YOU CAN ALMOST BREATHE THE CHOLESTEROL

Blue Ridge Barbecue Festival
Harmon Field, Tryon, NC


Each year around mid June Barbecue aficionados from all over the south and points beyond converge on the little town of Tryon, NC for a festival of music, art and pork. Smoke and music fill the air in equal parts. You can almost breathe the cholesterol. At one end of the park is the stage where local blues, rock and folk acts ply their trade to a willing and somewhat lubricated audience. Under the shade trees at the back, artists and artisans line up their stalls and hawk their wares from the arcane to the sublime. In between, food stalls line the field where you can choose from several award winning purveyors of pork, beef and chicken in eastern, southern or western styles, or sample several if your arteries are up to it.

The barbecue is good, as one would expect. I’ve never been disappointed. But the treat for me is touring the competition area on Friday night, where well cooks imbibe their beverages of choice and tend their grills in preparation for the judging. Each team has its own recipe, of course, but their creativity is not confined to their food. Their tents and trailers are decorated in styles ranging from tacky to hilarious. The last time I went (2008). There were “The Silence of the Hams” complete with a rip-off banner from the old Jodie Foster movie, “Butts and Breasts,” “Pigs in Paris” with a mock up of the Eiffel Tower, “Sue E. Pigg”(“Cooking everything from butts to guts.”) and my personal favorite, the guys from “Buttrub.com.” As a rule, the men tend the smokers, the women chat and organize, and the children play games in a placid family atmosphere reminiscent of my childhood days of camping with family and friends.

It’s a fun and lively couple of days. The festival is only open on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday everyone packs up and heads for the next festival, and Tryon goes back to being a sleepy and picturesque little mountain town for another year. The 2010 festival is tentatively set for June 11-12. Barbecue lovers mark your calendars.

Diner rating: 5