Find Hog Heaven at the Blue Ridge Barbecue and Music Festival

 One of the biggest and best summer NC mountain festivals is coming up this weekend in Tryon. The Blue Ridge Barbecue and Music Festival has three main components: a KCBS sanctioned barbecue competition and the best of the best barbecue; Musical entertainment with the bigger acts and headliners on the Main Stage and singer-songwriters and acoustical music on the Riverside Stage; The Foothills Craft Fair, a juried fine arts and craft show, includes live artisan demonstrations.

And there's more...Rides and games at the Back-to-back Kids Fun park; Main Street Vendor with barbecue related products for sale along with equestrian, farm and other commercial goods; Special Saturday events including the 3rd Annual Rubber Duckie River Race, the Hawg Run and an Antique Auto Show.

photo credit Erik Olsen

This year's musical lineup offers a broad range of music genres and styles with Nashville recording artist and rising country star, Chuck Wicks headlining. Other Main Stage performers  include Acoustic Syndicate, the Dynamites featuring Charles Walker and Devon Allman’s Honeytribe. Many  local favorites can be found on the Riverside Stage, such as The Shane Pruitt Band, Big Daddy Love and the Tryon Music Review. The Main Stage will have a large dance area for those inclined to shake, rattle and roll.

photo credit Erik Olsen

The Foothills Craft Fair attracts between 15,000 and 20,000 art and craft lovers each year with exhibits of paintings in oils, acrylics, pastels and watercolors. Fine art graphics/drawings, prints, mixed media, photography, and sculpture. Find Crafts and demonstrations in all media -  wood, paper, fiber, fabric, leather, metal, gems, glass, stone, clay, and natural materials.

The barbecue competitors provide their "slow and low" cooked meats and all the sides to BBQ booths where it can be purchase along with sweets and treats and exotic beers in the Biergarten as well as wine by the glass in  the Vineyard Tent. There will also be fresh-squeezed lemonade, soda, tea and bottled water.
 
The Blue Ridge Barbecue and Music Festival began in 1994, the brainchild of Polk County Chamber of Commerce member Jim Tabb. Jim's insistence on assembling the BEST cookers with the BEST judges is credited with much of the Festival's growth and continuing success. The event is held each year at Harmon Field, a geographically remarkable site at the foot of Warrior Mountain along the banks of the Pacolet River. Participants and visitors enjoy tranquil beauty as well as the “isothermal effect,” a local phenomenon that makes the Harmon Field area several degrees cooler in summer than surrounding locales.