St George Island Chili Weekend
Good friends of ours recently moved to St. George Island in the Big Bend area of Florida. We were looking for an ideal time to visit them as we’ve never been to Florida’s Forgotten Coast, and honestly had never heard of St. George Island (SGI).
A few months ago, Dan and Trish invited us to an intriguing event. Their island’s annual neighborhood chili celebrations were being held the first Saturday in March, right around the corner. When we heard the details, it was a no brainer – we would eagerly travel six hours west for this uniquely fun experience. It was actually one of the first trips we scheduled as Sunshine Vagabonds.
If you are not familiar with SGI – St George Island, is different. It’s old Florida, but it isn’t really. It’s a tourist destination, but a town with rich local relationships. it’s Mayberry on the beach… with golf carts. We’ll get to the town in a future story, but for today, we’ll focus on SGI’s Chili Festivals.
The first Saturday in March is Chili-palooza on SGI. There are actually two concurrent events that take place on this day, and they’re both a blast. The flagship event is the St. George Island Chili Cook-Off. 2024 was the 41st year of the sanctioned International Chili Society event. It’s a formal chili cooking and tasting competition with professional competitors. The event is coupled with a golf tournament and auction that comprise a huge fundraiser for the island’s volunteer fire department.
Taste samples were available for $1 each from the vendors in the large lot. We enjoyed some diverse offerings of the chili, as we mingled with friendly people and listened to party tunes. We didn’t try them all, but loved a few of the candidate chilis. My favorite featured cornbread, lime and onions and Jackie loved a Caribbean family recipe. Bottom line: The Cook-Out was a cool way to sample a bunch of tasty creative offerings in a comfortable, fun atmosphere.
After leaving the Cook-Out, we climbed into our friends’ golf cart and headed to the West side of SGI, because as they explained, “Westside is Bestside.” We were on our way to the second Chili event taking place in the quaint seaside town.
That second event is the SGI Chili Crawl. It’s a newer offering for chili fans. I’d describe it as a down-home, neighbor-friendly, bar crawl, with a local chili competition. To be honest, it’s the more fun version.
The SGI Chili Crawl is about neighborhood camaraderie, raising toasts, soaking up killer live music, petting dogs, cruising in golf carts, and occasionally sliding some chili into your mouths. It’s a priceless, fun neighborhood celebration. The crawl is an event that builds community pride, pulls people together and does a bunch of good for local charities (SGI Volunteer Fire Department).
As we rounded a corner, we approached a street packed tight with golf carts, dogs, and their humans. Our first stop featured a live band, beverages, smoked ribs, jello shots, chili beads for the ladies, and some chili. The crowd was friendly as hell, and we made a bunch of new friends while soaking in the fun atmosphere.
From there, we hit a few more similarly fun spots as we “crawled” the town. Each stop had solid live music. We loved Allie Cats who played at our last stop. The theme was generally the same at each stop, with plenty of opportunities to donate to the cause while soaking up the fun vibe. It was awesome – kind of the same warm feeling we get at Sanford’s wonderful Porchfest every year.
We’d advise you to arrive just as the event starts and map out your plan for the day early. There’s little chance you will get to see everything in the short window the event runs, so make sure you hit the stops that most interest you.
The combination of the two events makes for a great day at the beach. We loved both events, and loved the sense of community that they help to develop across the island. The only disappointment was that the two events overlapped, and four hours just wasn’t long enough to thoroughly enjoy (and support) both.
Not into chili? No sweat. You should still go. We are far from chili loving connoisseurs, but still sampled many options and had a blast.
So, mark down March 1st, 2025 and plan to be at SGI for a fantastic day of fun. In the meantime, make a friend who lives on the island, because there aren’t many hotels. However, if you need one, check ou the St. George Inn. The quaint little hotel is run by Mike and Amanda and we stopped there on the Chili Crawl. We found it to be a nice spot in the middle of everything, and their homemade Caribbean Chili was pretty damn good!
Bob and Jackie
The Sunshine Vagabonds
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