BBQ Festival Chairman Chuck Britton has announced that the Blue Ridge BBQ & Music Festival will happen one week later beginning with the 2012 event. This should result in less conflict with the end of school and graduation schedules for area students. Next year’s festival will be held June 15 – 16.
“There are benefits to the festival and also to the students,” Britton said. “We’ve seen a real decrease in attendance on festival Fridays when graduation occurs on the same date. So we hope to rectify that problem and reap other benefits at the same time. When the festival occurs while school is still in session, many students and their teachers miss out on the opportunity to volunteer. And, even more important to some of the youngsters, we hire up to 20 teens each year to work with our vendors… but they have to be there both days.”
The chairman explained that a date change for a sanctioned barbecue event isn’t a simple matter:
“The Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) assigns the dates for each sanctioned event and, as other BBQ contests come into being, KCBS takes into consideration the effect one event might have on another. They certainly don’t want two on the same weekend in the same geographic area. So when we made our request for a change, they had to look closely at what else is going on.
“Past Blue Ridge BBQ Festivals have been held on the weekend starting on the second Friday of June. But in the future, we will hold the festival on the weekend beginning on the third Friday of June. The KCBS and we are convinced that this change will be good for our guests as well as for our competition cook teams who come from all over the country.”
The festival is conducted annually under the auspices of the Carolina Foothills Chamber of Commerce. Proceeds from the festival help support chamber operations, and additional proceeds go to the Carolina Foothills Chamber Foundation to be returned to the community through distributions to a variety of charitable and civic programs and projects throughout the county. Funds are generated by a modest admission fee, contestant entry fees and sponsorships.
For further information, call the festival office at 828-859-RIBS (7427) or visit BlueRidgeBBQFestival.com.
– article submitted by Brenda Bradshaw