The Chili Chowder Festival returns to the Ocean City Music Pier for its second year from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1.
The event fills the covered loggia of the Music Pier with the aroma of the finest chili and chowder Ocean City has to offer. The Ocean City Restaurant Association launched the event last year, and member chefs prepared a variety of creative entries that were popular with hundreds of festival-goers.
This year’s event includes a “Chili Cook Off” among the three platoons of the Ocean City Fire Department and proceeds benefit the Ocean City Firefighters Association.
Wristbands for the event ($15 adults and $5 for kids) are good for all-you-can-eat and are on sale at www.eventbrite.com, at all three Ocean City fire stations (Sixth Street and Asbury Avenue, 29th Street and West Avenue, and 46th Street and West Avenue) and on the weekend at Johnny B. Goode Ice Cream Parlor (14th Street and Asbury Avenue). The Music Pier is on the boardwalk between Eighth Street and Ninth Street.
The other big event on the Ocean City Boardwalk this weekend is the annual Walk for the Wounded, which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 30.
In the nine years it has been held in Ocean City, the event has grown to become a tradition for folks to take time away from their busy lives to support the men and women who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. in front of the Music Pier. A ceremony honoring soldiers is at 9:30 a.m., and the three-mile walk begins at 10 a.m. The route begins and ends at the Music Pier.
All proceeds benefit Operation First Response, a nonprofit organization that provides both financial and emotional support to wounded soldiers and their families. For more information and registration, visit www.operationfirstresponse.org.
Merchant table sales will be set up on the boardwalk and on Asbury Avenue between Sixth Street and 14th Street on Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 30 and Oct. 1). The sales give visitors an opportunity to shop outdoors for merchandise from Ocean City stores.