Once again, the Papa Joe`s BanjoBQue

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8 P.M. — R HE AVETT BROTHER
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nce again, the Papa Joe’s BanjoBQue
and Bluegrass Festival is going to be a hoot — a hootenanny, that is. Simply
put, it’s going to have enough food, beer, music and fun to make your Memorial
Day weekend one for the ages.
Now in its fifth year, the BanjoBQue was created to
honor the memory of the late Joe Pond, whose love of
barbecue and bluegrass music was the stuff of legend.
When his daughter, Cathy Varnadore, started designing
the festival, she had big ambitions — corralling the
best bluegrass performers with the best competitive
barbecuers, adding other good stuff like beer
and lots of down-home fun, and making it the
area’s signature Memorial Day festival.
She succeeded and then some.
What follows is a brief rundown of what to expect.
And, as always, all proceeds from the event benefit the
Joseph R. Pond Memorial Foundation.
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12:30 P.M. AND
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BLUEGRAS OOTS & HELLMOUTH
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1:45 P.M. — E BLUE DOGS
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1:15 P.M. — ELTA CANE
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4:15 P.M. — OOTS & HELLMOUTH
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5
8:5
The Avett Brothers
The barbecue part of Papa Joe’s BanjoBQue
has always been a hit: Even in its first year it was
popular with the teams competing.
This year, however, organizers made a giant leap
in other aspects of the festival, and it’s a gamble
that Doug Varnadore of AB Beverage says is
paying off.
“The entertainment? We’ve been at the same
level for the last four years,” he said. “This year,
we got to the point where the Avett Brothers were
available. Of course, they cost a pretty penny and
we said, ‘All right, we’ve been in it for four years
with the same entertainment, so let’s go out and
get a bigger lineup and make this a Southeastern
event for Memorial Day. So we did step up that
dollar amount and it’s turned out to be a pretty
good investment so far.”
That is a bit of an understatement. VIP, two-
Blue Dogs
day passes sold
out at least a
month in advance.
Online ticket sales,
currently at more
than 3,000, have
come from patrons
in 33 states. And those, keep in mind, are all twoday passes. The only way concertgoers can get
single-day tickets is at the gate.
Varnadore recognizes that it’s quite an
accomplishment.
“Thirty-three states represented for purchasing
tickets,” he repeated. “I don’t think we’ve had any
other event in Augusta that can say that.”
Everything at this year’s BanjoBQue is bigger
and better, it seems. The number of craft beers that
will be available is more than 30, with local brews
from Statesboro’s Eagle Creek and Jekyll Brewing
in Alpharetta among the new ones represented.
And to make it even better for patrons, all beers —
whether it be craft of Budweiser — are $4.
Camping is also an option which should prove
to be popular, given how far some are traveling for
the shows.
Clinton Gregory
Hoots N HellMouth
“There’s no telling how many campers we’ll
have,” Varnadore said. “You can just show up and
camp out. We’ll have a designated area for it. With
the dry weather we’ve had, we’re asking people not
to have any open fires, though.”
And last but certainly not least is the barbecue
part of the festival, which has been growing steadily
throughout the years. A Kansas City Barbeque
Society (KCBS)-sanctioned event with $40,000 in
prize money available, this year’s contest features
approximately 24 more teams than last year. That’s
about 80 teams, three-quarters of which are in the
professional division and the rest in the backyard
contest. That growth, Varnadore said, has been
almost exclusively by word of mouth.
“We’ve had two back to back good years at the
Evans Towne Center Park and the cookers, they’re
telling all the other cookers, ‘Man, if you haven’t
been to this one, you need to go to it this year,’” he
said. “The cookers tell me that they enjoy this one
more than any other contest during the year.”
In fact, Varnadore said, he’s had to tell teams to
wait because signup isn’t available for 2015 yet.
And here’s the great news for festival-goers:
Many of the professional teams have signed up to
be vendors, which means award-winning barbecue
will be available to all both Friday and Saturday.
Proof of how important this contest is is that the
Discovery Channel has taken notice.
“We’ve got the Discovery Channel, who will be
here with a booth both days, and they’ll be showing
the ‘BBQ Pitmasters’ show,” Varnadore said. “This
is going to end up one of the biggest shows in the
Southeast, I feel sure, because we have a heavy duty
number of professional cookers participating.”
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Showgoer
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