I am organizing a list for the bloggers going to the Jungle Jim’s International Market Weekend of Fire show. The show dates are July 31st-August 1st. If I haven’t been told by you of your desire to go to the show, please email me the names of the people coming in your group. Even children. At the front door lobby, you will pick up your passes for the show by just mentioning your name. This will get you a pass for both Saturday and Sunday. I need to get this information by Sunday to present the list to them on Monday.
There will be some changes at the show, and I will cover them in a future post, but I wanted to let you know of some of the things going on. The Defcon Deathmatch Championship will be held at 6pm after the show is over on Saturday July 31st. The show will be held at the new Arena of Fire which is the upstairs lobby area as you walk up the stairs to the show. The Blogger’s Booth will also be out there this year, so I believe we should have a good view of all the happenings. We had been inside the show across from CaJohn’s booth the last 2 years, but they wanted to make room for more vendors, hence the move.
The Arena of Fire will showcase several contests for the chilehead in all of us. I am proud to announce that ILIS has joined up with 2 vendors to be award sponsors for 2 great contests. First on the list of fiery contests, at 2pm Saturday will be Patter Fam’s Spicy PB & J Sammich Stackdown. This will be what I believe to be the first ever spicy peanutbutter and jelly sandwich eating contest of it’s kind. Using Patter Fam’s Berry Hot Jelly and some kicked up peanutbutter as well, contestants will be given a stack of sammiches and have a time limit to eat as much as they can down to the plate. Their Berry Hot Jelly is not your average jelly, it is way hot, so expect this challenge to be about endurance, heat and speed. The prize will be some Patter Fam sauces and some swag which should includes a hat and shirt, plus our unique award.
The second contest will also be about eating, but not pure volume, no! It will be about the heat for sure. I introduce you to the Heartbreaking Dawns’ Ghost Pepper Brownie Brawl Buster! 3 timed rounds, 3 hotter than hell jolokia pepper brownies, each hotter than the last, and if 2 or more people survive that, then the sudden death round will be just that. You will be amazed by the prizes that they will be putting up for this contest, which also includes their new collectible that will be made available on September 10th. You will receive a certificate for the #10/100 bottle from that collection, some of their products, plus our sweet and spicy award.
With the ILIS sponsorship, I have ordered 2 awards for each event that I think will be cool to have on your spicy mantel if you are the champion of either contest. The Weekend of Fire show was the first ever fiery food event that I have ever attended, so the show means a lot to me. Mostly because I get a chance to see many familiar faces, and meet some new ones that previously were just blogmates. I am proud to be able to sponsor these events, and I hope some of you worthy folk will attempt to take home the prizes. There is limited spots open, but I have been given permission to reserve your spot in advance if you want to be a contestant in either or both of the contests. Just post your desire to enter. The seating might be as little as 10 or as much as 20, so anyone past the 10th spot does not get a guaranteed spot.
There is yet one more contest being designed just for the bloggers from CaJohn. The name is yet to be announced and so are the prizes. If any of you have ever seen Hell’s Kitchen, then you will be familiar with their annual blind taste test. Ramsey feeds each chef a piece of food, while blindfolded and headphones are used to block out any sound. Each chef has to guess what they are eating. Often they are wrong. Well CaJohn will be doing a chilehead version of that, but not looking to torture anyone with heat, otherwise it will kill our tastebuds for other food. We will be trying to get representatives from all the blogs to participate. This will happen sometime Saturday afternoon. If you wish to be a part of that as well, please say so as well. I do not know how much room we will have for this event as well. CaJohn is still ironing out the details, but I expect it to be a hoot for sure.
Also as a reminder, CaJohn will be having his annual Open House at his new factory on Monday starting at 10am to whenever. This is something you should not miss, especially if you have not seen the new warehouse they just moved into a few months ago. Chef Steve will be serving some of his fine spicy cuisine to all who attend, plus their will be tours of the whole facility including the Buddah closet. 
The address for CaJohn Fiery Foods is:
816 Green Crest Drive in Westerville, Ohio 43081
There are a lot of other events as well spread out throughout the Weekend of Fire, plus our annual after show dinner at Pappadeux’s restaurant down the road Sunday. So make sure you have your tongue and tummy ready for battle. I think this may well be the hottest most fun Weekend of Fire event to date. I look forward to seeing many of you there.
