10 thousand people

We will be participating and selling BBQ at the Blues Festival this year. We will be offering brisket, pulled pork and pulled chicken. question is should we plan on doing more brisket vs. Pulled pork or vice a versa? There will be approximately 9,000 to 12,000 people the weekend of the Blues Fest. I am anticipating is selling at least 600 to 800 plates. Does anybody think that's too high or too low? Any advice is greatly appreciated. All permits and everything is in place already. Thanks for the help!

poorolddan said:

Need more info. 1 day event? Other vendors? Other Q vendors? How many ye
ars has the event ran? Have you attended the event in the past? Age mix? Lots to consider.

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Starts Friday Afternoon and wraps up Sunday with Saturday being the biggest day. Yes other street vendors, funnel cake, kettle corn, lemonade and those types. 1 or 2 Q vendors."maybe" one is not very good at all and the other one he mixes everything in sauce. Not real Q either!
Event has been going on for years. We are in a small town of 10K people so we have a lot of people coming in from out of town. Age range is late 20's to 50's
I have never been a vendor but have been to the event once. My office is located across the street form the park and I have partnered up with a local vendor and they will be doing a LARGE beer garden her as well.
TIA

InThePitBBQ said:

Margins per servable ounce are always higher on pulled pork no matter how you price it versus brisket, plus your net yields are higher.

800 plates for a crowd that size? I'd project sales at 4,800 entree's to include extra take out no matter how many other BBQ vendors are there but's that my typical scenario at an event that size in a middle of the road demographic setting being a vendor people expect to see year to year.

What's your total compliant holding capacity all in for 21" pans allowing clearance for cooked butts? That's the limiting factor for most small operations that don't typically attend events that size.

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This will be my first big event. I want to start doing a BBQ trailer here and want to get my name out more than anything.
I can hold about 16 pans in the warming cabinets between the 2 smokers. one is a 250 gallon and the other is 375 gallon both RF. I don't mind if we sell out the first go around. I just don't want to make to much and waste a bunch of good Q.