BBQ Festivals

Since summer is coming (although here in New England it is still snowing ), I thought a good topic to help in planning those summer vacations may be good BBQ festivals around the country. Last summer, while traveling from Boston to Green Bay, we decided to spend a couple of days over 4th of July outside Chicago. We were lucky enough to stumble upon the Naperville Ribfest. [url][/url]www.ribfest.net Lots of great midwest BBQ to sample.

Here in Massachusetts, around Columbus Day weekend, there is the Pig 'n Pepper festival held in Westford, Mass. Lots of great "yankee" BBQ and pepper items, as well as ice cream from Kimball's.

Anyone else have any good festivals worth traveling for?

Lisa

Sorry, Lisa. Pig & Pepper was cancelled last year. I guess some folks are trying to resurrect it.
I went for years, and apparantly it was making less and less money (vs. expenses).
Try www.nebs.org for BBQ (New England BBQ Society) info in New England.
Lexington Rotary Club runs a ribfest in June.
Other suggestions: For Portsmouth,NH,Grand Old Brewers Fest in October at Strawberry Banke, is about beer, Rennaissance Fest at Pierce Island, also Oct., uses Muddy River Smokehouse as a vendor. Market SQ Day in early June, has BBQ, including buffalo.
DaveM

Bummer! We haven't been to the P 'n P in a couple of years since there's always so much going on that weekend. Thanks for the other suggestions, though!

Lisa

This is the 1st year for this event.
I'll post more info when I find out more about it.

1st Annual Whole Hog Blues & BBQ Feast
Sept 20, 2003
Memorial Field, Bradford, Vt.
Featuring The Tarbox Ramblers, Nobby Reed Project, Willie Edwards Blues Band.

Don

Another VT BBQ Event
3rd Annual Harpoon Brewery
New England BBQ Championships (July 26 & 27, 2003)
Windsor Vermont

Check the Harpoon WWW site for more info
www.harpoonbrewery.com

Don

We enjoy visiting a couple of festivals along the Ohio River in Kentucky early in the Season.
Second week in May, in Owensboro,KY is the local BBQ festival. Since this is Burgoo and mutton country, they are the centerpiece items on the menu . Pits are built down the middle of a city block or two, and teams work to produce tons of BBQ, with pork and beef and chicken added to the Sheep and 'soup'. Lots of food available for the public and plenty of festival entertainment.
Second weekend in June is the W C Handy Blues and BBQ Festival in Henderson,KY, just across the river from Evansville, IN. Same menu for the contest, but here the BLUES takes on a life of it's own, with groups playing an hour or two set all day long from morning til late in the evening. Not a whole lot better thing to do in life than drag a lawn chair into a city park, sit under the trees , eat BBQ and listen to some great-some good- and some only fair Blues groups. (no beer served in the park)

If anyone needs an excuse to travel out west then consider the
"Best of the West" BBQ festival in Sparks, NV (Reno) Memorial Weekend. I have been 3 times over the years and it is excellent. Teams from all over, even the South show up to compete. Ribs, Beef, Pork, Hot Links, fresh buttered corn on the cob and great entertainment. It is truly Best of the West and worthy of a Roadfood mention.

Was reviewing this topic, and was surprised that no one mentioned the American Royal BBQ fest in KC. Alway's seems to be held the first weekend in October, so from where we would start (Denver) it's pretty decent weather still that time of year. I've been itching to go the last two years since I saw the PBS documentary about the competition. Any experience with this festival?

RT

I don't know if they still do it but in Petersburg VA the Pig-nic is a big event. They roast whole pigs and have a grand old time

rmtnfoodie....

I have been many times. Unfortunately, the weather is ALWAYS very cold and rotten! I am sure they have had a few nice events, but not the half dozen I have attended.

I will not return this year. Of course, I compete all summer anyway, so this event is just another contest.

I DO recommend it to those who have never seen a REAL BBQ contest.

Stogie

Stogie - I'll have to consider what you said about weather. The participants in the doc I saw were bounding around outdoors under sunny skies, so it looked like they were enjoying warm fall weather that we're usually blessed with in Sep - Oct. We tried to attend a 'qualifying' BBQ fest last August in Colorado Springs, but it got cancelled. Know of any source of info for BBQ fests in the Rocky Mountain /SW region?

I think they hold one in Breckenridge each July-August, but that may be a Chili/BBQ event. Usually sponsored by Coors(?)

