Giant BBQ Battle

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Now in its 24th year, the Giant BBQ Battle brings great food, music and fun to the streets of the Nation’s Capital. Signaling the beginning of summer, the Giant BBQ Battle is one of DC’s largest and most unique food and music festivals offering the greater DC-area community and visitors a chance to enjoy some of America’s favorite pastimes in the shadow of the Capitol Building.

On June 25 and 26, Pennsylvania Avenue transformed into a festival of amazing sights, sounds, and smells. The usual street noise was replaced by the sound of perfectly tuned guitars, powerful vocals, and soulful melodies. This year’s festival featured a wide variety of musical genres including jazz musician Marcus Johnson, EU featuring Sugar Bear, Secret Society, the Muddy Crows, Trouble Funk, Marcus Mitchell, Tweed Funk, Be’la Dona, and many, many more. The two-day festival included delicious barbecue and tasty treats of all kinds from top vendors, a variety of free food samples and two days of non-stop live entertainment, all surrounding one of the nation’s top barbecue cooking competitions. Proceeds from the event benefited the USO Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore and the Capital Area Food Bank. The event has raised over 1.7 million dollars in past years for these and other District charities.

Keith and I headed out to the festival this past Saturday mainly to check out the ever-popular Taste of Giant Sampling Pavilion, which showcased a line-up of tempting free food samples while celebrity chefs and cookbook authors entertained with cooking demonstrations on the Giant Health & Wellness Stage. Smoke was in the air as we approached Pennsylvania Avenue from the Metro.  The entrance was a little obscure, but allowed us to walk the whole perimeter to see the barbecue contestants prepare and grill their masterpieces. 

It was a gorgeous sunny day - perfect for bbq!  They handed you a paper plate to place all your samples as you collected them down the line. We got various items ranging from lamb chops, sausage, and hamburgers to chips and salads to drinks and ice cream.  Despite the long line, waiting for the Giant samples was a highlight of the day.  Many of my samples I gave to Keith, which made him too full to get any of the other barbecue items for purchase until a couple hours later.  My favorite samples included the Cabot cheeses and turkey sausage.  Keith enjoyed the Australian lamb chops and Bush's baked beans.

After the sampling tent, we walked around to see the rest of the vendors at the festival.  Some had games and prizes which were fun, while others just wanted you to sign up for their product or gave out information and other free samples like the typical water bottle, pens, chip clip, or chapstick.  There were also other food booths and beer tents with food and drinks to purchase.  After carrying all our freebies and walking up and down the street all day, we were sweaty and a little tired. We sat in the shade to listen to the live bands play and Keith ordered a quarter rack of ribs.  I watched the guys cook the meat on the large grills and soon Keith was given three large pieces slathered in sauce.  He thought it all tasted great.  All in all, the Giant Barbecue Battle is a great summer festival that showcases one of America's favorite family culinary past times.