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Saucy new fest on tap

Winnipeg BBQ & Blues Festival features Jimmie Vaughan, Pit Masters Competition

By: Rob Williams

Wednesday, Apr. 25, 2012 at 1:13 PM | Comments: 0

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Winnipeggers will get sauced at the city's newest festival.

The inaugural Winnipeg BBQ & Blues Festival will focus on food and fuzz with Texas blues legend Jimmie Vaughan headlining the musical portion of the summer event while a barbecue competition will feature contestants from across North America and our own backyards.

"This is truly a celebration of both music and barbecue. It's about good food, good music and everyone getting together in the summer in an affordable safe environment," says Rick Fenton, artistic director and event co-organizer.

The festival will take place Aug. 17 to 19 at Red River Exhibition Park. The three-day event includes a Winnipeg Harvest Meat Ball fundraiser, 20 bands playing on three stages, food vendors, the House of Chrome big rig show and shine, a burger wars hamburger making competition and the Winnipeg Free Press Pit Masters Competition, a Kansas City Barbecue Society Sanctioned event featuring teams from across the continent battling it out for grilling supremacy.

"A lot of this comes from guys who go camping on the weekend and brag about the best ribs they made," says Perry Hopkins, director of barbecue events. "Now we've got people judging who's got the best ribs and we give them prize money. There's not barbecues racing around the track or anything, it's not the most exciting thing to watch, but there's just this love of meat on an outdoor grill."

Competitors will be judged on cooking four meats: beef brisket, pork rib, chicken (any part and done any way they want) and pork butt. All contestants will use charcoal and wood for grilling. Propane and gas are not allowed.

Manitobans can enter the competition and sign up to be judges. Certified instructors from Memphis will be in town on May 12 to host a certification course for potential judges.

And of course there will be plenty of barbecue and barbecue sauce to purchase from vendors.

"There will be smokers going all weekend," promises Hopkins, who has organized the barbecue competition at the Morden Corn and Apple Festival for the past five years.

Food is a big part of the festival, but so is the music. The event will feature about 20 acts playing over the course of the weekend. Other musical acts lined up so far include Little Miss Higgins, Jim Byrnes, Steve Dawson, Big Dave McLean and Romi Mayes. Vancouver group the Sojourners will host a Sunday gospel brunch.

More artists will be announced in the coming months, says Fenton, who has extensive festival organization experience as the executive director of Breakout West/the Western Canadian Music Awards and is a former artistic director of the Winnipeg Folk Festival. He founded the festival with Kevin Walters, project manager of Manitoba Culture Days and Nuit Blanche.

Early bird weekend passes for the Winnipeg BBQ & Blues Festival go on sale Thursday at Ticketmaster for $32.50. Children under 12 will be admitted free with an adult. The first 1,000 people who buy tickets will have access to the charity Meat Ball on Aug. 17.

Information about becoming a barbecue competition judge is online at mobc.ca. Competition rules can be found at winnipegbbqandblues.ca.

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca

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Updated on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 1:13 PM CDT:
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