NEWS PHOTO MO CRANKER
Robbie Burns member Sean Wentzel hands out a scoop of chili Saturday, July 20, 2019 during the downtown Chili Cookoff.
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@MHNmocranker
For the 30th consecutive year, Medicine Hat’s downtown was taken over Saturday by chili lovers for the annual Chili Cookoff.
The event began at noon and it brought thousands downtown to enjoy the Hat’s best chili.
“30 years is a big deal for us so we’ve amped things up a little bit this year,” said CCDA operations manager Robin Anton. “We brought back the Best Booth category and we’re giving out free drinks from Hell’s Basement with every bowl that’s purchased.
“It’s just a really fun afternoon and I know a lot of families look forward to this every year.”
Awards were given out for the best traditional chili, best salsa, best pub or restaurant and for the best booth of the day – there’s also a peoples’ choice winner.
The day featured a total of five salsas and 18 chilies for people to try throughout the afternoon.
“We do this because we get a lot of people downtown and because the people love it,” said Anton. “It’s important for us to get people downtown and to remind everyone how great it is down here.”
Anton said he could not put a hard number on how many people were downtown, but guessed around 3,000 would pass through at some point in the day – a number that is in line with previous years. Anton added that it is always a good turnout at the event.
