Carolina BBQ Festival Pitmasters Collaborate for Charity
Two-day event celebrates Carolina barbecue in support of #BBQforACause
This week’s guest article is written by Michael “Chigger” Willard, host of The Low & Slow Barbecue Show podcast and blog, which spotlights stories and recipes from pitmasters in the Carolinas. Today, he shares highlights from the 2024 Carolina BBQ Festival. You can find more photos and pitmaster interviews on his Instagram page.
Pitmasters from across the Carolinas and beyond convened recently in Uptown Charlotte for a rapidly growing barbecue event that’s giving North Carolina’s Queen City reasons to shout. And after the 2024 installment successfully expanded into a second day, the Carolina BBQ Festival is fanning the flames for the future.
Cooked up by Sweet Lew’s BBQ owner Lewis Donald to support charitable organizations and celebrate Carolina barbecue heritage, this year’s festival joined the multi-week Charlotte Shout celebration of arts, music, food, and ideas. Thanks to sponsor backing, media promotion, and tireless volunteers, more than 1,800 barbecue enthusiasts filled their plates and stomachs to raise donations for Operation BBQ Relief, Hungry Heroes, and Folds of Honor.
The festivities fired up with a new Friday night affair that reversed roles and put Saturday’s pitmasters on the receiving end of food service. While these meat-smoking peers relaxed among their barbecue brothers, family, and fans, Operation BBQ Relief Co-Founder Stan Hays led a team powering the menu anchored by pork ribs and sliders stuffed with barbecue beef and smoked chicken. Celebrity Pitmaster Erica Blaire Roby added star power and cooked up a crawfish boil. Rising country music performer Filmore delivered the soundtrack for sunset and the twilight start of Day 2 preparations.
Hidden at the back of the venue, pitmaster Elliott Moss and Sweet Lew went to work erecting a pair of cinder block pits. There, a half dozen hogs spent the night smoking over smoldering embers that Moore and BBQ entrepreneur Joel Easton periodically shoveled from burn barrels to coal beds. By morning, the pigs were ready for picking and their place among 14 stations offering the best barbecue bites.
The diversity of those all-you-can-eat samples spanned the gamut of Carolina barbecue goodness. Outside-the-box offerings featured pork belly ramen from Black Powder Smokehouse, shrimp and Holy City Hogs chorizo over pineapple, Shepard Barbecue’s smoked lamb sliders with Indian spiced slaw, and mini smoked brisket quesabirria tacos from Lawrence Barbecue Co.
At the same time, the traditional fare was just as popular, especially Jon G’s beef rib sliders, Fork Grove Barbecue’s pork belly burnt ends with cowboy caviar, Bryan Furman’s pork ribs, and 2024 James Beard Award Finalist Robbie Robinson’s City Limits Barbecue pork belly hash and rice. From smoked pastrami and cheeseburgers to sausage and skewered top sirloin, there were plenty of options for barbecue lovers eating their way through Saturday while discovering the region’s talented pitmasters.
While the food is fantastic, a festival highlight is seeing the smoke stewards in their element. Crowd size is kept manageable, so you not only get a glimpse of the talent working the pit, but you can also chat with these barbecue businesspeople and find out what makes them tick. That’s well worth the price of admission.
On the heels of Year Three – and more than $40,000 raised since 2022 – event organizers from Let’s Meet Charlotte plan to capitalize. Expect the Carolina BBQ Festival to become a year-round brand with periodic pop-up events feeding barbecue appetites until the next annual installment on April 5, 2025. Save the date, make travel plans, and watch the festival website for details.
Michael “Chigger” Willard
Founder, Low and Slow Barbecue Show
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