17th Annual BBQ N Blues Festival
June 9, 2012
The 2012 BBQ ‘N Blues Festival will be held on Saturday, June 9. The Festival is the way that the Cushing Chamber of Commerce and its members as well as the City of Cushing pays tribute to the Pipeline Industry. The pipeline companies also are very heavily involved in the Saturday festivities. The companies each barbecue 100 pounds of brisket to serve to those barbecue afficionados who come out each year to enjoy the food, live Blues music and children’s activities.
However, Saturday is not the start of the event. The Thursday before the Festival pipeline companies, their employees, friends and business acquaintances tee off at the Cushing Country Club early on Thursday morning at the Pipeline Appreciation Golf Tournament. Two rounds of golf, one in the morning and one in the afternoon on Thursday and one round of golf Friday morning are held. In 2011, sixty-four (64) teams were entered and played in the golf tournament.
We have added a sporting clay shooting event to the BBQ 'N Blues Festival, which will be held the Friday before the festival. Two rounds will be held, one in the morning and one in the afternoon on Friday.
Then that evening, those same people along with the BBQ ‘N Blues Festival Sponsors gather at the BBQ ‘N Blues Festival Site for a private party held in their honor to relax, listen to live music and in general enjoy each other’s company.
The BBQ ‘N Blues Festival in 2012, for the first time, will be held in the evening. It will start at 5:00 p.m. and go until 9:00 p.m. The Festival on Saturday is open to the public. There is no admission fee, however, should you want to taste some of the most delicious barbecue for miles around, it will cost you $5 to buy a “Taster’s Kit.” That will entitle you to try as much barbecue as you can eat.
The barbecue is prepared on the World’s Largest Smoker. It has eleven arms that extend from the firebox and each company who cooks hangs their grill from one of the arms and uses the firebox in the smoker to prepare their meat. In 2011, there were 10 of the 11 arms that prepared barbecue brisket. This year, we are anticipating filling all eleven arms with grills. This year’s companies that will be doing the cooking are Enterprise Products, Plains, Enbridge, Matrix Service, Gavilon, Sunoco Logistics, SemCrude, Centurion, Blue Knight, Magellan, Deeprock/Mercuria, and TransCanada.
Somewhere around 8:00 p.m. on Saturday evening, awards will be given out in two categories. One is known as the “People’s Choice” and the second will be the “Judges’ Choice.” Besides having three judges whose job is to decide who has the best tasting barbecued brisket, the people who purchase Taster’s Kits will also be supplied with a ticket that will allow them to vote for their favorite barbecue. The competition is fierce and the winner gets to brag for an entire year until the next BBQ ‘N Blues Festival. Their competition ensures that the brisket you eat will be the best you ever had!
The Festival is called BBQ ‘N Blues so let’s talk about the Blues part of the Festival. In 2011, we were fortunate to have one of the most talented up and coming Blues singers/musicians in the world. He was so good in fact that we have asked him back. He is Little Joe McLerran from Sapulpa, Oklahoma. He will be playing on Saturday evening during the entire event. You can go to www.cushingchamber.org and click on Annual Events, go to BBQ N Blues and then find the Entertainment Page. Click on that and get ready for Little Joe McLerran. A young man who plays Blues music with an old soul!