Depending on the amount of food vendors that will be there, I would go prepared. If it was me I would go with.
1200 racks of ribs
350 lbs of pork
250 lbs of brisket
200 lbs of chicken
3 cases of beans
120 lbs potato salad
120 lbs of coleslaw
How many days is the event? Do you have a large grill and oven? If you get hit like you should, get a pan of all the meats hot and always have two hot for back up. Keep the ribs roaring on the grill if that is how you do it. Good luck. You'll be fine make money!
One day event. What would you need to cook it? I can maybe do 140 ribs in 3 FE's at a time if I had 12 rib racks. So say 280 racks max. Now if I had precooked pork and brisket and chicken and beans I'd still need to be able to reheat it so would need more cookers. And then of course theirs refrigeration getting it there and keeping it until it reheats. Labor - just skin 1200 slabs and rub - what a task.
Bigmista - figure out what you can cook and sell with your current operation. Maybe add a helper or even try to borrow a cooker but don't do somehting you can't support. At the end of the day it's your reputation and you need to keep quality. Too many times people see dollar signs and just can't resist and then ..... Just do what you always do. In the end you'll be happy and if you sell out early well you had a great day. Glass half full approach.
Good luck.
You would obviously need to pre cook all of the food and finish on the grill and in ovens. A smoker should only be there for back up. The entire running out of food idea is not a good one. You will not be invited back next year if you cannot support the crowds, they do not want to hear complaints that they came there for bbq and the vendor had none. Remember, there are plenty other vendors out there. You have your foot in the door at a great event, DO NOT RUN OUT OF FOOD.
Since this is a one day event for seven hours. Figure out what your staff can pump out an hour and go by that. I always figure the first hour to be 1/3 of what peak hours will bring.
Oh and as far as the dollar sign go, that is what it is all about! You can be successful and still have a good name. Good luck, from what I hear and read about you, you can pump out good stuff.
Ovens are not an option and I don't grill my ribs. Smoker will be for warming food that isn't already hot and in Cambros or coolers.
The more I think about it, I think I'm gonna need more storage.
Have plenty of Serving Spoons and Tongs....you wont have time to
clean the ones that fall on the ground so you can keep using them.