RT

If you can wait until October, come on down to the Lexington, North Carolina BBQ festival. It goes all weekend with plenty of good barbeque, music, crafts, and piggie sand sculpture.

The competition between cooking teams is a good reason for a 'cookoff' or even a festival (in fact it is a great reason)...But to us non-competitive enjoyer's of the end-product, a Festival should offer entertainment, and food, and ambience that is targeted at filling as many wishes as there are visitor's to the event. Tomorrow we will begin a three day visit to th W C Handy Blues and BBQ Festival in Henderson KY. It is a week-long event with program specialities scheduled for each day and evening. The Main Event for the competitor's in the cooking area was last weekend... but the local vendors will have ton's of Pig and Mutton ready at each day's program. Thursday is Zydeco Nite, Cajun Music performed by groups in an open air concert in a city park beside the Ohio River...Lots of food, soft drinks, and music til 10pm. Friday evening and All-day Saturday(from noon) the Blues groups will be on..Again Fair-food and BBQ available within reach of a lazy man's walk.
I am skipping over the Kid's Parade, the Golf match and Tennis competition and a bunch of 5k and 10k stuff that eats-off body fat that I don't want to think about.
What I am trying to say, without meaning to takeaway from the spirit that real cooking competition builds, is that there are different levels in "participation" and the type of Festival I enjoy has a broader definition than the intense drama of the "Cook-off".
A couple of days, with a lawn chair in a park, all the BBQ I can handle, and my companion singing the words to " the perfect Blues Tune" (must include the following terms...Woman, dog, rain, pick-up truck, mean, drunk, left, train, jail, and one of the following locations-Memphis-St Louis-New Orleans-Jackson-Kansas City-Chicago).
When you head for home after that type of event, you feel that ALL of your senses have been fed.

The Mayor brings up a good point.....HUGE difference between a FESTIVAL and a COOK-OFF. Festivals are several days long with a few "teams" that SELL ribs and other stuff. A cook-off, is a very intense gathering of backyarders(some pros, but not many) out to prove they have the best BBQ. The biggest drawback to cook-offs is the lack of participation by the public. It is illegal in most every state to give away food(Food regs) so it is very hard for the public to appreciate the great BBQ that is made. Now, if you are introduced to a team, then you can eat all the stuff you want.

I will say this......the Festival Q does not even come close to the quality of the cook-off Q. Because of this, I never attend the festivals anymore. However, for those not fortunate enough to either make or taste great Q, a festival can be a good place to get some mediocre Q.

There are many other differences between the 2, but I would digress....

Here is a link to the KCBS, the largest sanctioning body in the country. Once there, on the left, click on Upcoming Events. These are all the cook-offs scheduled around the country. Again, these are COOK-OFFS and not FESTIVALS.

http://www.kcbs.us/

Stogie

Stogie,
I agree with you that the quality of the product that is the focal point of a cook-off is probably better than BBQ prepared for hundreds of visitor's...but that doesn't make festival food automatically mediocre.
For those of us not on the "insider's" list a Cook-off is an exercise in observation as opposed to participation. When one attends only a couple of the Cook-offs a year, being part of the 'team' is a bit more difficult than it sounds.
I guess a reasonable comparison would be We enjoy a playing touch football at family picnics...and Also enjoy watching the NFL Superbowl. Does that make one 'better' than the other? It is a matter of subjective evaluation...and their certainly is room for multiple preferences in this realm. I would love to watch your team work for it's success at a competition...Then you can come and enjoy some Blues and a "Que" Sandwich and several brewski's with us.

Thanks for the KCBS link, stogie. I had used that last spring to find some fests - will try it again.

rt

Al,

I agree! When cooking for hundreds, it is near impossible to prepare top quality Q. That is why I tend not to compare restaurant Q or Festival Q to my own.....I can afford to babysit my stuff and they cannot.

Having said that, I have attended many, many festivals over the years and I will stick by my mediocre comment. Fact is, I have only tasted 3 teams that I would pay money to eat their ribs. The others were all VERY mediocre.

Fact is, their ribs are often cooked far ahead of time! I found this out last year during our Q Fest here in town. 2 of the teams paid my butcher to store their ribs...700 slabs each! The ribs came in 2 days prior and were already cooked! I am not saying every team does this, but I have to assume many do. When you do that, the quality will suffer and you end up with mediocre ribs.

