Tamworth can lay claim to another successful event after a “fantastic” inaugural Barbeque Festival last weekend.
A damp start on Friday couldn’t extinguish the smouldering mesquite that fuelled three days of low and slow smoking at Carter Street, with a raft of stallholders, bands, children’s entertainment, and the National Thunder Motorcycle Rally, all of which drew in roughly four thousand attendees – but the biggest draw was the meat itself.
The festival was eighteen months in the planning, according to Tamworth Regional Council Events Officer Tash Little, who was the brains behind the event.
“We wanted to showcase the region that we are a meat-producing region,” Little said, “And what better way to do that than a barbeque festival?”
With the festival fully-funded by sponsorships from local protein powerhouses like Baiada, Teys, and Jacks Creek, the centrepiece of the festival was an official barbeque competition, with newly-minted Australasian Barbeque Alliance Judge Brad Sauer was down the hill from Armidale to head up the panel of judges.
“It’s fantastic,” Sauer said, “always good to see a new competition come to the market.”
“And I think the girls at Tamworth Regional Council really knocked it out of the park.”
The competition consisted of five categories – chicken, lamb, beef brisket, pork ribs, and pulled pork.
Sauer noted that there were “seven or eight” perfect scores.
Barbeque veteran Jesse Rowlings, of the team Undisputed BBQ, drove all the way down from Brisbane’s bayside to compete.
“It’s a really good barbeque festival,” Rowlings said.
“There’s teams here from Adelaide, Brisbane, Rockhampton, and I think there’s like four teams from Tamworth, which is really good to see – for the competition to grow, you need new teams.”
While Undisputed took out a few trophies, it was Adelaide duo Jeff and Amanda Griffiths who were Grand Champions – only seven points off from a perfect score out: 1493 points out of a possible 1500 across all categories.
Jeff called the Festival “one of the best” they’ve been to, and praised the businesses who took the risk in sponsoring a new event.
“This is really hard, to put money into an event where they’re not sure about what they’ll retrieve from it.
While the Festival went well on its first time out, TRC Events Officer Mel Millsteed said that the future of the event was yet to be decided.
“We might have a year off, we might do it every second year,” Millsteed said.
“We’ll have to go back to the office this week, where everyone can give us their feedback, and see if it’s going to be an annual or biannual event.”
While organised and run by TRC, the event was funded entirely by the sponsors.
“Without them, it won’t happen – we’ll go back and talk with them, and if it’s something they’d like to continue,” Millsteed said.
“I know the guys in the barbeque teams had a fantastic time, and hopefully they’ll tell their mates, and it can grow and grow and grow.”
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