Memphis in May BBQ Festival

milron

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Last night I visited the festival for the first time in about 20 years. The weather was as close to perfect for this competition as it has been in as many of years. Slight breeze with temps in the low 60 degree range. The aroma filled the air making the belly growl for Q. To my amazement was the mass and expense teams are now spending on booths. I am sure there were some that spent in the neighborhood of 25K for just the booth, if not more. I heard of team budgets running in the 150K range for the event. Truly unbelievable.
Now most of us know, that on any given day, a backyard cooker can turn out as pleasing a taste of meat as any of these high dollar guys at the competition. Are the days of the friendly weekend cook off fading away to the corporate cook teams? I sure hope not. Granted this is an international event, but the little guys can't afford to compete into something like this.
Food for though: Should there be limitations in competitions, or divisions to seperate from large, medium, small and corporate so that all may compete fairly?

Or maybe I'm just jealous, because I wasn't there cooking?
Anyway, it is a tremendous event.
 
wow that is amazing, but like everything else corporate america takes over everything, even our beloved sport of bbq
 
I dont view it like that.
MIM is a huge event. Big teams, big sponsers, big money, and thats fine. I think it is good for competition BBQ. MIM, The Jack, The American Royal all huge events, but not out of reach for any of us. A long shot, sure, but still a chance. As long as there are local competitions, backyard cook offs, and some state champonships to compete in, we'll all be happy.

Mike
 
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