Peckham’s hot sauce festival is returning to ruin your taste buds
Over 40 sauce makers, chilli karaoke and frozen margaritas
If your idea of a good weekend involves voluntarily sweating through your clothes while insisting “it’s actually not that hot”, then Hot Sauce Society Festival has your name written all over it.
The annual spice-fest is returning to Copeland Park in Peckham, London, across Saturday the 9th and Sunday the 10th of May, bringing with it more than 40 independent hot sauce makers, a pile of street food, frozen margaritas and at least a few questionable life choices.
The setup is fairly simple. You wander around sampling increasingly aggressive hot sauces until you either discover a new favourite or temporarily lose the ability to taste anything at all.
Among this year’s lineup are the award-winning Big Ginger Sauce Co, Maame T's and its apparently brilliant spicy shrimp sauce, plus Makan Malaysian and the Grenadian heat specialists at Scotch Rocket.
You can taste most of the sauces neat; there will also be actual food on hand to stop the entire weekend from descending into pure capsaicin-fuelled chaos. Oh My Dog and Chick N Sours are among the traders serving up spicy and non-spicy options, depending on how badly you’ve overestimated your tolerance levels.
The thing that really sums this festival up is Chilli Karaoke. Hosted by local legends Hop Burns & Black, the event challenges people to sing while eating scotch bonnet peppers, which feels like the kind of idea that only arrives after several pints.
Saturday is the day for that particular spectacle, so if you’ve ever wanted to watch somebody attempt Hot in Here while visibly fighting for their life, that’s your window.
Elsewhere, there’ll be DJs, competitions and chilli face painting, which we’re relieved to learn does not involve actual chilli paste being applied directly to your skin.
The event runs from 11am to 6pm on Saturday and 11am to 5pm on Sunday, with tickets starting at just £5. Which feels suspiciously cheap for the amount of emotional and physical damage available inside.
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