GIGS & EVENTS

CHILLI FEST
A weekend of Cajun & Creole music & food

The Marquee, Custom House Square
£3 (or 2 adults for £5) – children free if accompanied

• Jambalaya, gumbo stew, chilli prawns, chilli stew and fried green tomatoes – try our many food events including food tasting, cookery demonstrations, Chilli Cook-off, Hot Chilli Eating Contest

• Cajun Café serving authentic hot Cajun food all weekend

• Gourmet Beer Bar serving Staropramen, Leffe and Becks Vier

• Food stalls selling chilli plants, fresh and dried chillies, chilli sauces, chilli jams, chilli bread, chilli dips, chilli chips and a hundred other chilli products

• Live Cajun music all afternoon from our Band-in-Residence, the Pine Leaf Boys, the hottest young firebrands right outta Louisiana

• Saturday night Cajun Party with the undisputed Kings of Cajun, Grammy nominated Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys

French and French-Canadian immigrants arrived in rural southern Louisiana between 1765 and 1785 and colonised an area now known as Acadiana. The Acadians integrated with settlers from other origins to create a people, and a culture, known as Cajun – a derivative of the word Acadian. Two and a half centuries later, Cajun culture is flourishing, with its French language, regional cooking style, and the distinctive fiddle-accordion sound of Cajun music.

In the same area African-Americans integrated with other cultures to create a cultural, musical and culinary variation known as Creole.

Open House Festival has teamed up with local food connoisseurs, International Kitchen, key suppliers of the finest and funkiest foods to restaurants and delis all over Ireland. International Kitchen will be bringing a whole range of specialist foods to ChilliFest, as well as inviting the UK’s leading chilli growers and producers to Belfast to let you taste their hot offerings.

Come and hang out at ChilliFest, and let Cajun and Creole food, music and culture warm your bones and heal your soul. The perfect antidote to the autumn blues.