BiggestDay of My Life!

August 1st I will be making my debut at a local bbq festival. i have never cooked at this level. i figured about 1000 people are gonna show, i believe there are about 8-10 vendors. im planning on 200 customers. my question is how do u go about making food? i have a nice trailer smoker, it has three racks on it. im figuring on doing ribs on half the racks n chicken on the other half. i jus dont know how long food can stay "quality good" inside the chafer servers before they may start to dry out or not taste the same as it would right off the grill. i dont want to cook to little and not have enough food but i dont wanna have food sittin in the chafer server all day either, ya know. i know there are a lot of variables that may be hard to give an answer. but any answer is better than none. oh also, i will be making 50lbs of tater salad, 10 cans of green beans, and about 5-6 pork butts(8lb a piece) the day before. figured it be easier to get that stuf made n jus reheat and make the ribs n chicken the same day. thanks guys

thanks. spritz, ill keep that in mind

what about saucing? should i sauce the meat or jus put sauce out for the customer to sauce their meat if they want to?

i think its more or less i know i can do it, but jus second guessing myself. yes im licensed and can hold food safely n servsafe certified etc. ready to rock on that aspect. this is jus my first big event so im pretty much jus askin the questions that i think i have the answers to, but if i see others chime in with different ways to do things or better ways to do things, them im All Ears.

just wanted to let u all know we had approx 100 lbs of pulled pork, 200 lbs of chicken and 60 slabs of ribs...... we sold out of pulled pork and ribs. we had approx 30 lbs of chicken left. id say we nailed it! thanks for all the input.