With stalls selling spicy chilli sauces, beers, cocktails and wines, chilli donuts and chilli chutneys, Araluen’s 2018 Chilli Festival is probably right in predicting it will be the hottest place in Perth when it opens next month.
Returning on February 3-4 after an eight-year absence from the region, the Araluen Botanic Park has promised the festival will offer the hottest food and drinks money can buy.
With more than 65 stalls expected over two days, organisers and event regulars said they were keen to see the finest chilli-added products for visitors to sample.
Thorny Devil Craft Beer & Cider brewery operator Peter McAppion said he was excited to get to the Chilli Festival’s home ground in the Perth hills.
Mr McAppion admitted when he was first asked to make a chilli-infused beer years ago he was a little sceptical of what seemed like a gimmick, but he is now fully into infusion drinks.
“We’ve got a chilli wheat beer which we’re in the process of fine-tuning for the event,” he said.
“We’re experimenting, but we’ll probably use the Carolina Reaper, the hottest chilli in the world.
“We also have the chilli ginger and lime cider, a straight apple cider, a pomegranate cider, a pale ale, a passionfruit India pale, a summer ale and a dark ale.”
Over the weekend Thorny Devil brewery will have its stall with other boutique brewers at the Forest Deck within the venue, and Mr McAppion said free samples of the wheat beer would be available when mentioning this article.
Araluen Botanic Park spokesperson Tenielle Doutre said they were hoping to sell at least 4000 tickets to the event and hoped an online-only ticket sale was not going to hurt the event’s popularity.
She said the entry ticket would also cover entry to the entire park for the day.
Adult tickets to Araluen’s Chilli Festival are $22 each, plus booking fee, and can be purchased at araluenbotanicpark.com.au.
Entry for children under 18-years-old will be free of charge when accompanied by an adult.
