Hot festival at Heckers
The festival brough the chilly community together with stalls selling hot items and fun challenges.
Community members felt the heat at the Chilli Festival at Heckers Garden Centre on November 2 and 3.
During the event, attendees enjoyed a variety of food stalls and participated in several challenges, such as chilly-eating, where the winner walked away with R10 000.
According to one of the organisers, Anton Botha from Hotty Peno, the event was held to bring the chilly community together.
“Our first festival in March was such a big success and we decided to do it again,” he said.
Botha described the chilly-eating competition as unreal, explaining that the chillies used included green and red jalapeños, green serranos, green and red Thai chillies, yellow and red habaneros, yellow moruga scorpions, chocolate bhutlahs, magma reapers and Carolina reapers.
He also congratulated the winner of the competition, the 37-year-old Ernest Salzwedel.
Other competitions included chip and tequila challenges.
Crystal Rodrigues Caldeira (29) from Beyers Park said she was shocked to win the chip challenge on November 2, especially since it was her first-ever challenge.
“I love chilies, but I didn’t think I’d be able to win this competition,” she said.
Botha mentioned that they are planning to hold another festival next year, as these types of events are becoming more popular and the chilly community is growing.
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