Attention, meat lovers! Popular RibFest returns this weekend
Thousands expected to attend 2nd annual event in City Park
Kelowna obviously loves every permutation and combination of savoury, sticky, spicy, saucy and sweet barbecued ribs.
That’s why 18,000 grill-seeking carnivores turned up at the three-day inaugural Interior Savings Sunrise Rotary RibFest last year and helped raise $26,000 for charity.
This year’s RibFest encore, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at City Park, is expected to attract even more meat lovers and raise more money for charity.
“Back east, there’s a RibFest on every corner,” said RibFest 2017 chairman Brian Wrightson.
“But in the West, they are few and far between. We really tapped into meeting a pent-up demand for an incredible festival of flavour, family and fun. The RibFest brand in Kelowna is really building.”
This is how it goes down at this flame-broiled frenzy. Admission is free to the festival grounds, where there’s also non-stop live music, a beverage garden and fun park for the kids.
Festival hours are 3-10 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday.
If you want to eat, you buy your own food.
Four professional ribbers from across North America will have their food trucks there, smoking, grilling and serving up traditional barbecued pork ribs and chicken.
Actually, calling these food trucks is a bit of misnomer. They are tractor-trailer-sized mobile meat machines that can smoke 454 kilograms of ribs at a time and barbecue for the masses.
The food offerings will be rounded out with 10 normal-sized food trucks serving everything from fish tacos and hotdogs to ice cream and lemonade.
There will even be food trucks dishing up — God forbid — vegetarian and vegan options.
Last year, $26,000 was raised by Rotary at RibFest. Shoe Bank Canada, a charity that collects donated shoes and distributes them to those in need in Canada and around the world, received $10,000, while $16,000 went to Brain Trust Canada, Freedom’s Door, Kelowna Women’s Shelter and student bursaries.
This year, the money will be split among Shoe Bank Canada, Brain Trust, Freedom’s Door, Kelowna Women’s Shelter, International Rotary Student Exchange, a medical clinic in Honduras, Okanagan Rail Trail, Salvation Army and a Ugandan orphanage project.
To promote the festival, organizers delivered barbecued ribs from Kelowna’s Memphis Blues Barbeque House to Mayor Colin Basran and councillors at Monday’s city council meeting.
Two competitions are built into RibFest.
A panel of judges will choose the best barbecue for 2017 from the pro ribbers at the fest at 3:30 p.m. Friday.