Chilli Fiesta to be red hot at Wharf Green

WE have all played the friendship card to guilt trip our meekest chums into doing us a ‘small’ favour.

Some are coerced into house-sitting while the unluckiest are bullied into hauling a grand piano up 10 flights of stairs.

A first-rate friend, Alexander Mustang was summarily drafted in to put on a chilli fiesta all by his lonesome, with a looming deadline as his only guideline.

Five years on he is the founder of Chilli Fest UK, one of the fastest growing food festival businesses in the nation — all in the name of camaraderie.

“It originally started out as a favour to help a friend who is events co-ordinator for Adur Council in Sussex,” says Alexander, 47.

“We were just having a casual chat and he basically asked me if I had any ideas to lift the local economy and bring people in. He didn’t just want another food festival.

“I had been to a few chilli festivals so I suggested that. He turned around and said, ‘You do it!’.

“I had never organised any events. I am a designer. He asked me to come up with a blueprint for the event. He fixed the date for a year later in July 2011.”

And so he plodded on. Thankfully his zeal for chilli festivals meant he had built a rather meaty address book of traders, many of whom he enlisted as exhibitors for the chilli fiesta.

“I’ve always liked a challenge,” he adds.

“The idea was that it had to be about chilli and nothing else. We wouldn’t have ice cream or fizzy drinks — that wasn’t the point.

“It took about three months to plan. I kept coming up with ideas and scrapping them. We had to have things people couldn’t buy in shops. It had to be unique. And Chilli Fest UK was born.”

The fiesta came and went and Alexander put the whole events planning malarkey out his mind, until out of curiosity he logged into the Facebook profile he had created to promote the event.

The page had been inundated with friend requests and hundreds of comments eagerly inquiring about the date and venue of his next festival.

“The event was explosive — we had so much fun. About 2,500 people came over a weekend. But it was a one-off for me.

“Two months later I went on Facebook to see what was happening with the page. It was exploding, people were trying to add me as a friend.

“My friend at the council had credited me with the whole event and word got through to other councils. After that they started ringing me up asking me to do another festival. I scrapped the word ‘no’ from my vocabulary.

“This is our fifth year and we have 16 festivals planned across the country.”

The format for the Chilli Fiesta has remained virtually unchanged since 2011, with an average of 15 exhibitors at each event.

So far 13 chilli producers and caterers have been confirmed for the second Awesome Swindon Chilli Fiesta including Wiltshire Chilli Farm, Cider Shack, Thunder Road hot sauces, Chilli Direct and Mr Vikki’s.

There is one new development, however. As well as founder and organiser, Alexander has now added trader to his teasingly diverse CV.

In 2014, he launched his range of hot Indian sauces Naga Masala along with his chef mother Aunty Jee, who has been a fixture at food festivals for numerous years.

Unusually for a food events company, Chilli Fest UK is a non-profit organisation. Admission to the fiesta is also free.

“I only do it because I love it and it’s a way to create an economy for small chilli producers. It’s about community and not filling our pockets.

“Chilli is becoming trendy and people like a bit of heat but chilli producers are very small and they wouldn’t be able to reach as far as they have in the last five years without this.

“All the products we have can’t be found in stores, they are unique and extremely tasty. That’s what makes us different.

“I wanted to keep it simple, family orientated. It’s feels like a big house party.”

In line with his original mission statement, the chilli content of every product sold is heavily scrutinised. If it is not chilli-based it simply won’t be on offer.

“We don’t even have water,” laughs Alexander.

“It’s only about chilli. If I can say no to water, you see how serious this chilli event is.

"We’ve got chilli cheese, jams and sauces, chilli beer and cider, even a guy who specialises in chilli art.”

Again this year daredevils will be challenged to climb the Scoville Scale by sampling the world’s hottest chillies at a scorching competition.

“We want people to come and test their limits,” he says mischievously. “They suffer excruciatingly. It’s a pleasure to watch.”

The Awesome Swindon Chilli Fiesta 2015 will take place at Wharf Green on Saturday, July 18, from 10am to 5pm. Entry is free.

To find out more go to www.chillifest.net