The second-annual Suds and Swine BBQ Festival will be held on April 12 and 13.
File photo | The Laurinburg Exchange
LAURINBURG — The Suds and Swine BBQ Festival is back in Laurinburg this April and organizers are preparing for it to be even bigger and better.
Last year, Laurinburg got on the North Carolina BBQ circuit and held the first Suds and Swine BBQ festival with under 20 professional teams cooking whole hogs in hopes of becoming the first Suds and Swine champion. This year the festival is already full of professional competitors and will be hosting over 20 teams.
“Pretty much all of the teams we had last year signed up again this year, “said Tourism Development Authority Director Cory Hughes. “We ended up going to the state competition to recruit some more teams for this year and some of our previous competitors stood up and said we were looking for more sign-ups and they encouraged others to sign up. Having the teams helping us recruit and grow the event was something we wanted to achieve because it just means we are providing a good environment for our competitors.”
Hughes added many of the teams last year were blown away by the community support that showed up to the festival last year.
“So many of them told us after that they don’t typically see the community at the events welcoming them like Laurinburg did,” Hughes said. “And I think that’s something that really helps us stand out. This year we are planning to continue ways of getting the community involved. We do plan on bringing back the local competition where locals can cook a pork butt instead of a whole hog … we also hope to incorporate the schools and students somehow whether that’s through an art competition or something else but we’re still working on that at this time.”
Hughes added the weekend event will be similar to last year with a kick-off concert on Friday which will feature Too Much Sylvia. The first-night event is similar to a Laurinburg After Five being set up in McDuffie Square with beer tents and food trucks. Friday night will also see the introductions of all the teams both professional and local with the chance for the community to speak with some of the professional cooks throughout the evening.
On Saturday the judges will pick the winner of both competitions before the pork is sold in pints as well as sandwiches for those out and about to enjoy.
“We’ll have bands out on Saturday, some in the morning with a headliner sometime in the afternoon,” Hughes said. “We’ll have more information on those as we get closer.”
The event is a partnership between the Tourism Development Authority, the Laurinburg-Scotland County Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Rotary Club of Laurinburg.
“All of the proceeds we get from the day will go back into the community through the Rotary Club,” Hughes added.
The second-annual Suds and Swine BBQ Festival will be held on April 12 and 13.