One of my favorite things in the whole world, (Food wise) is BBQ. It can be chicken, pork, or beef. It doesn’t matter; I love it. The idea that somebody spent so much time and effort crafting their product I find fascinating.
We here in the Wenatchee Valley are quite lucky. We have several good BBQ locations both in Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, and Cashmere. But something very special is coming to East Wenatchee that we’ve never had before.
Here’s what is happening.
October 3rd and 4th, Eastmont Parks will be hosting the first annual “Smoke In The Valley Barbecue Competition” at the Eastmont 4plex and one of the things that makes this extra special is that it is a sanctioned BBQ competition by the PNWBA. (Pacific Northwest BBQ Association.)
I had a chance to talk with Charlie Brown Director of Recreation/Marketing Eastmont Parks, and he filled me in on some of the details.
How did this start?
Charlie told me the whole thing started back in January. “One of our commissioners, Mr. Brian Burns, was sitting at our board meeting and said hey, we should do this. And so we said OK and we’ve been running with it ever since.”
That’s a short explanation. The idea is to turn it into a big annual event that grows bigger every year. Something that will not only be an event for East Wenatchee, but for all of Eastern Washington and beyond.
Barbecue competition teams will be coming from all over the Pacific Northwest and possibly farther to compete. There are $10,000 in total cash prizes being awarded, with many sponsors stepping up to help fund various aspects of the event.
What happens that weekend?
There’s a multitude of events scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday, including a chili cook off, a kids cook off, live music, family activities, a Corn Hole tournament, a beer garden, and there will be food trucks available as well as some other possible vendors.
There will also be live music, but the final schedule hasn’t been worked out just yet.
Barbecue competitors will start loading in at about noon on Friday up until the early evening.
The PNWBA is the sanctioning body for this event.
According to pnwba.com,
‘The PNWBA was formed in 1991 by a small group of barbecue enthusiasts in the Northwest. What started with about 20 members has grown to more than 800 members, including cooks and judges from across the United States and around the world. The organization is led by a volunteer Board of Directors. Every board member gives their time and energy to help support the members and grow the sport.’
Competing and winning a PNWBA sanctioned event is important to BBQ competitors, because if you win, that gets you one step closer to competing for a national title. So, it’s not just the prize money that the competitors are working towards.
Saturday’s chili cook off.
The chili cook off, which is a non-sanctioned event, will be taking place all day on Saturday with the competitor’s final product being turned into judges between 2:00PM and 3:00 PM.
Even though it’s a non-sanctioned event, the chili cook off will be judged using official chili cook off rules.
There’ll be lots of things for spectators to see and do, including the availability of food trucks in case you decide you’re hungry after smelling all that BBQ cooking.
If you have some friends or acquaintances that fancy themselves barbecue experts, they can enter into the competition by going to the PNWBA website.
8 Meats That Are Illegal to BBQ in Washington State
Listen, not that we think you’d ever actually want to throw any of these on the grill—but if you did, just know you’d be breaking the law and could face some serious fines or even jail time. Here are 8 meats that are illegal to have or possess at your BBQs here in Washington State
Gallery Credit: Jordan Verge