Tags: free, Jungle Jim's, Weekend of Fire
I can’t wait for this year! I’m glad the bloggers booth got moved instead of nixed altogether. It would have been cool to be in our usual spot but I understand the need to get more vendors in there.
There will also be no charity drives going on at the booth this year, so no obligation to put your time in at the booth.
Hey, I’m the only one who gets to call him Eddie!
Who are you getting the passes from at Jungle Jims Buddah?
Clint,
I am creating the list for a contact at the show. They will have the list at the front entrance and passes will be giving out then after you mention your name. Interested? Just email me at Buddah@ILoveItSpicy.com.
Can you get any Ludacris tickets?
I just skimmed through what Buddah wrote above. Isn’t one of the prerequisites to getting a free pass that you help “man” (which basically means “hang out” but is also there to help out if necessary with the contests or whatever) the Bloggers Booth, even if it’s for a half hour one of the two days? I’ve been on vacation for the past week and I’m still catching up on things, and wasn’t sure if things had changed. I just want to make sure that a casual website visitor who has no history with any of our blogs doesn’t think he or she can grab the passes and then ignore us.
One of the reasons we had to man the booth was because we had to sell stuff for the charity drive. I was just told the other day that we have no charity at the table. So if one of our bloggers sees this, then I am all for putting them on the list. Not all bloggers write stuff, some just read and observe.
Yup, I recently heard from Debby regarding the lack of selling charity items. That’s why I said they could hang out but also be there to help out if necessary with the contests, answer questions from passers-by (according to the WOF website), etc. I mentioned nothing of selling charity items.
Just because someone “reads and observes” a website doesn’t make them a blogger. I have people at my work that read my blog, but does that make them one of my bloggers? Of course not.
For this case of WOF, I would broaden the definition not only to be reviewers but contributors and regular commentors to one of the prominent chile blogs past or present; in other words, an active member of our greater online community. I just don’t think it should be open to any Joe Schmoe who’s never left a comment or anything, and who moseys on by this website and thinks that he can get free tickets for him and his family, that’s all.
I am not in a position to say who is a joe or a schmoe. I do not know all the people from all the blogs that post. I see a few on yours that I never heard of ever. The list isn’t big, and the only person I heard from that I wasn’t sure about is in the chileheads group.
Should I delete or edit this post or my Chileheads group invite? I am trying to get people to the show. People that go to the show more than likely will buy stuff. That is more important to me than whether they support a multi-million dollar supermarket with a $5 pledge or spend time talking about blogs with the likes of us.
I have a pounded toothache right now for the past 2 weeks, can’t sleep hardly at all, and I am not up to argue over this right now. If I did something wrong than so be it.
I have to agree with you there. We all know who the bloggers are past and present..at least I think we do. Although last year, since my son wasn’t able to attend, I brought my friend Eric from work to use his pass.
Eric manned the booth quite a bit for the salsa contest. And he really enjoyed doing so. You may remember him..I know Buddah does. I wish he was able to attend this year.
Yeah, I heard I can get some free tickets here….what’s up?
Sorry, they won’t let you in. Don’t you have like 3 or 4 restraining orders with some of the female Jungle Jim’s cashiers?
Hey, whatza guy gonna do…badda bing!
We had our designer stop by for a couple of beers on Saturday, and we designed the new Deathmatch trophy. Man, this thing is hilarious, and completely different from the previous ones!
It will look great on my shelf…hahaha!!!
I just read the blog and had to call Buddah about all the information he got wrong
First, the Death Match is at 6:00, but its during the show. The show ends at 7 Saturday.
Second, they changed the blogger’s booth location back to where it was last year. And by the way, Scott, we printed your banner. It looks great! Thanks for making it.
Friday night there will be a Vendor Meeting at 7:00. Just a meet & greet, do you have any questions, etc. The bloggers are invited to attend. Also, this will be the time Buddah does the Hell’s Kitchen type contest. It’s up to Buddah & John to plan and carry it out. I’ll send the Schedule of Events to all vendors next week when I’m sure it’s right :)
Bummer, can’t get there Friday:(
That REALLY sucks.. my ammunition to get Bill to go on Saturday. That is one he would have entered..if we went on Saturday.
so, if the Death Match is at 6:00 during the show, how are the Creator and his wife unit going to be able to pull that off. And even more so, the vendors won’t be able to leave their booths to attend it either.
