Benington Lordship Chilli Festival

Running since 2006, Benington Lordship's Chilli Festival fills a Hertfordshire garden over the August bank holiday weekend with sixty-plus chilli traders, world street food, hundreds of plants to take home and a chilli-eating competition. "Come worship the pepper" is the organisers' line, and thousands duly do. Open 10am to 5pm daily, with free parking in the fields behind the gardens.