Contest Announcment Windy City BBQ Classic 2014 October 10th&11th

It's official! The Windy City BBQ Classic 2014 will be held October 10th & 11th, once again at Chicago's historic Soldier Field!

Our contest was a blast last year, bringing together BBQ competition teams, restaurants, craft beer enthusiasts, live music, and just an overall great time.

The contest is hosted in downtown Chicago, on the lakefront and draws a pretty big crowd. We're the only contest in downtown Chicago, as we try to promote and spread the love of BBQ from the blessed countryside into the big city.

This year, we're growing again, giving out more money & prizes, and continuing in the tradition of great BBQ with great people in our wonderful city.

We're proud to be the only ALL-Inclusive BBQ Comp - teams and attendees enjoy all-you-can (responsibly consume) BBQ, Beer, cocktails & more. Lagunitas Brewery has signed on again to be our Beer sponsor, as they just opened their new brewery here in Chicago.
http://lagunitas.com

We're bringing out 50+ of Chicago's best restaurants to give away samples of their best BBQ fare all day Saturday, and teams are encouraged to enjoy that portion of the event as well.

We're going dollar-for-dollar this year with our contributory efforts to Operation BBQ Relief - our goal this year is a $10,000 donation!
www.operationbbqrelief.org

download your app today!
http://www.windycitybbqclassic.com/competitors.html

We decided to change the date due to EXTREME heat last year. It was 90 plus degrees labor day weekend, and that is the last weekend we can host the event before the Bears start playing football. The Bear's schedule doesn't come out until June - and we can't host the event at Soldier Field when they Bears have a home game. October 10th&11th is the weekend of the Chicago Marathon - so it's the only weekend they ask the commissioner to not schedule a home-game, and the marathon date is scheduled much earlier than the football schedule. That's the dual reason behind it - and Scottie, no need to wait for checks this year: we're handing out cash! One of the problems with the checks is that some teams couldn't accept checks made out to their team names, others didn't want the personal liability of a check being written to them - so this year we're eliminating any delays by handing out cash from the stage!

Looking forward to another great year, feel free to post any additional questions here - or email me directly jared@backcountryq.com

sweetracks said:

Is this a KCBS sanctioned contest. It appears to follow many of the same guidelines

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Not KCBS sanctioned, but similar structure/rules/scoring. The biggest difference is we don't judge garnish and/or have rules applying to saucing, etc. Our contest is more about the meat and hardwood cookers.

Ron_L said:

What was the reason for the date change? This is the same weekend as the Central Illinois Bragging Rights competition in Arthur, IL, which is one of the oldest standing competitions in the state and w regular stop for a lot of Chicago-area teams.

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We decided to change the date due to EXTREME heat last year. It was 90 plus degrees labor day weekend, and that is the last weekend we can host the event before the Bears start playing football. The Bear's schedule doesn't come out until June - and we can't host the event at Soldier Field when they Bears have a home game. October 10th&11th is the weekend of the Chicago Marathon - so it's the only weekend they ask the commissioner to not schedule a home-game, and the marathon date is scheduled much earlier than the football schedule. That's the dual reason behind it

Had a lot of fun last year. Good beer and vodka samples!! Talked to a lot of folks walking around the event. Only real complaint was having to wait a really long time for checks after the awards. I'm sure that will be fixed.

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Scottie, no need to wait for checks this year: we're handing out cash! One of the problems with the checks is that some teams couldn't accept checks made out to their team names, others didn't want the personal liability of a check being written to them - so this year we're eliminating any delays by handing out cash from the stage!

Looking forward to another great year, feel free to post any additional questions here - or email me directly jared@backcountryq.com

ITBFQ said:

Was hoping to judge this one again this year, but most likely won't be able to. That weekend is always the weekend of my niece and nephew's birthday party. Too bad, it was an absolute blast. Do people really mind the heat that much?

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Yeah, it was the one consistent complaint - it was too d*MN hot! We're adding some tents this year to the main area, so there will be some shade, but we want to be sure it's in the 50's-60's this year - it will make the event much more enjoyable. Hopefully it won't be snowing :roll:

I understand the difficulties of working around the Bears' schedule. They did announce the 2014 schedule yesterday so I don't know if that helps or not...

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:shocked:

My event contact told me early June....well this is an interesting development.

We've had some entries already, but I'm always open-minded to change. Let me work on this, for now that date can remain penciled-in - we'll see how many folks would actually do both if we moved it to the following weekend....anyone want to chime in?

Just to update my initial thoughts...I'd like to keep it the same weekend - I knew, when planning, that the Central IL Braggin' right comp was the same weekend - unfortunately, anyone who cooks in that won't be able to cook in ours. There is a comp almost every weekend in October - and I don't want to move it to the end of the month, worried that it will be TOO COLD ): For now, it will remain October 10th&11th - we've already had a number of teams sign up for the event with that date in mind.