Virginia City to host chili cookoff Saturday

Things will get hot and spicy up on the Comstock on Saturday.

Virginia City is set to host the annual Cinco de Mayo Celebration and Chili on the Comstock Cookoff. The International Chili Society-sanctioned competition tests chili and salsa in the Bucket of Blood parking lot on C Street.

Cooking begins at 10:30 a.m. and tasting at noon. Salsa will be turned in at noon for judging; green chili at

1 p.m. and red chili at 3 p.m.

Tickets for tasting cost 50 cents a taste or 12 for $5.

And if chowing down on chili isn't enough fun, there's also a Cinco de Mayo festival. A live Mariachi band will stroll the boardwalks of the historic town from noon to

2 p.m. Pinata smashing for the kids begins at noon and continues hourly until 4 p.m. in the Delta Saloon parking lot.

For information on this event, visit www.

VisitVirginiaCityNV.com or call the Virginia

City visitor center at 847-4386.