As I stated earlier, the cook-offs are not a spectator sport and quite honestly this is troubling! We have tried to get the public involved, but when it comes to giving food away, the Health authorities simply won't let it happen. Many of the teams(me included) don't want the hassles of vending, so, the public ends up with nothing...NOT good! And, needless to say, sitting around watching ribs cook is rather...boring. LOL

It is also true that getting to know a team is difficult, especially without an advance intro. While I truly believe most teams are very accomodating and willing to chat, when it comes to Saturday morning..the peak of activity for the public...teams are just too busy preparing for turn-ins. So, you have lots of crowds looking to sample/talk, while the teams are far too busy to visit. Overall, NOT a good thing for spectators.

In the end, I think we are in agreement.

You may have a chance to come and cook with me! We compete in Madison, IN which is right down the road from you. I will drop you a line when the time comes! Would love to meet you and compare tall lies! LOL

Stogie

Is the Madison cook-off tied to the hydroplane racing on the Ohio 4th of July weekend? I love to wander around Madison and have many friends in the community.
Let me know the schedule and I will get a cooler filled with the appropriate beverage of choice and meet you all there.
BTW I too think we are in agreement, but we are looking at the common problem from opposite sides!
My wife and I will go down to the Henderson Festival tonite...but will stop at the Moonlite BBQ in Owensboro for dinner on the way!!

1st Annual Whole Hog Blues & BBQ Feast
Sept 20, 2003
Memorial Field, Bradford, Vt.
Interstate 91 Exit 16 or via Route 5
Featuring The Tarbox Ramblers, Nobby Reed Project, Willie Edwards Blues Band.
$5.00 Admission - Children Under 12 Free 1:00 pm
Craft Fair
As many as 20 Teams will be competing in the whole hog BBQ competition.
802-222-4748 for tickets and information

Southwest Ohio BBQ Ribfest Aug 14-Aug 16 Dayton, OH www.nuttercenter.com
10th Annual Coors Colorado BBQ Challenge Aug 15-Aug 16 Frisco, CO www.townoffrisco.com
5th Annual River Rockin Ribfest Aug 22-Aug 24 Davenport, IA www.downtowndavenport.com
20th Annual BBQ Fest Oct 25 Lexington, NC www.barbecuefestival.com

You know it has been mentioned on here about the difference between festivals and cooking competitions regarding the difference in the quality level of the que that is produced. This is one contest that I like to go to where the teams are there by invitation and many of them are setup to give samples of their competition submissions. It is the Jack Daniels Invitational Barbeque Contest held this year on October 24-25 in Lynchburg, TN. Come, take a distillery tour, walk around the contest and visit the teams, and try some competition que. A few of the teams will also be approved to sell que also.

But I will say that if you want to try the competition que, come on Sat., 10/25, since they are only starting their que on Friday the 24th.

BTW, essentially is based on winning a contest somewhere else. So you know the teams competing are no slouches.

John

Ribdog, I have stayed clear of the competitions primarily because the food is not available. I am pleased that food will be offered. I have been to Lynchburg many times due to the fact that a lot of our company guest are from foreign countries.

I took a bus load of Japanese guest there several years ago. There were about 30 of them and none of them spoke English and I knew absolutely no Japanese. The only words they knew was "Jack Daniels and Dolly Parton"

To be good host, we bought several cases of Jack Daniels, lotsa cigars and took them to Lynchburg. Before we got there, many of them had inbibed so much, they could not make it off the bus and several of them did not recover until we got back to Knoxville and them they had to have help from the bus.

I will be at the BBQ in late October

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Hi Paul.

Yes, it is nice that competition samples are available at the contest. In fact, I think JD covers the permits necessary for the samples to be given out to the public. It is an excellent contest. One of those that everyone should get to at least once on their lifetime. Others in that category are the American Royal in Kansas City, Mo during the first weekend of Oct., and Memphis in May, the name says it all. Of course there are many other excellent contests but too many to mention. Even though the competition samples are not available to the general public, I bet if you went and became a part of www.bbqforum.com that you would be able to find some tasty treats with the teams cooking at the contests. IMHO.

I am planning on being at Lynchburg again this year. Hopefully as one of the volunteer workers. Please search me out and introduce yourself. BTW, if you get to the distillery and David Roper is one of the tour guides that day, make sure you get his tour. He is a scream!

