One of the highlights of the local foodie calendar takes place during the last weekend in August, when restaurants and home cooking enthusiasts alike will battle for top honors at the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival. This year’s festival will be held on Sunday, August 26, from 11am-5pm at Fiesta Gardens (2101 Jesse E. Segovia St, on the north bank of Lady Bird Lake, east of I-35) and will again feature hundreds of hot sauces, as well as food from the likes of Amy’s Ice Cream, Eldorado Cafe, Emojis Grilled Cheese Bar, Fork In the Road, Garbo’s Lobster Truck, and Sun Garden Shaved Ice.
There is also a full day of live music performance scheduled featuring five-time Grammy Winner Little Joe y La Familia, along with El Tule, Altamesa, and Big Wy’s Brass Band. In addition, the women of Chulita Vinyl Club ATX will be spinning records. Admission is free with a $5 cash donation to the Central Texas Food Bank, or three non-perishable food items.
From its humble beginnings as a small-scale, late summer event in 1990, the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival has grown into the largest competition of its kind, drawing as many as 10,000 people and more than 350 entries each year. Proceeds from the event are donated to the Central Texas Food Bank, and last year, those donations provided 61,000 meals in 2017 alone, with an estimated 819,000 meals overall since the festival began 28 years ago.
For more information visit the event’s official page.
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