(Members of my team: Scroll down to the last paragraph)
I know a lot of people who read the blog aren’t familiar with BBQ Fest, so I wanted to post and give everyone an orientation to it.
BBQ Fest is the unofficial nickname of the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. Almost 300 teams compete in ribs, shoulder, whole hog, other, and patio porker categories. There are also awards for best booth, best team shirt, Ms. Piggie contest where team members dress up like female pigs, etc.
Each team has a booth which is like a private party for that team. In order to eat a team’s BBQ, you have to be a team member or an invited guest. That kinda sucks that you can’t go around sampling everyone’s BBQ but it’s a Health Department regulation – if the teams served BBQ to the public then they’d be considered restaurants and would have to go through the inspection process, which would take too long to get done and would get really expensive. There are two ways you can sample BBQ from various booths without being an invited guest: The People’s Choice Competition, which lets you judge BBQ samples, and the Cooker’s Caravan where you are taken on a guided tour of various booths. For People’s Choice, you pay $4 to judge 5 BBQ samples, and can judge as many times as you want. The Cooker’s Caravan tours run from 11:30 AM – 3:30 PM Thur-Fri and leave every 30 minutes. More info here.
Teams have various methods for indicating who is an invited guest into booths. My BBQ team uses wristbands with the team name and booth number printed on them. These are not the same as the team member wristbands. Guest wristbands only give you access to a particular booth; you still have to pay the cover charge to get in Tom Lee Park ($8/day). Team wristbands allow the wearer to enter the park for free and bring in supplies, food, and beer and liquor. Some teams use methods other than wristbands for indicating who is a guest, such as hand stamps and printed passes.
Every year there’s a problem with people trying to sneak in booths and freeload, without actually knowing team members or being an invited guest. For that reason many team members have security at the booth entrance (I refer to my team’s security as the “Door Gestapo”). I’m a big part of the reason my team has to have a Door Gestapo; last year we had people claiming to know me, and who were able to recite details about my personal life, because they read the blog. If I’ve told you you’re invited and you don’t have a wristband, call my cell when you get close to our team’s booth and I’ll come to the door and wave you in. Invited guests: Please don’t be offended if the Door Gestapo cards you; they have to do that to show the police that we’re not serving alcohol to minors. If they don’t know you personally, they will card you.
There is a Friends & Family Night Wednesday night from 5 to 10 which is for team members and for close friends and family only. This is a good chance for teams to get the party started and work out any kinks before the masses arrive the next day. The park is open to the public 11 AM – midnight Thursday-Friday, 10 AM – 11 PM Saturday.
Many of the teams have sponsors, who pay large sums of money (usually $5,000 or more) to put up signage and for their employees/clients to have access to the team booth. In some cases sponsors completely take over the booth for a particular night, and team members serve the sponsors and aren’t allowed to bring their own guests that night. Other sponsors are more laid back and just want to hang out with the team and their guests. Thursday night tends to be the most popular night for “sponsor night,” although this is not universal. My team does not have a sponsor this year, so our invited guests don’t need to worry about access being restricted on any night. We already have several sponsorship offers for next year that we will look into after this year’s festival is behind us.
Friday tends to be the biggest party night; by Saturday things are winding down and some teams already have started to pack up and leave by Saturday afternoon. My team plans on partying all the way through ’til close, in case there’s any doubt, so people I invited who plan on coming Saturday, don’t worry, we’ll be there.
The ribs teams take up the northern two-thirds of the park, with the shoulder teams next, and the whole hog teams at the far south end. We’re in the shoulder competition, so if you come in the Beale entrance, plan on walking for a good 10 minutes before you get to us. Our booth is roughly parallel with the stairs leading from Butler Street to Riverside Drive (just slightly south of there actually).
Awards are handed out Saturday afternoon around 5,6ish I think. My team placed 12th out of 80 shoulder teams last year and this year we’re looking to crack the top 10 and take home a trophy.
Hope you found this orientation helpful. BBQ Fest confused me the first couple years I went to it. Hope this post alleviated some of the confusion.
Forecast is for rain tomorrow night, so those who are coming to Friends & Family Night tomorrow may want to stop by Walgreens or one of the gift shops on Beale and purchase a cheap disposable poncho. These can usually be bought for $3 or so.
Members of my team: Our team captain Chuck will be at the Saucer tonight around 6:30ish (note: he operates on Chuck time, so it may be more like 7) to hand out team wristbands and Wed night passes. These are for fully-paid, full team members ONLY (not guests). If you’re one of the people who joined through my blog and the team doesn’t know you, you’ll need to show ID to pick up your wristband. Feel free to stay and play trivia at 7 if you want; a large number of our BBQ members are on the Rapscallions trivia team, and there are also a few on the much less successful Weiss Asses team. Looking forward to a great weekend.