John

I realize this is the wrong time of year and a kind of strang location to be asking about this southern tradtion, but does anyone know of any ribfest or bbq cookoffs in Michigan. I would love to attend to try all the great food that there is to offered, but I would also like to try to get into competative barbecueing on the amature level. If anyone has any info about this pleae let me know.
Barry, MI

quote:

Originally posted by b-n-kchefservice

I realize this is the wrong time of year and a kind of strang location to be asking about this southern tradtion, but does anyone know of any ribfest or bbq cookoffs in Michigan. I would love to attend to try all the great food that there is to offered, but I would also like to try to get into competative barbecueing on the amature level. If anyone has any info about this pleae let me know.
Barry, MI

You might want to check the contest calender at the following site. The site is for the National Barbecue News and their calender covers most of the BBQ contests out there. You will have to search a little bit to find something in MI as I can only think of one offhand and it is in the summertime. The site is http://www.barbecuenews.com/

You might also want to check out http://66.246.55.15/rbjb/rbjbboard/ as it is the site for the BBQ Forum. An excellent place to converse with professional and amateur quers alike.

By the way, find a contest with a backyard division for your first cook. Backyarders usually only cook the chicken and pork rib categories. The professionals cook those plus pork butt or shoulder and beef brisket. These are referred to as the money categories.

Have fun. Maybe I will see you out there on the circuit.

John

Hey thanks for the info. Is the MI contest that you are mentioning the sanctioned "taste of grand rapids" event that is in july.
Barry, MI

quote:

Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen

Stogie,
I agree with you that the quality of the product that is the focal point of a cook-off is probably better than BBQ prepared for hundreds of visitor's...but that doesn't make festival food automatically mediocre.
For those of us not on the "insider's" list a Cook-off is an exercise in observation as opposed to participation. When one attends only a couple of the Cook-offs a year, being part of the 'team' is a bit more difficult than it sounds.
I guess a reasonable comparison would be We enjoy a playing touch football at family picnics...and Also enjoy watching the NFL Superbowl. Does that make one 'better' than the other? It is a matter of subjective evaluation...and their certainly is room for multiple preferences in this realm. I would love to watch your team work for it's success at a competition...Then you can come and enjoy some Blues and a "Que" Sandwich and several brewski's with us.

Here Here!! or Hear Hear---but in any case---Al,you and everyone else--come on down to the Dusk Till Dawn Blues Fest in the bustling community Rentiesville Ok---pop 68---but we know how to party---3 days and nights--loads of musicians--Great Que----I'll put Smokehouse Bob's brisket,ribs,shaved ribs and turkey up against anyones---these folks are three generations of barbecues---and to top it off---Cheap Beer---$2--Kids free with activities for them all day. We are a nonprofit group that does it for the music and the party so i dont feel like im just looking for free advertising---just letting you all know where the fun is! Get out there and support live music anywhere you can---especially it if comes with BARBEQUE!!!

and Al..........i will see you at the Handy! I"m looking forward to that BAAHHHbeque you promised i could find!

quote:

Originally posted by b-n-kchefservice

Hey thanks for the info. Is the MI contest that you are mentioning the sanctioned "taste of grand rapids" event that is in july.
Barry, MI

Yes it is. I judged it two years ago while I was up visiting family in northwestern Indiana.

John

Here it is 2 years later....and we are recovering from the Alaskan Safari. What better way to do that R & R session than by dragging our lawn chairs to the Audabon Park in Henderson, KY for a day and evening of BBQ and Blues Music at The W C Handy Festival there. The cooking competition was this weekend, so now the musical part of the week begins. We'll wander downriver on Friday morning (the 17th) and spend the day with some Ribs and Que while listening to several of the Blues Groups that perform at the stage set up in the Park. We invite anyone anywhere near the Evansville-Henderson area this week to stop in and find us in the Park (Friday Noon to Dark plus)! Admission is free and the vendor food has always been pretty good and fairly priced.

Al and Janer---wish i could join you but this is a big weekend for our group---we have a fundraiser--Blues on The Green Go;f Tournement-this sat---a 4 man scramble-shotgun start-Mustang convertible for a hole in one--food bu Lavera's Italian Market and live blues at the turn for lunch and at the 19th hole! Have a good time---eat too much--and enjoy the Blues!!!