Hot fun in the summertime

The Austin Chronicle's 15th Annual Hot Sauce Festival offers a chance for people to challenge the taste buds and brave the heat. This free event always occurs during the hottest time of year, August. Vendors and hot sauce extraordinaire encourage attendees to sample their new recipes and products in hopes for a vote.

Mike Harris attends the event every year, and said, "The hot and sweaty is about probably the negative part of it, but you have so much fun just mixing and mingling with everybody, tasting some good hot sauce. I mean, after a while, you know, it's hot, but you drink you a cold soda, and you're good to go!"

Participants were encouraged to donate canned goods to the Capital Area Food Bank. This year they collected 17,556 pounds of food and $5,500.57, which equals a total of 41,548 meals. Last year, in 2004, they raised 19,589 pounds and $4,450.00.

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Produced by Domenique Bellavia