13th Annual Decatur BBQ Blues & Bluegrass Festival Less than a Month Away
Decatur Metro | July 19, 2013
Reagan sends along this announcement…
Once again the sights, sounds, and smells of the Decatur BBQ Blues & Bluegrass Festival will invade Harmony Park in Oakhurst Saturday, August 17th from 4pm – 10pm. This year’s event promises to be one of the best with a terrific line up of live musical acts, first class BBQ from Fox Bros, Black Tie, Williamson Bros., and Miss P’s Kitchen, an enhanced kid’s area and much more.
Harmony Park in the Oakhurst section of Decatur will play host to this 13th annual event. Along with BBQ, Music, and a variety of cold craft beer provided by New Belgium, there will be fun and activities for the the entire family including a kids area complete with entertainment, face painting and arts and crafts.
As one of the neighborhoods largest fundraisers the nominal $10 advance entry fee ($15 at the gate) will once again go to support the Decatur community through local grants and community based programming throughout the year.
So don’t wait until festival day purchase your tickets online by logging onto www.decaturbbqfestival.com.
too hot
too expensive
too many strollers
too many people
not enough beer
not enough bbq
I whine so you don’t have to….
I contributed to both too many strollers and not enough beer!
Don’t forget, “If the organizers want to support local charities, that’s fine. But it shouldn’t interfere with my ability to enjoy all the things I love for a price that would fail to generate proceeds.”
Methinks you mistake quibbling about calling $10 to $15 a “nominal” fee with complaining that one is charged at all
[That said, I would still argue, if only to annoy the people who get annoyed whenever I say *anything*, that there are ways to generate just as much revenue from the festival while still allowing for a more economically diverse cross-section of the community to enjoy it.]
Please argue and give me this wisdom of revenue streams – I am all ears…and please don’t make one of your arguments be “find a corporate sponsor”
Why not? Just curious.
I know many of the organizers. I will hook you up with them!
I’d be happy to get involved if they’re open to my crazy input!
In all seriousness, and to attempt to answer Boogaloo’s call for argument, I love all the Decatur festivals. Music, books, beer, art, wine, etc, they are all great. But there’s no denying that every single one of them are pretty much rich (relatively), white (almost exclusively) affairs. Now if anyone wants to argue against that characterization, then I’ve got nothing, because that’s what I’ve seen with my own eyes.
The simple fact that people say, in effect “what’s $10 or $15?”, shows that many people don’t realize that there are many even within our idyllic 4.2 square miles, let alone just outside the municipal line, for whom that amount is restrictive, especially when you’re adding up the cost for a family to attend.
Does this mean I think it’s bad that they are selling tickets for ten or fifteen bucks? No! It may be that it’s the only way to make the event profitable. My main argument in the previous thread was that the word “nominal” is purely subjective. What’s nominal to me may be restrictive to my elderly neighbor or to the single mother with three kids. But then that got me thinking about the business model for these things and ways to generate revenue and that, just maybe, the BB&B Festival was the one event that could truly bring together a more diverse cross-section of our neighborhoods.
There are several options beyond a ticketed entry system to bring in the money. Corporate sponsorship MAY be one of them, so perhaps Boogaloo would like to explain why that shouldn’t be considered. But that would be way down my list of options regardless.
Of course, I may be way off base about this particular event. It may be that the organizers considered all other options and this is all that would work. Or maybe they didn’t, and my crazy rabble rousing will get someone thinking. Or maybe some ideas that I haven’t even thought of to increase the diversity of the participants in our local events might be brainstormed. Or, more likely, a few of you will think I raised a fair question and the rest of you will continue to think that I’m a crazy liberal maroon…
I have actually found the city’s festivals – particularly the beach party – to be MORE diverse than the city’s population at large.
Don’t know if it’s still the case, but there was a time when a lot of complementary tix to the beach party were distributed at the DHA properties downtown. Otherwise the gate fee is going to be out of reach for most of those families.
I’m sure that should you want, JT, you could join the committee that plans the festival. I’m also positive that the organizers will accept any major corporate sponsors with whom you can connect them. That festival raises money to give to lots of groups all over Decatur. It costs money to get all those bands, the stage, the security, the insurance, along with quite a number of other things. The City charges fees for sanitation specifically to the organizers. Please, please, JT, find the money for the festival costs, or just for the grants from the profits.
Every festival, event or fundraiser has to find its own way to survive. But if you happen to be a fan of those that are free to all we have a couple of great ones which could use your support. Forefront for me is the Decatur Book Festival ( 41 days away. yikes!) Lots of great volunteer opportunities, for individuals, families, or groups. Every part of the spectrum of volunteering is available, from managerial to “tote that barge, lift that bale.”
To volunteer, and in so doing contribute to the continuation of this event, email .
Just did
Its August what do you expect ?
Support your neighborhood and listen to great music for $ 10
Plenty of beer
2 additional BBQ vendors this year for total of 4 – plenty of Q
I answer with facts so you don’t have to
Some people have no sense of humor…or knowledge of sarcasm.
. . . or an effective way to detect sarcasm over the internet.
I’m pretty sure AMB was satirizing all the silly complaints that have been raised here before.
I think AMB was kidding…
Hmm…I’d probably agree with all of those “complaints”, if I had actually attended any of the 12 previous festivals. But the near certainty of the first one–too hot–is enough to keep me from finding out.
I know for a fact he wasn’t kidding, because I know someone, who knows someone, who used to live down the street from him.