It’s that time of year again. Hot sauce creators and homegrown musicians bring the heat to The Austin Chronicle’s annual Hot Sauce Festival on Sunday, Sept. 7, at the Far Out Lounge.
Beneath the wide open skies of South Austin, 24 hot sauce creators will exchange friendly fire from 3-9pm during the 35th annual competition and concert, benefiting the Central Texas Food Bank.
Sample sauces, stock up on favorites, and refresh with cold drinks and local snacks from Captain’s Pizza and Knuckle Sandwich at this longstanding celebration of chiles packing heat.Tickets are on sale now for $15 – get ’em while they’re hot (and before they tick up to $20 on the day of the event). A portion of every ticket sold will be donated to CTFB, adding to the 1.27 million meals that the Hot Sauce Festival has helped provide throughout its history.
A lineup of outlaw-inspired musical acts drawing from every Texas flavor will cleanse your palate and help you dance off the sweats. Mira Mira kicks the afternoon off with a genre-bending DJ set, followed by dance floor favorites Los Desechos, Americana songsters West Texas Exiles, and psychedelic rockers Gran Moreno. Read more about these inventive acts and their latest releases below.
Mira Mira
Multidisciplinary Austin artist Xochi Solis spins vinyl as Mira Mira, occasionally guest DJing with the locally based Queer Vinyl Collective. Known for sets spanning genre, region, and generation, Mira Mira keeps the beat grooving and the bodies moving with a collection deeply rooted in Tejano sounds, mixed in with cumbia, chicha, Afro-Latin beats, funk, and soul. Layering is at the heart of all her artistic practices, from her luscious collaged paintings to her sonically rich, narrative-based DJ sets.
Los Desechos
Though this psychedelic cumbia group has only been around for a little over a year, they’ve taken Austin dance floors by storm with their blend of border-inspired surf sonideros. Earlier this summer, the sextet captured some of their raw live energy in an eight-track album of jam-based songs highlighting their cultural instrumental experimentation and endlessly danceable beats.
West Texas Exiles
Jesus Christ spent 40 days in the desert, but the West Texas Exiles have one-upped the messiah, reminiscing about “8000 Days” spent in the desert on their latest single. A motley crew of Lone Star natives from different corners of, you guessed it, West Texas, this quintet puts forth thoughtful lyric-driven Americana songs rooted in bluegrass, country, and rock. Their 2023 release Volume 1 will meet its follow-up a mere day before the Hot Sauce Festival with a Sept. 6 album release show at Sagebrush. Hear this group’s latest chapter hot off the presses just before sauce winners are announced.
Gran Moreno
Fuzz-filled psych rock outfit Gran Moreno will be right at home at the Far Out, the recent home of Austin Psych Fest. Brothers and bandmates Christian and Ricardo Rodriguez grew up in Mexico City among a family of musicians, finding their instruments – drums and guitar, respectively – at an early age. After relocating to the Live Music Capital, the duo released their first album in 2024: a set of raucous live recordings taped at the iconic 13th Floor. A year later, the Seventies-inspired outfit is preparing to release their debut studio LP early this fall. Their latest single, “Temple of Fire,” is the perfect rock & roll anthem to close out a night of hot music and hotter sauces.
Editors Note: This story has been updated to clarify that Mira Mira is not a full member of the Queer Vinyl Collective and is no longer affiliated with Chulita Vinyl Club.
This article appears in August 8 • 2025.
