Weekend of Fire
When: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. July 31, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Oscar Event Center at Jungle Jim’s, 5440 Dixie Highway, Fairfield
Cost: $7 each day. Call (513) 674-6000
FAIRFIELD — Some like it hot and some sweat when the heat is on — in their mouths.
That’s what’s in store for those who attend Jungle Jim’s annual Weekend of Fire, which offers all the hot sauces visitors can stand, and then some. It runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 31, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1, at the Oscar Event Center next to Jungle Jim’s at 5440 Dixie Highway.
In this sixth year of the event, organizers have added several eating contests to see just how much heat their palettes can handle, said Debby Hartinger, promotions manager.
The contests run as follows;
• 1 p.m. Saturday — Hot Horseradish Eating Contest: Each contestant in this contest will be given an equal amount of horseradish on 10 slices of Wisconsin Bratwurst.
• 2 p.m. Saturday — Peanut Butter & Jelly Eating Contest: It’s the jelly that’s hot here.
• 3 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday — Hot Ice Cream: No, this is not melted ice cream, but ice cream with spices.
• 4 p.m. Saturday — Hot Cracker Eating Contest featuring Texas Fire Crackers; no beverages are allowed.
• 5 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday — The Hot Lollipop Eating Contest judges which contestants can suck down the hottest hard candy.
• 7 p.m. Saturday, Defcon Death Match Wings Eating Contest — No hot food showcase can be complete without wings. Sign up at Defcon’s booth on Saturday by 4 p.m.
• 1 p.m. Sunday — The Bugsicle eating contest is for anyone who has ever wondered how many licks it takes to get to the creepy-crawly center of a bug pop. Contestants will be given a Hot Lix Insect Sucker and 10 minutes to get to the bug inside, which might be “a larvae or a cricket that I know of,” Hartinger said.
Also new this year are the best in show awards that rate the best hot sauce, the best salsa and the best barbecue sauce; these will be given out at 4 p.m. Sunday.
Along with all the contests are more than 75 vendors of multitudes of hot foods that range from chilli peppers to jalapeños to mustards and marinades. The event got its start when “one of the guys in international foods was a hot sauce specialist and had 400 hot sauces,” said Hartinger.
The event attracted about 1,000 people in its first year, then that number increased to 3,000 in more recent years.
“It keeps growing as it keeps going,” Hartinger said.
Of course, one must have a lot of liquids to wash all that heat down, and the Weekend of Fire offers pop, water and beer.
When asked how much beverages are sold, Hartinger said, “I have no idea.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.
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