Excellent point.
I didn’t even think of that because all along I thought it was after the show closed. I wonder if Jungle Jim’s is thinking some of this through. Cancel the one contest that all the bloggers were syked about, and hold the biggest contest during the event so the vendors can’t participate (some said they were) and/or can’t watch it.
Plus on top of that, some of us have been asked to give them feedback for some of the contests. Well, despite all of us giving the thumbs down on the cracker contest because of its sheer stupidity it is still happening. They are shoving eating contest after eating contest hour after hour down our throats, and I am wondering if they will get anyone signed up to do any of it.
I respectfully CANCEL the Blind Taste Test due to lack of attendance Friday night. I think it was a good idea, but there just won’t be enough of the reviewers on hand to pull it off. Your credentials are safe until another time…
That’s a shame, because I was looking forward to this contest. It’s beyond me why this was scheduled for Friday night.
Here’s something I just thought of…what if we did this during the Monday open house? I think we’ll have a decent blogger turnout there (much better than Friday), and since it won’t be an official WOF contest we wouldn’t have to worry if there were a few bumps in the process. If it goes well enough, we could work out any bugs and look into adding this to the WOF next year as a formal event.
That’s a great idea as long as the blind taste test doesn’t involve any extracts! I’ll have 6 more hours to drive home after visiting Cajohn’s digs on Monday…extract in my belly would not be wise:)~
Any reviewer could recognize extract! It’s the more subtle flavors as well as the big and bold you will have to identify. I have heard Passow is declining to enter, I wonder why that would be? We will do it at the Open House on Monday, great idea! I am naming the event The Reviewer’s Cup. Winner take all! No second or third place here. Qualifications are you must have done a review on one of the well known blogs regarding hot/spicy food, and you must be in attendance at the Open House. Watch for more info…
It’s a shame that it couldn’t happen during WOF..It is great that it will happen during the Open House!
I like it.
I was a tad curious as to why the Deathmatch was during the show, but I kind of have to go along with what they are doing. Personally, I would prefer it be just after the show, like it has always been done, as I would like manufacturers to compete if they wish to, instead of having to man their booths during the competition. We will actually have to ‘conscript’ a couple of people to man our booth during the competition, something I really didn’t want to have to do. I think I’ll give Jim a call.
Not sure if you spoke with Jim yet, but I talked to him earlier tonight. I brought up the issue of the Deathmatch, and he basically had a “let’s play it by ear” attitude on whether or not we can move the contest until after the show.
Thanks for taking up the baton for me Scott. I am just so cranky from the lack of sleep, I don’t know what I would’ve said to him if he called.
Not much else specific was said. I’ll give you a call soon.
Definitely sign me up, can’t wait to go!!!!
Mark, I am sorry the deadline has passed. I extended it longer than I was supposed to. If I can add your name later I will.
No problem, Will still be there either way.
I want to enter the brownie competition if it’s not too late!!! hopefully I am in teh first 10….
Also I think tim, Ben and I are doing the Defcon competition this year.
And the whole TorchBearer Crew are going to John’s on monday just to give a heads up.
oh and Ben wants to be in the Brownie contest as well…
Consider Ben and yourself in. You will love the heat on those brownies. You guys introducing any new products at the show?
Breaking News! Just got off the phone with Jim, the Deathmatch has been pushed to 7 o’clock on Saturday, just after the show closes (like usual)! This makes it a LOT easier on us, and any of the manufacturers that either wanted to compete or just watch.
Awesome! I am glad they came to their senses or did you use some of those Jersey connections u got over there? You talkin’ to me?
Badda Bing Badda Boom!!
Don’t steal Joe’s line.
I have actually never even seen a single episode of the Sopranos. Why the Hell do I have to watch it? I LIVE it!
This could get interesting… ;)
Excellent.
Hudd, it went into the spam filter, sorry.
alrighty then!