Coming up this weekend, is an event that I have been anxiously awaiting for a good while now, Chilifest! Where and when is Chilifest you ask? Chilifest will be held in the fabulous, Snook Texas, just outside College Station. The festivities kick off this Friday, April the 3rd and continue Saturday the 4th. So what is Chilifest all about may be your next question. Chillifest is a celebration of good chili and Texas country music, all for a good cause, to raise money for locat charities. As stated on the official Chilifest website the main purpose of Chilifest is to, “To offer assistance to thousands of ill, neglected, and less fortunate individuals; as well as to provide funding for the many organizations who put forth the effort to resolve the life threatening problems that endanger the lives of so many.” So you can feel good about scarfing down bowl after bowl of chili because it is all for a good cause!
Chilifest first became a notable event in the year 2000 and was able to donate over $75,000 to charities in the area. Every year after, Chilifest has continued to grow. Last year, in 2012, Chilifest was able to attract over 55,000 people and donate over $177,500 to area charities. This year, 2013, Chilifest plans to make this their biggest and best year ever! They have planned an impressive line up of country music artist to preform at this years even including, but not limited to: Corey Smith, Kevin Fowler, Mark Chesnutt, Aaron Watson, and Josh Turner. As Chilifest continues to expand so does their effort to reach people, primarily through the use of technology and social media.
Chilifest has been somewhat unique in their use of social media, only using Facebook to connect with potential festivalgoers. This strikes me as odd because the majority of people who attend Chilifest are college-aged persons; therefore I thought for sure Chilifest would be able to be found on virtually every social media platform. Regardless, this method seems to be working well for them. Along with the use of Facebook, Chilifest has taken a unique approach to staying connected with their target audience by making a free application that can be downloaded on both, Android and Apple phones. I just downloaded the application for Android phones and plan to use it to stay informed on this weekends activities. I feel like this application is a great way of using technology to their advantage and works out well for them as well as people attending Chilifest. Overall, I am impressed with the strategies Chilfest is using to appeal to people.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter this Friday and Saturday because I will be putting the Chilifest app to good use and will be Tweeting live from Chilifest this weekend!
If you are looking for something to do this weekend in Texas, come out to Snook and enjoy, great music, great entertainment, and most of all great CHILI, all for a good cause! If you happen to see me there, feel free to say hi!
Follow my live Tweets here:
Click on me to download the free Chilifest application!
Are you putting together a “team” for Chilifest? Are you going to be part of a “team”? Here is a great site that has everything you need to have the best gear for your team at Chilifest!
Click on the image to be directly linked to where these, and other great promotional items can be bought.
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