Fall’s Zestiest Festival Returns: Chile Pepper Fiesta!
Saturday, October 2, 2010 | Noon to 6 p.m.
Release Date: August 24, 2010
One of the globe’s most ubiquitous foods will once again inspire Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s (BBG) Chile Pepper Fiesta—upcoming on Saturday, October 2, from noon to 6 p.m.—when chile-loving cultures around the world will converge at BBG with musical performances and culinary activities for the whole family. This year’s Chile Pepper Fiesta features contributions from Haiti, India, West Africa, Mexico, Algeria, Malaysia, and more. BBG’s recently opened Herb Garden will be bright with chile peppers from around the globe—including the bhut jolokia from India, the spiciest pepper in the world!The Chile Pepper Fiesta main stage will feature performances from the Grammy-nominated Boukman Eksperyans, who will fly in from Port-au-Prince to share its fusion of traditional Haitian vodou ceremonial and folkloric music with rock and reggae. The main stage will also feature Mandingo Ambassadors, masters of Guinean grooves; Red Baraat!, a boisterous blend of Bollywood and brass beats; and Atlas Soul, purveyors of Afro-Mediterranean funk. In the Osborne Garden, Brooklyn's own Mariachi Tapatio de Alvaro Paulino will welcome visitors to the Fiesta.
After a blockbuster debut in 2009, the Chile Chocolate Cabana will return with a suite of local chocolatiers and confectioners showing off their spicy side. Visitors exploring the cabana will also have the opportunity to judge the Brooklyn Chile Chocolate Takedown and award the champion amateur chef the People’s Choice honor in a ceremony later in the day. The Ukuladies and Dawn Drake & ZapOte will be the Chile Chocolate Cabana’s musical muses throughout the afternoon.
Elsewhere in the Garden, demos from chefs Corwin Kave (Fatty Crab, Fatty Cue) Dave Schuttenberg (Cabrito), and Karthik Kumar (Brick Lane Curry House), plus mixologist Kara Newman (author of Spice & Ice), will show visitors how to add a little heat to their eating and drinking.
Throughout the day, visitors will be dazzled by fire breathing, fire juggling and other circus-inspired feats of flame and Janie Lamson, also known as the Chile Goddess, will be on hand to answer even the toughest questions about growing peppers. And to make the day hotter, the Zagat-rated Terrace Cafe will offer a special menu of spicy food and cold beer.
Admission to Chile Pepper Fiesta is $15 for adults, $10 for students and senior citizens (65 and older) with ID, and free for children under 12 and all members. Please note that regularly free admission from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays does not apply to Chile Pepper Fiesta.
For more information on all performances and activities, please visit bbg.org/chilepepperfiesta.
Founded in 1910, Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is an independent nonprofit institution committed to education, research, and the display of horticulture. Situated on 52 acres in the heart of Brooklyn, the Garden is home to over 12,000 kinds of plants and hosts more than 725,000 visitors annually.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Garden is closed on Mondays. For directions, please visit bbg.org/visit/directions/.
Image, top of page: Antonio M. RosarioTEST