Shown is a pitmaster competing in the 2024 Suds and Swine BBQ Festival. This year’s competition will be held April 11-12.
File photo | The Laurinburg Exchange
LAURINBURG — The Annual Suds and Swine BBQ Festival returns to downtown Laurinburg for its third year.
The weekend starts at 6 p.m. on April 11 with the first Carolina Hearts Homecare Laurinburg After Five, featuring Southside Station. During this time, both professional and backyard BBQ teams will begin cooking and will continue overnight.
“We have 25 teams already signed up for our pro event, meaning we’re filled for that,” said Tourism Development Director Cory Hughes. “There are a lot of returning teams this year, and we’ve got some multi-year state champions coming back to cook with us.”
Hughes added that there are 16 spots in the Backyard BBQ Competition, which is open to anyone in the community who wants to show off their cooking skills.
“We’ve got about eight teams already signed up, so we’re actively trying to recruit more teams for the local competition,” Hughes said. “In the backyard competition, teams will cook two butts overnight and be judged on Saturday. There is no cost to enter, but there are prizes for first, second, and third place. We had 14 teams last year, and we’re expecting some of them to return, so we encourage anyone interested to sign up while spots are still available.”
Also happening on Friday will be a hamburger cookoff featuring Scotland High culinary students.
“We won’t be selling any barbecue on Friday; it will go on sale around 10:30 a.m. Saturday after it’s been judged,” Hughes said. “But there will be food vendors as well as the culinary students serving food on Friday night.”
The fun continues on Saturday with the judging and sale of the barbecue, alongside Springfest, organized by the Arts Council of Scotland County. The festival is still accepting craft vendors for Springfest.
“There’s going to be a kids zone sponsored by Edward Jones,” Hughes said. “Smithfield is providing the whole hogs, which is a great partnership for us. We also want to thank all our sponsors, including Gibson Oil, which is sponsoring the stage again, and Scotia Village. It takes a village to pull this together, and our community shows up in a big way. Last year, we saw a 25% increase in attendance, with about 3,500 people, and we’re excited to keep expanding. We also sold a ton of barbecue — 2,000 pounds — and we’ll have even more this year, so hopefully, everyone will get their barbecue.”
Hughes added that Suds & Swine has been recognized by the North Carolina Pork Council and Whole Hog Competition for its quality, even being asked to help write new laws and rules for communities starting their competitions.
“We’re truly held up as the right way to do it, and we’re excited about that,” Hughes said. “Being able to trumpet our community is always helpful — they’re talking about Laurinburg, and that’s a good thing. We’re excited to see this event continue to grow and highlight all the exciting happenings in Laurinburg and Scotland County. That’s why we’re thrilled to partner with so many different community organizations to bring this fun-filled weekend to downtown Laurinburg.”