Those who enjoy suffering—or watching others suffer—should prepare for the Pinellas Pepper Fest on April 4-5 at England Brothers Bandshell Park located at 5010 81st Ave. in Pinellas Park.
The fiery fest is filled with contests bound to make you cry. Suck on a lollipop measuring 2 million Scoville units (for reference, a ghost pepper is about 1 million) in the Lolly-lick-a-thon. Enter the jalapeño pepper eating contest, or, if you don’t want to cry into a basket of peppers, enter your homemade hot sauce or salsa into the amateur contests.
If you want to avoid peppers altogether, the frozen t-shirt or favorite vendor competitions might be up your alley, but will make you equally uncomfortable.
Local musicians Dual Exhaust are set to play on Saturday, and The Crackerbillys are on deck for Sunday. Admission for the pet and family-friendly event will set you back $3, but kids 12 and under are free. The festival runs 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m.–4 p.m. on Sunday.
Follow @cl_tampabay on Twitter to get the most up-to-date news + views. Subscribe to our newsletter, too.
Related Stories
Next month’s 16th annual Pinellas Pepper Fest includes a jalepeño eating contest and spicy lollipop lick-a-thon
This article appears in Mar 5-12, 2020.
