On Friday and Saturday, Mar. 6 and 7, BBQ grills, live music and the sounds of friends and families having fun took over Fulwood Park. The Rhythm & Ribs BBQ Festival was back for the seventh year and the park was jam packed with competition BBQ teams, vendors of all kinds, entertainment on two stages, activities for kids and festivalgoers.

The weekend, part of a sanctioned Georgia Barbeque Association competition, brought in over 60 BBQ cooking teams, in both the professional and backyard capacity, which was our biggest turnout yet for competition. And all that BBQ was definitely delicious!

The festival Facebook page has been flooded with comments and reviews about the weekend. People loved the variety of entertainment, enjoyed shopping with some great vendors, let their kids enjoy some activities and just enjoyed being in Fulwood Park with some sunshine (finally). The teams that competed have said over and over that Tifton is one of the competitions they look forward to every year! It was truly a great weekend of BBQ, entertainment, vendors and fun!

We could not make this festival happen year after year without a lot of help! It’s always risky to start a list of acknowledgements, for fear of leaving someone out, but we must try to thank all those who helped make the 2020 Rhythm & Ribs BBQ Festival another huge success.

First, thank you to the Tifton-Tift Co. Tourism Association Outreach Marketing Group for all of your support and hard work in making this happen. And a huge thank you to the hard-working staff of the City of Tifton and ESG Operations; Jeff West, Michael Mitchem, James Henderson and their teams at ESG went above and beyond to make sure Fulwood Park was clean and ready for all of the weekend’s activities. They came early and stayed late for days before the festival. It was all hands on deck to make sure everything was perfect. You all certainly made Tifton look good with your hard work and professional attitudes. This team also helped load in all of the teams and vendors, which is no easy task when maneuvering around pine trees and water. They worked hard during the festival to clean up trash, keep the restrooms stocked, clear muddy paths and so much more. We absolutely could not do it without you. None of your efforts went unnoticed.

Thank you to all volunteers! There are too many individual names to list, but many gave of their time to sell t-shirts, answer questions, run errands, and put out fires. Thank you Lorine Lewis and Donna Rocker for your help on Friday. Thank you to the Tifton Junior Woman’s Club for providing numerous people to fill a variety of spots. Thank you to Coastal Plains CASA for arranging the food for hospitality and getting it picked up and delivered. Thank you to anyone who just jumped in where they saw a need. Thank you to the Tift County High School Beta Club for providing so many student volunteers. Thank you also to Paul Boyd and the Ham Radio Club for your assistance. A HUGE thank you to Markevious White, who has shown up year after year to help us in any way we need. We couldn’t have made it through the day without any of you.

Thank you, Chief Steve Hyman and the Tifton Police Department and Chief Bobby Bennett, and the Tifton Fire Department for keeping everyone safe and watching over property in the park all weekend. We know it can be hard to control crowds and provide security for a whole park overnight, but your crews did a wonderful job. We are proud to partner with all of each year.

Thank you to all of those who were vendors; whether you had food, drinks, arts and crafts, commercial products, activities or information, you helped make our festival grand. This year was the largest group of vendors ever, and we think there was a little something for everyone. Without you, the festival would not have been such a success!

Thank you to our local “celebrity” judges that helped judge the Backyard Competition: Curtis Akins, Stacey Beckham, Jason Clark, Marty Cohen, Eve Copeland-Brechbiel, Ryan Currie, Willie Dean, Buddy Dowdy, Wes Ehlers, Lashawne Greene, Dale Hall, Jonathan Halstead, David Hilliard, Melissa Hughes, Bryce Johnson, Mandy Kavanaugh, Rob Martin, Austin McAlpin, Pete Pyrzenski, Jerome Roberts, Gene Scarbrough, Dan Surles, Jim Torell and Randy Tucker. Thank you also to all those who came from all over to be a certified Georgia Barbeque Association professional judge. We couldn’t have a BBQ contest with you. We hope you enjoyed your time here. We know what a tough job eating all that BBQ is!

Thank you to all of our BBQ competition teams! We had teams from right here in Tifton, surrounding communities, all across the state and even some from out of state. Over 60 total teams showed up to give us a taste of their best BBQ. Thank you for spending your weekend with us and supporting our festival. We hope you will be back soon to spend more time in our great town.

Thank you to all of our entertainers! We had a fabulous day of all kinds of music. Thank you to Molly Tuttle, AJ Ghent, Legendary JC’s, Oliver Hazard, Hannah Anders, Derrick Dove and the Peacekeepers and Sabrina Solo. Thank you also to those who performed on our Community Stage – Line Dance Fever, SCOUT and Jason Bozik, Lizz Faith, Corey Sumner and Jon Morrison. Thank you to The Pine Box Dwellers and Daniel Parrish for kicking off our weekend on Friday night with great music. We have heard nothing but good comments about all of the music that was available over the weekend.

A big thank you to those local restaurants and organizations who donated food, drinks, and supplies for our hospitality tent: Captain D’s, Panera Bread, Pizza Hut (Hwy. 82 location), Bojangles, Surcheros, Simply Sweets, Zaxby’s (both locations), Papa John’s, Marco’s, Ole Time’s Buffet, Barberitos, Wisham Jellies and First Baptist Church. Thank you Williams Hotel Group for sponsoring our Judges’ Breakfast on Saturday morning. Also, a big thanks to the Tift County High School Beta Club for providing coffee early Saturday morning.

A huge thanks also goes out to all of our sponsors. Without them, this festival could not have happened. Thank you, City of Tifton and Tifton-Tift County Tourism Association: Outreach Marketing Group, for the organization for the festival. Thank you, ESG, Inc., for all of your assistance, supplies, labor, and time. Thanks to our festival sponsors including: Boston Butt Sponsor – South Georgia/North Florida Eye Partners; Pork Loin Sponsors – Stafford Development Company and Wilmot & Powell; Pork Chop – Advantage Realty, Colony Bank, First Choice Title, Mi-Lady bakery, South Georgia Banking Co., Southern Eagle Distributing, Splash N Dash, The Spearman Agency and Tifton-Tift Co. Chamber of Commerce; Bacon Strip – Ameris Bank, Bowen Farms, Grocery Music Festival, Lowe Electric, Southern Caterers and Tifton Mall. Additional in-kind sponsors include Hedquotrs Valet, Plant TiftNet and Shiver Carts. THANK YOU!

Finally, thank you Tifton and the surrounding communities for coming out on what started out as a very wet week, but turned into a beautiful weekend. Fulwood Park was packed all day long, with over 15,000 people, which was a wonderful thing to see. Thank you for supporting this festival each year. We are already planning for next year, for additions and changes. Competition and vendor applications will go live on Nov. 1. Go ahead and mark your calendars for the 2021 Rhythm & Ribs BBQ Festival….March 5-6, 2021. See you next year!

Rhythm & Ribs BBQ Festival Committee