Beckley, WV – (WWNR) – On Saturday, a large crowd took advantage of perfect weather to come out for Beckley’s biggest event of the year.
This year’s Chili Night saw 30 vendors offer their own particular chili recipes, in addition to 25 other vendors. The annual downtown block party is hosted by Beckley Events.
“ This is the 34th annual Chili Knife here in Beckley,” said Beckley Events director Jill Moorefield. “It’s one of the fall traditions. Everybody seems to really enjoy it, and it’s just been clicking through all the years. This is the, our biggest event of the year. We normally have probably 5,000 people that come downtown. We’ve been selling over 2000 strips of tickets, and so there’s five tickets in each strip, so that’s over 10,000 samples that are given out this evening.”
The highlight of Chili Night is the chance to sample chili cooked up by area restaurants, organizations, schools, churches and businesses.
There was also live music, dancing and karaoke at the Southern Communications Booth. The Raleigh Playhouse and Theater also hosted the 1920s Art Experience with music, dance and vintage film.
Winners at this year’s Chili Night were Texas Roadhouse for best restaurant/catering; 103cir for best non-restaurant business; Raleigh County Special Olympics for best organization; Raleigh County for best schools; and Iron Order for best spicy chili, best specialty chili and the People’s Choice.
This year’s Chili Night was a special one for Jill Moorefield, as it was her final year organizing the event.
“ I’m retiring at the end of January. I’ve been here through all of them, all the way from when we started back in 1991 on the promotions committee to being the director. And it’s been a pleasure and thanks to everybody that came out and everybody that’s cooked chili through the years and volunteered and helped with us.”
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