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Seasonal Roundup · Fall 2026

Chili Cook-Offs in October 2026: Dates by Weekend

Written by the USA Fest Bot team with AI help. · Published · Updated

A white bowl of chili con carne with ground beef and kidney beans, with a spoon resting on the rim
A bowl of chili con carne with kidney beans (not one of the events below). Photo: cyclonebill, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

October is a busy month for chili cook-offs. This guide covers 20 public cook-offs and chili festivals from October 9 through November 7, 2026, grouped by weekend, from Belleville, Illinois, and Sandy, Utah, to Tupelo, Mississippi, Huntington, West Virginia, Golden, Colorado, Madison, Georgia, and Atlanta. Some are stand-alone chili contests, and others share the day with a car show, a fall market, a beer tasting or an Oktoberfest. Each one links to its listing page and to the event’s own website.

Pick a weekend, then open the listing and the event’s website before you go. USA Fest Bot doesn’t sell tickets.

Dates can change, so check the event’s website before you go.

Weekend of October 9–11

Nine events on our list fall on this weekend, including events in Belleville, Neola and Redlands. Monday, October 12, is Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Small plates piled with long red chili peppers and green chili peppers on a market table
Red and green chili peppers for sale at a weekend market in Kuching, Malaysia (not one of the events below). Photo: Thomas Quine, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

October 16–18

Eight events on our list fall on this weekend, including events in Tupelo, Brooksville and Huntington.

Two thick slices of yellow cornbread on a white plate on a wooden table
Slices of cornbread, a common side with a bowl of chili (not one of the events below). Photo: EvanProdromou, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

October 23–25

One event on our list falls on this weekend, in Madison.

October 30 – November 1

One event on our list falls on this weekend, in Palm Springs. Halloween falls on Saturday, October 31, this year.

November 6–8

One event on our list falls on this weekend, in Atlanta.

How a chili cook-off usually works

A chili cook-off is a contest. Cooks or teams make a pot of chili, judges taste the entries and pick winners, and the public usually comes to eat, look around and cheer on the cooks. Formats vary a lot from one event to the next, so treat this as a general picture and check each event’s website for how its day runs.

At many cook-offs the judges taste the entries without knowing whose pot each one came from. Some contests follow the rules of a chili group such as the International Chili Society or the Chili Appreciation Society International, which set the categories and judging steps. Others are hometown contests run by a city, a main street group, a museum or a charity, with their own rules. Many also hold a people’s choice award, where visitors taste and vote for a favorite. If you want to taste, look on the event’s website for how tasting works that day, since some events sell tasting kits or spoons and others don’t.

Categories differ too. You may see a traditional red chili, a chili with beans, a chili verde made with green chiles, or a white chicken chili, and some cook-offs add salsa or other side contests. The listing pages don’t say which categories each event runs, so the organizer’s page is the place to check.

Cook-offs that come with something else

A lot of the cook-offs on this list are part of a bigger day out. Two pair chili with classic cars: the Cruise for Sight Car Show & Chili Cook-Off in Redlands, California (October 10), and the Palm Springs Air Museum Halloween Chili Cook-Off and Car Show (October 31). The Golden Beer Tasting & Chili Cookoff in Golden, Colorado, and the Brooksville Downtown Street Market Oktoberfest & Chili Cook-Off in Florida both fall on October 17.

Others are tied to a fall festival or market. In Henderson, Kentucky, the Fall Market on Main shares October 10 with a chili cook-off. St. Albans, West Virginia, holds its Fall Y’all Chili Cook-Off on October 17, and Madison, Georgia, holds its Chili Cook-Off & Fall Festival on October 24. Flannel Fest & Chili Cookoff in Hubertus, Wisconsin, is also on October 17. On the New Jersey shore, the North Cape May cook-off adds chowder to the chili and is a Make-A-Wish New Jersey event.

A few have a statewide or civic angle. ChiliFest in Huntington is listed as the West Virginia State Chili Championship, and the Utah Firefighter Chili Cookoff in Sandy is, as the name says, a firefighters’ contest. The last date in this guide is the Cabbagetown Chomp & Stomp in Atlanta on November 7.

Planning by region

The South has the most cook-offs on this list: Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, two in West Virginia and two in Georgia. In the Midwest there are cook-offs in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin. The West has Utah, Colorado, Nevada at Lake Tahoe’s south shore, and two in Southern California. In the Northeast, both listings are in New Jersey, and both fall on October 11.

The two busiest days are Saturday, October 10, with seven cook-offs from Utah to Kentucky, and Saturday, October 17, with seven cook-offs, each in a different town. If you’re in West Virginia, Huntington and St. Albans are both on October 17.

Before you go: a short checklist

  • Open the official site the week you go. Each listing page links to the event’s website. Organizers post hours and updates there.
  • Check the start time. Most cook-offs here are one-day events. Our listings show the date, so check the organizer’s page for hours and when tasting starts.
  • Add it to your calendar. Every listing in this guide has an “Add to calendar (.ics)” link and a map link.

Find more events near you

For more fall plans, see fall festivals 2026 and this weekend, which you can filter by state or ZIP code. A few cook-offs here are tied to a charity, and more runs, walks and benefit events are on charity events. Beer and German food weekends are on Oktoberfest 2026. To browse by state, start at all states. Missing a cook-off you know? Submit a listing.

Quick answers

Can these dates change?

The dates in this guide match each event’s listing page on USA Fest Bot. Dates can change, so check the event’s website before you go.

Is an event I know missing?

It may not have posted its 2026 dates yet, or it may have already ended before this guide’s window. You can submit a listing with a link to the event’s website.

USA Fest Bot is not affiliated with any event in this guide and does not sell tickets. Found a date that has changed? Send a correction.