23rd Annual Chili Cook-Off was a festive, convivial celebration!
Douglasville, Georgia – The Cultural Arts Council Douglasville/Douglas County hosted its 23rd Annual Chili Cook Off on Saturday, October 
19th at O’Neal Plaza in Downtown Douglasville. Chili booths hosted by political candidates, local businesses, non-profits, and area service clubs competed for bragging rights of being the best chili tasting, the spiciest chili and the most sold chili. The best-decorated booth was also highly competitive and a costume contest for all ages was held as the crowd happily worked their way through hundreds of gallons of chili.
Despite the rain, we still had a great crowd milling about on the beautiful O’Neal plaza –and they were delighted to hear that the winners were:
Best Tasting Chili – Whitaker Roofing
Spiciest Chili – BB&T Bank
The Chili judging was done by Chef Dell Barkley from Gordon Food Services and Chef Rose Genter from Chopped Junior Chef,
Best Decorated Booth – Councilman Mark Adams
The booth decorating judging was done by Katie Arfanakis with Harvester Christian Academy
Best costume infant – age 5 category was Zack Saadat “Astronaut”
Best costume 1st grade – 5th grade category was Hudson Arfanakis “Harry Potter”
Best costume 6th grade – 12th grade category was Katie Morgan “Penny Wise”
Best costume adults category was “Lady Elf”
Awards were generously donated by CAC board members and Fun Spot America.
Monday after the event volunteers dutifully counted all the ticket stubs redeemed for chili and the tickets revealed that Most Sold Chili was the Douglasville Masonic Lodge #289
The CAC in partnership with Keep Douglas County Beautiful was proud to present the 1st annual Scarecrow Contest in correlation with the Annual Chili Cook Off. The community was invited to decorate a scarecrow outside of the CAC and it will remain on display thru October. The Scarecrow Contest offered cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place , and bragging rights, of course! This year’s winners were announced at the Chili Cook Off:
1st Place: Share House
2nd Place: Baza Fainn Productions
3rd Place: Avery from Chapel Hill Middle School
“After hot days like summer, the Chili Cook Off had rain showers and cool weather, which added a nice touch to the large crowd on the 
Plaza,” said Emily Lightner, Executive Director. People came to downtown Douglasville to chow down, visit with friends, show off their creative costumes, and dance the night away with the Cha-Cha slide.
The 2019 Chili Cook Off was generously sponsored by Lithia Springs Ford and joined by Georgia Power, Chapel Hill News & Views, Creekside Pines Retirement Community, the Douglas County Economic Development Authority, and Armstrong Photo Gallery. Thank you to everyone that participated and attended the 23rd Annual Chili Cook Off, which helped raise funds for the arts education programs in our community.
The Cultural Arts Council of Douglasville/ Douglas County, located at 8652 Campbellton Street in historic downtown Douglasville, Georgia, is open Mondays through Fridays, 9 am to 5 pm. For directions or more information, visit www.artsdouglas.org or contact the Cultural Arts Council at 770-949-2787.
