FLW TOURNAMENT
Bass & BBQ Festival returns to Baxter Plaza
Fishing League Worldwide has partnered with area barbecue teams to bring some added Arkansas flavor to the Forrest Wood Cup this weekend.
The Bass & BBQ Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Four teams have already registered from the surrounding area, including Tater 2, 501 BBQ , Adams Mobile BBQ and Catering, and Bryant’s BBQ. In addition, live music from Addison Johnson, Highway 124 and the Luke Williams Band will add to the atmosphere throughout the weekend.
The barbecue festival began with the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup in Hot Springs and since then, Joe Opanger, director of public relations for the FLW, said the event has grown significantly.
“We don’t do this at all of our FLW stops, but we always have it for the Forrest Wood Cup, so we’re really looking forward to coming back to where it all started and showing how much it has grown,” he said.
The three-day barbecue festival at Baxter Plaza will coincide with the FLW Expo in the Hot Springs Convention Center, and is not a competition as it has been in the past, Opanger said. The four teams will serve as barbecue vendors with portions of the proceeds from the festival going to Arkansas charities of the teams’ choice.
“There’s definitely a huge draw at the Forrest Wood Cup each year, and we get hundreds of visitors coming out to taste the barbecue, so the Bass & BBQ Festival has really been a great addition to the FLW Expo,” Opanger said. “And the Expo, we have over 100 vendors showing the latest and greatest in bass fishing gear. It’s just a whole lot of fun for the whole family.”
In addition to the Forrest Wood Cup Friday through Sunday on Lake Ouachita, a weekend full of events around Hot Springs will get the community outdoors.
Youth anglers will take to Lake Hamilton Wednesday through Friday for The Bass Federation’s Junior World Championship, with 36 teams from across the United States and Canada.
On Saturday, at Family Park, 215 Family Park Road, children younger than 18 years old and Special Olympics athletes can take part in the Unified Fishing Derby. Registration will open at 8 a.m., and the first 100 participants will receive a goody bag and equipment if needed. The top two winners will get called on the FLW stage before the pros on Saturday.
The Bass & BBQ Festival is sponsored by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.