2nd Oxfordshire Chilli Festival

Chilli Fest
The 2nd Chilli Festival took place on Abingdon Market Place today – organised by Dawn.
Chilli Fest
Colourful people were there to entertain with dance and music.
Chilli Fest
Giant Paellas, Thai curries, Indian curries, and many other dishes could be tried.
Chilli Fest
Then there were stalls offering chilli plants, chilli peppers, chilli oils, sauces, pickles and jams to sample and buy.
Chilli Fest
Could chilli be the elixir of life? The Chilli Alchemist seems to thinks so.

32 thoughts on “2nd Oxfordshire Chilli Festival

  1. Hester

    It was great to see so many people enjoying themselves in the Market Place – and probably many of them who don’t normally come here. Let’s hope they had a great time and come back.

    The various festivals we have in town do seem to go well – congratulations to Dawn for organising this one – let’s hope other enterprising groups follow her example.

    PS next up is Dragon Boat Day – 6 September then Heritage Weekend 12/13 September: watch out for ruffians, rozzers – and rats – around the Town Centre! Plus lots of fun and interesting places to see.

    Reply
  2. colinb

    Rather amusing names of Chilli sauces/pastes on one stall. Seemed to be a competition who has brewed the hottest combination. I like Chillies, but hot ones would make me ill.
    Last time I tasted something called Volcano-, I couldn’t taste anything for a few days, taste buds & pallet.

    Reply
  3. Captainkaos2

    Organised by Dawn ? According to Hesters earlier post its the Choose Abingdon Partnership who are due the credit for this event along with Yea Baby etc !

    Reply
  4. Rachel

    CaptainK no, it was the amazing Dawn who got this event off the ground and why it was so good! She is a star.

    CHAPS don’t organise this kind of thing and also lack Dawn’s tenacity and media savviness to make things work!

    Reply
  5. Iain

    Great idea – lets use a nice article about a positive event in the town to criticise something that King doesnt like – typical!

    Reply
  6. Janet

    There are not so many ways that men can prove themselves in today’s society. I worked with mainly male colleagues. They all used to go off to chilli festivals and events and the Alpha Male was the one who could partake of the hottest chilli. At work they all used to boast as to who this was. However, there were consequences to this contest. I was told about a male college who eat a meal consisting of the hottest chillies and got in his car to drive to the coast. Halfway there he was seized by the desire to get to the nearest toilet and he said he only just made it. His advice when eating very hot chillies was not to leave the house!

    Reply
  7. Daniel

    …Janet, I can’t believe you have managed to conflate the happy article about chillifest with such a negative issue about the lack of public toilets.

    Please….sweetness and light, remember.

    Meanwhile…is anyone else excited!? The new crossing on Marcham road is well underway. We are merely days away now from no more traffic on Drayton Rd, Ock Street etc. Just days….

    Reply
  8. Dawn

    Thank you to everyone who has supported the chilli festival, and thank you for your kind comments. The festival is tremendous fun, and it was great to see the market place so busy.We hope to be back in 2016!

    Reply
  9. Captainkaos2

    Dawn you did a fabulous job, well done, perhaps you ought to put yourself forward as market place co-ordinator ? Abingdon certainly needs someone to organise events there, while your doing that perhaps you could attend to the town council web site whose events page ended in May ! Nothing listed for June, July or Agust so I guess those three months have been canceled ? At least I expect that’s what our tourists think !

    Reply
  10. Hester

    Captain K – the calendar only shows future events not past ones, so I wouldn’t expect June and July to be there! There are quite a few showing for the last few days in August and loads for September: thankfully the tourists are more likely to see the calendar itself rather than your misinformation but it would be better not to mislead the loyal readers of this blog!

    Reply
  11. Margaret

    So lovely to see so much activity in the Market Square…any news on what is happening to all the empty shops?

    Reply
  12. Captainkaos2

    Hester it’s amazing the power this blog has ! Three times, twice on Friday and once on Saturday I checked the town council web site events page and all three times it was historic, only showing up until May of this year ? The reason I checked was to see why Porto loos had been placed in Rye Meadow?
    Margaret, here’s a thing, if you check the Vales planning web site for June and July there are planning applications on to convert various town business premises into no less than 50 appartments and that’s not counting the 50 or so going to old Thames water building nor the dozen or so in Withy Kings, (and most with no parking)why? Simple, Lack of footfall and town centre
    vitality. Why? Simple, we don’t make enough of our river. Our tourists, our market place, etc etc

    Reply
  13. Greasy Lake

    Residential units in the town centre without car parking can be a positive sign of the town’s vitality, good environmentally, good to help sustain public transport provision, and good for people who need homes but don’t have cars.

