Dawn Massam's passion is chillies and she's holding a festival to celebrate all things spicy, as Jaine Blackman discovers

Some like it hot... no one more so than mum-of-three Dawn Massam.

A life-long lover of chillies and hot sauce, she now wants to share her passion with the people of Oxfordshire.

“I eat chilli pretty much every day, I love it,” says Dawn, 34, a freelance copywriter and marketer.

She doesn’t have a favourite chilli dish because she adds the spice to everything – from omlettes to bacon sandwiches.

And in August, she’ll be spreading that love by taking over Abingdon Market Place for the first Oxfordshire Chilli Festival.

Dawn was introduced to dishes with a kick when she was about eight years old.

“My dad was really good at cooking curries and he’d make up jars of pastes,” says Dawn. “You couldn’t get a lot in 1980s Dundee so he went to Asian supermarkets to get ingredients.”

He had also got his love of spicy food from a previous generation. “His aunt had married an Indian and Dad used to bunk off school lunches in the ’60s to go to their house to eat curry,” she says.

Dawn moved from her native Scotland to London after landing a job in music PR aged 17 and graduated to “hotter stuff”.

“I had a flatmate who was Ethiopian who put Encona (hot pepper) sauce on plain pasta. I tried it and it blew my head off – I thought ‘that’s amazing’,” she says happily.

Since then she’s tried no end of different variations. “Chilli is in so many different cusines. People think it’s all about heat but there are different types. It’s about flavour too,” says Dawn.

She’s long been a foodie and through visiting various events met Tony Ainsworth AKA Darth Naga, one of the founders of the UK Chilli Cook-off Association and well-known among “chilli-heads” as a kamikazi chilli taster.

“We went for a drink and he said ‘why doesn’t Oxfordshire have a chilli festival?’” says Dawn.

After a couple of glasses of wine she decided it should have one and, with experience putting on events in her marketing role, that she would be the one to do it.

“Millets have a chilli fiesta once a year with chilli traders and plants but I thought it would be good to have a festival with music and bring people in to Abingdon,” says Dawn. “I’ve been here eight years – we didn’t want to bring our daughter up in London and my partner was from Oxfordshire originally – it’s my adopted home.”

The town has got behind the event with local firms helping with sponsorship and Dawn being asked to join the Chamber of Commerce.

With work and children Masie, 11, Annabel, three, and Oliver, two, to look after Dawn admits it’s a juggling act, with all her spare time being taken up with organising the festival.

“But if I didn’t do it now, I would miss the boat. It’s getting very popular,” she says.

She’s planning various gigs and events throughout the summer, all for the love of it. All of these events are to raise funds and awareness for the festival – all profits are going to charity – The British Heart Foundation and local cause Leah’s Wish,” says Dawn.

“I know it sounds cheesy but I want to raise as much for charity as I can, doing something I enjoy and giving something back to my adopted home.”

Not to mention blowing its socks off!

* The festival’s launch party will be held tonight at the Crown and Thistle with a special appearance from Nigel from Dodgy. Also on the bill will be local musicians Mark Sollis and Matt Sewell. It starts at 8pm and will include a tasting to decide on the festival’s official hot sauce from three prototypes created at Wiltshire Chilli Farm.

* The Oxfordshire Chilli Festival will be held on August 16 in Abingdon.

* For more details visit oxfordshirechillifestival.co.uk

* See facebook.com/oxfordshirechillifestival

* Follow at www.twitter.com/oxchillifest