The city of Tifton held its 13th annual Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival in Fulwood Park on March 6th and 7th. Rhythm and Ribs is a well-organized, professional and backyard BBQ competition, with arts and crafts vendors, food vendors, and live entertainment. Tickets to the festival are free, allowing any and everyone to participate in the fun. It is coveted as a community event for the city and people of Tifton, with families looking forward to it every year.
This community event provides the unique opportunity for local businesses to display their wares for the public, and even those who come into town for the festival. This is reminiscent of old-style marketplaces, with children and dogs running underfoot as you attempt to see what’s for sale.
The entertainment opened on Friday evening with two acts, Kit and Char and Austin Williams playing long sets from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. On Saturday, the entertainment played from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM, with a combination of local musicians and some groups from out of town, including Diamond Rio.
Tifton also took children into account when coordinating this free event for the community by making sure there was adequate entertainment for children. They booked the Disc-Connected K-9s for a dog show, put together a butterfly experience, gelly ball, and the putt putt was all set up for family fun and entertainment.
The real reason why anyone takes part in the Rhythm and Ribs Festival is the barbeque, and two competitions are held at the festival each year – professional and backyard amateur. The professional category is sanctioned by the Georgia BBQ Association, and you must be a member of the association to compete in the professional category.
Winners are decided based on what they’ve cooked, and there are categories for ribs, pork, and loin. The winners are as follows; Big Butts BBQ in the ribs category; Shark Bite BBQ in the pork category, and Rescue Smokers in the loin category. In the amateur category, Butcher and Banker was deemed number one overall, but in the pork category Meat Minions got the title. When it came to the ribs, Sazon Meija took the meat off the bone and was handed the number one spot.
What sets the Rhythm and Ribs festival to be apart, is the community coming together to support the festival happening, and the organizer’s focus on keeping the festival accessible to the community. Rather than charge ticket prices, the organizers raised vendor fees to cover costs of expansion. Choosing to load those extra costs onto the businesses that profit off of the attendees rather than the attendees themselves maintains a sense of trust within the community that encourages future attendance and promotes growth. Seeing the banner welcoming you into the festival be filled with the names of local businesses supporting the local community is like nothing else – and knowing you’re going into an environment that is truly there just for people to come together and have a good time, and be safe doing it, is like nothing else.
For more information about the Rythm and Ribs festival, visit www.tiftonribsfest.com