With temperatures close to 80 degrees, people don’t usually think about pumpkins, the autumn season or hot chili.

But visitors who attended the annual Glendale Heights Harvest Fest found ways to stay cool on a very warm October day.

The event, held at Heritage Park Sunday, also featured the annual chili cook-off, where teams cooked up their best batch for prizes and serious bragging rights.

Harvest Fest organizer and Special Event Commission chairperson Allana Zeiss said the festival had a nice turnout.

For Zeiss personally, the event went almost perfect, until she had to go to the hospital after an allergic reaction to a bug bite she received during the festival.

“It was a great time until that point,” she joked.

This year’s chili champion was Glendale Lakes Golf Club, which unseated the defending champion Glendale Heights Police Department to take the top prize. The police department took second place in the non-traditional chili category.

Other groups that participated in the contest included the Glenside Fire Protection District and some residents, village officials said. Eight teams participated in the cook-off.

The fire district won the People’s Choice Award, and firefighter Dan Sparks of the Glenside Fire Protection District won the hot pepper-eating contest among eight contestants, according to cook-off organizer Gabriel Costello of the village’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Judging was done in two categories, with a traditional chili, meaning no beans or pasta, and a non-traditional chili, which consisted of any combination of meats, spices, beans or a vegetarian chili, Costello said.

“The chili cook-off was definitely one of the highlights,” Zeiss said.

The festival also featured a number of other activities, such as a bean bag toss tournament and a senior citizens’ fishing derby.

Among the biggest attractions was a puppet show for children, Zeiss said.

“We were really thrilled with how the entire festival went this year, and the weather was beautiful,” she added.