BBQ Festival? Yes Ma'am!

I'd reallllllly love to be at the CMA Festival this year in Nashville, TN (after watching JMC's performance from last year over-and-over again on GAC) during the weekend of June 5-8, 2008 but if I'm not...

Annual BBQ festival at fairgrounds
RALEIGH - The state’s top ‘cue makers will be crowned at The N.C. Pork Council’s Carolina Championship Barbecue Cook-off on June 6 and 7.
Twenty-five teams from across the state will gather at the State Fairgrounds and begin cooking the night of June 6 to prepare for judging at noon on June 7. The annual contest, sponsored by the N.C. Pork Council, will award the top teams in both culinary and showmanship divisions. Winning cooks will share more than $4,700 worth of cash prizes.

For more information, log on to www.ncagfest.com.How awesome is it that as noted in the same article from above: The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, a Raleigh-based organization that distributes food to the area's poor and undernourished, and the Wake Tech Culinary Technology program will receive all proceeds made from the sale of competing teams’ barbecue.So I checked out http://www.ncagfest.com/ and there are lots of cool things taking place (oh hush, I'm a country girl at heart!): Celebrate North Carolina's farm bounty at the first Got to be NC Festival blending the largest assembly of antique farm equipment in the state with a full carnival with games, rides and great food. Mix in the official N.C. Barbecue Cooking Championship sponsored by the N.C. Pork Council, the Got to be NC Agriculture Food Expo featuring tasty foods to sample and buy, antique tractor pulls, fireworks, great music, draft horse pulls, a petting zoo, pig races and fun for the whole family.

Admission is free except for the tractor pulls, grandstand concerts, rides and games. Gates open Thursday and Friday, 3 p.m to midnight; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to midnight.Schedule, maps, and more are available on the site, too!