanta. Everyone is welcome!

Someone from SoCal was talking about a monthly focus group type thing with guest speakers, etc.
Too formal for us!

If you guys just pick a spot kind of central to everyone in the vicinity that's interested, it may grow into something bigger!
I hope you guys can do something like this, it is a blast getting together and eating hot stuff. Oh yeah, and HHWISKEY!
 
http://www.scottrobertsweb.com/Jim-Campbell-Reports-on-the-Indiana-Hotluck-and-Fiery-Foods-Expo

http://www.junglejims.com/weekendoffire/

http://www.scottrobertsweb.com/Official-Open-Fields-2012-Details



All (or most anyway) are listed on ScottRoberts calendar
http://www.scottrobertsweb.com/calendar.php


And I don't wanna hear ANY WHINING about how far away they are! Scovie, CJ, ,myself, MegaSpokane, Jerret (&fam), nmorris....we all drove 5 hours or more to get to the NWCF last year.

You just need to connect with other THP members in your area. If you don't know a some, use the Search Function in the Members section, use both state names and their abbreviations as key words. Then just start sending PM's. You can link a THP together with an existing event, like meeting up with a bunch of THP-ers for dinner the night before or whatever. Or like Scovie just said...get a bunch of THP-ers who wanna camp and pick a spot.
 
Thanks for the tips everyone!

Too bad I don't camp, spending 8 months in a tent in some god forsaken desert has pretty much ruined camping for me entirely.

I definitely appreciate the link for Scott's calendar. I always seem to forget about the Wing Festival which is literally 20 minutes from us.
 
some "campgrounds" have cabins, yurts, etc...
 
Well, there is always open fields somewhere near Indianapolis in the fall, but the format sounds a lot like the NWCF.
 
I'm browsing the forum after some time away, so I don't know if this has been brought up yet. Check out www.zestfestmidwest.com
 
Thanks for the info... That would be a bit more than a 10 hour drive from where I live... but we will see. ;)
 
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