    Reply
  14. Daniel

    How so? On what basis is it a sign of vitality? By what measure?

    I disagree with your other points. I accept, in some circumstances those points may stand….but in Abingdon the absolutely do not. We are (again) being taken for mugs that’s their sales patter!

    Meanwhile…only a few more days to go now before we can tick off another issue…. Marcham Rd crossing – South Abingdon traffic…SORTED!

    Reply
  15. Greasy Lake

    Ok, so you don’t like the idea of people living on the edge of town who will generate traffic, or the idea of people living in the centre of town who won’t generate traffic. What ideas do you like?

    Reply
  16. Captainkaos2

    Greasy Lake. That begs the question, when does a town centre cease to be a T.C and become a dormitory instead? Those businesses that have (and indeed are) turning their business premis into residential because they’re victims of declining footfall and low vitality, I saw a footfall comparison about five years ago between Abongdon & Wantage, they were the same but Wantage had a third less population!

    Reply
  17. Daniel

    …I’ll have a think and come back to you.

    I’m not sure I “don’t want people living on the edge of town generating traffic”. I’m fairly convinced now that cars are here to stay. How successive powers that be have managed the issue is what bothers me.

    I’m not fussed about people living in town -with or without cars. But…see above. Likewise, I’m uncertain that a residential carless town centre implies a vibrant centre…in Abingdon’s case at least. That was your implication. I disagree with it.

    Our issues (in or out of town) are not uncommon. Are not a surprise and certainly are not insurmountable. How our councils continually fail to address them; year on year; that is the let down.

    So…here’s my idea, and one I like, how about the people who are tasked with resolving the issues….do something about them?

    Reply
  18. Cassandra

    Since we are talking about Town Centre footfall/empty shops etc does anyone know what is happening with the former Card Shop/Thornton’s? I passed the unit today and there appeared to be some activity inside….a new tenant coming or are they just stripping it out?

    Reply
  19. Hester

    Last thing I heard was that it was going to be part of the restaurant in the “old New Look” unit – but that may be out of date info..

    Reply
  20. Captainkaos2

    Word on the street is the company going in there will not committ until they have obtained an alcohol licence? Also word is one of the three new restaurants in the old gaol has been let to a Thai restaurant chain who apart from excellent food also specialise in Thai tapas in a wine bar as part of the business ,
    One more, much has been said/written about the 170 houses on the Drayton rd, but no mention of the 70 houses being built half a mile fiery hi along the road on the outskirts of Drayton? That’s a almost another 250 households about to use the Drayton rd !

    Reply
  21. Captainkaos2

    Ha ha, but will it be finished in time for school? Here you go with another thought. When the new crossing is installed why doesn’t Larkmead school open up their rear entrance so pupils can use the new crossing, but instead of squeezing along the narrow pavement in spring road or dice with death on the same they could go along to the police station and along Copenhagen drive ?
    Surely that’s a safer route for all ?

    Reply
  22. Daniel

    …the best traffic consultancy people in the country (were busy), and no expense had been spent, to explore the best traffic improvement measures available. Ignoring those, we have this solution.

    I am quite certain, with all that in mind, an obvious benchmark – the schools going back, is something we can be confident they haven’t overlooked…

    Reply
  23. Hester

    Sorry Daniel, I was replying to Capt K who would know – but for those who don’t, he is the Head Teacher of Larkmead – and therefore the person best placed to make it happen! I always think it is worth making points (whether constructive suggestions like this, or complaints) directly to the person responsible.

    Reply
  24. Daniel

    Thank you for clarifying Hester.

    Out of interest though…would I be the only person thinking that such an idea/thought/suggestion would have been part and parcel of the project/consultation for the crossings in the first place?

    Reply
  25. Captainkaos2

    Hester, done that! It must be years or more that 3 children on their way to school were killed on our roads. Insensed at this I decided to get involved. I met with Chris (who I know) and gave him thoughts which was for each school to nominate a coordinator (teacher or governor) they would, through parents and pupils, nominate 2 danger points on their route to school, then I would work with OCC. etc and address the problems, putting crossings, speed limits etc, the response was good and we had 2 meetings at Larkmead with representatives from each school, but like most good ideas from grass roots politicians got involved and claimed the idea as their own, it got political and was more about scoring points than the job in hand, I left and soon after it folded! I did suggest opening up the other entrance to Chris but he said he didn’t have the resources to police two entrances !

    Reply

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