Blues, Bandits, and BBQ...

Mark your calendars for the 1st annual Blues, Bandits & BBQ competition and street festival held Sunday, September 12th! Oak Cliff has a rich history of famous bluesman from T-Bone Walker to Stevie Ray Vaughan, and our fair share of notorious bandits like Bonnie and Clyde…but what few may have realized is the number of BBQ joints that used to fill the area along Davis and Jefferson Boulevard.

Blues, Bandits, and BBQ will stretch along Davis from Nova who will be holding their outdoor art CRAVE show (put on by photopol.us), and over to Tyler Street. The BBQ competition will be held behind The Kessler at 1230 West Davis. Live music will be in multiple locations, with both indoor and outdoor stages at The Kessler. (Bands & times to come shortly!). Part of the proceeds raised from the event will go to Sunset and Adamson Booster clubs in order to help the High School kids start the year off right.

A highlight of the event will be the 1st annual Sustainable & Grass Fed BBQ competition on September 11 & 12, 2010. Teams will be required to cook on-site starting Saturday afternoon. Judging will take place Sunday afternoon – there will be both an ‘official’ winner for each category as well as a ‘People’s Choice’ winner.

The entry fee per BBQ team is $100 for the first category and $25 for each additional category. Categories include beef brisket, pork ribs, whole chicken and homemade sausage. All meat will be provided to the team as part of the entry fee. Meats are being provided by Urban Acres through partnerships with area farmers who raise sustainable and grass fed animals.

The deadline to enter the BBQ competition is Monday, August 23.

BBQ Competition – The Details!
So you’ve hopefully heard that Go Oak Cliff is organizing the First Annual Blues, Bandits & BBQ event the weekend of September 11 & 12. Obviously the BBQ will be a big part of the event, so we’ll try to provide you with some of the more important details here for your reading pleasure.

First off – you can participate in one of two ways: you can compete and make the BBQ, or you can come join the fun and EAT the BBQ! Here’s how it works…

COMPETITION: Do you make an amazing brisket? Are your ribs legendary in your neighborhood? Then you should enter the BBQ competition! The competition is open to the general public and we’re hoping to draw out some of the great backyard smokers around town. We’re hearing rumors that a few professionals may join in the fun as well. There are CASH PRIZES involved for the winners of each category! All cooking will be done on-site (behind The Kessler at 7th & Clinton) starting the afternoon of Saturday, September 11. And your entry fee includes the meat – which is being provided by our friends at Urban Acres. If you want all the details on the BBQ competition then click here to download a copy of the official BBQ Competition Rules.

EATING: Staying up all night to smoke a hunk of beef may not be your idea of a good time, but you can still come out and enjoy all this tasty grass fed, sustainably produced beef, pork and chicken. We’ll be selling wrist bands that will entitle you to taste the brisket, chicken, pork ribs and homemade sausage of each competitor! Information about pre-purchasing the wrist bands will be posted here in the coming weeks.

The BBQ teams will start cooking at noon on Saturday, September 11 in the grassy area behind The Kessler Theater (1230 W Davis Street, Dallas TX 75208) and the cooking will continue all night long. The judging and tasting starts at 11:30am on Sunday, September 12. You are welcome to come up and chat with the teams while they cook on Saturday – there will be beer for sale and lots of fun before things really get kicked off officially on Sunday.

So get excited and spread the word. It’s going to be a great weekend of blues and BBQ in the Cliff!