Ribfest Recap

I live in a moderately sized university town. The size of this town doubles in September and then halves again in April as the students come and go with the school year. This coming weekend is move in weekend. Every year thousands of students  move into the residences in the South end of town effectively shutting down traffic for kilometres around. They storm local business for supplies and local restaurants for sustenance. Residents of our small town batten down the hatches and pray for Thanksgiving when the novelty of school and impending midterms tend to calm things down around here.

I hate move in weekend.

Thankfully city planners have given all of us full-time residents a reason to party before we effectively become prisoners in our own town. That reason my friends, is Ribfest. Yes, you heard right – Ribfest.  A festival devoted to ribs.  Not even just ribs really, meat in many forms. Chicken? They’ve got it! Brisket? You bet! Want some sides too? Coleslaw and baked beans abound.

This year, as every year, I went with married friends Natalie and Brad as well as some of Natalie’s family. We each patronize a different stand then share our selection so that each person gets an opportunity to try different ribs. The rest of the night is devoted to sitting around in the beer tent having a few drinks and spotting some of more interesting fashion choices. I don’t want to make any character judgements here (who am I kidding?) but it seems that neck tattoos and mullets are more prevalent at Ribfest than in the general population. I tried to snap a few pictures on my Blackberry as I forgot my camera at home. Bad blogger! I was never brave enough to get one of someone with a neck tattoo, so these will have to suffice.

The festival grounds.

Natalie and Brad in line for their ribs.

My selection

Grilling them to perfection

My ribs were delicious,  as were the beans and coleslaw, which is saying something because I don’t usually like coleslaw. I polished them off pretty quickly. So quickly that I didn’t even get a picture of what they looked like before I gobbled them all up.

This also happened with the deep friend Mars bar I consumed later that night. The one thing that I did happen to catch a few pictures of were the tip jars around the festival, which were hilarious.

Another Ribfest under our (slightly larger) belts!