Hogging Up Is Coming Virginia Festival

Mark your calendar the 2nd Annual, Hogging Up is happening folks. June 27-29th 2014 .If you live in MD, DC, VA, WV or PA get your butts to my festival! I have a great lineup this year BBQ tours on Friday and Sat, Samples for Sale sat 11-2:30, and great entertaiment!  Check out hoggingup.com for more information and schedule.

Update: We have raised over $8000.00 for charity. 

Hogging Up was cancelled for 2015.

thank you for your support

page last updated 1.11.15

Supporting BBQ Festivals #Barbecue #barbeque #BBQ Towns People Businesses Step Up

This is pork.

Barbecue Festivals: Why Communities Should Support Them

It's not often I talk politics but today I'm going to. It worries me that some of the well respected barbecue festivals and competitions have taken a year off in 2014 ; because I'm worried that some many not regroup or return.  I'm asking the community for their support and to understand just what these festivals are all about.

The Kansas City Barbeque Society is the largest non profit group of barbeque enthusiasts who teach hardwood smoking.  Okay, it's a group of grilling enthusiasts, but it takes an art of smoking on wood and not on propane or with electric grills. That can be hard.  Smoking meat to perfection takes time and practice and ten people can use the same cut of meat , have the same amounts of rub and spices and sauces set in front of them, and cook on ten different grills and based on wood, grill, way in which it's flipped or cooked, the meat it may taste completely different.  It's a sport or hobby and many teams consist of family or friends. To me, that's good clean fun! Not to mention people can become a CBJ Judge by taking judge classes and make a hobby of judging competitions, and that in itself is a fun past time. 




What's in it for the Public? 


So the public comes to these events and sees the teams smoking it up. Kids love to see these big grills, they are not something you see every day.  Often there's entertainment/bands, sometimes beer, wine and kids activities, arts, crafts, vendors, and sometimes even a People's Choice where the public can buy samples, etc.   If the event is more than one day then quite possibly there's different activities on each day!   Just seeing some of the grills is amazing.

As well, some organizers hold the festival to give back to a certain charity or cause. For instance, Hog Happening in Shelby gives to the Children's Homes.  Hogging Up in Winchester this year is supporting the SPCA in addition to other local non profits including the Clear Brook Woodbine Church.

Here's a grill I saw down in North Carolina. See more here.

From homemade grills to big expensive smokers, you can see them all. 

Lack of Town Official Support for the Small Organizers

Having a KCBS festival if you are individuals or private parties hurts for a few reasons, one, you aren't a government organization or town chamber of commerce who may be apt to obtain tourism rebates or grants for their contest. So the organizers are left forking the costs out themselves.  It is only with community support and patrons that the event can survive.  First off, I want to thank the patrons and barbecue lovers who do come out for supporting them, I know many of you attend these event religiously in search of eating yourself ribs and pork all day long....


In some cases, town officials make it very hard to have , hold and grow such an event.  Today I'm here to say SHAME ON THEM.  Some town codes or laws make it impossible for these events to grow and succeed.  I've seen great contests do battle with county officials year after year and eventually they are worn out and give up. We call this "tired of jumping through hoops." What I can't understand is why the struggle when the contests bring folks in from all over the nation to their towns, using their gas, staying in their hotels, or eating at the restaurants. To me, I'd want this commerce brought into my town as long as the event was run well.

Businesses Should Also Support Them

For local companies, supporting the festival in some way, shape or form is a great way to get your logo or product in front of the town in which you do business. That's great opportunities for direct marketing! Many of these festivals have programs or websites, and why aren't you in them or on them?


I'd like to add that I'm not talking about my own festivals, I'm very thankful the community and the town has worked with me on them, but then again, I'm not one so easy to give up.

So next time you hear of a bbq festival coming, please go check it out.  Some raise money for causes or charities and all take a ton of work to pull off.

Further Reading: 
Take a Judge Class in June
Great Fun Festival to Attend in May - BBQ Jamboree
Come to My Festival in June - Hogging Up
Come to My Festival in October - Hogging Up WV


Here's something:

Hey, this is new:

BBQ Competition Hogging Up Festival Photos

Hog-It-Up's mascot on top their Stump's Smoker made for interesting photography.

The wife and I are finally recuperating from the Hogging Up BBQ Festival.  For a first year event I was pleased that I could do some good for the community and the charity organizations we were working with and for; and was able to bring some new folks into the town of Winchester for the weekend. This included 26 professional BBQ teams and over 40 judges , KCBS reps, and volunteers from all over the map.  Not to mention a lot of folks from out of town came to visit.

Seeing the happiness on Pop Pop's Chicken and Pig's little girls' face made our day!

OVERALL:  With the community's help we were able to raise:

$2024 and counting for CancerCare.org.
$600 to the local Assembly of God Church
$400 for the  local Clear Brook Volunteer Fire Department
and give the beer/wine profits 100% to the Local Winchester Exchange Group.

It was a lot of work but we are please with the results.


KCBS COMPETITION:  We felt the KCBS competition went smoothly and we did the best we can to put on a first rate competition and please our competitors with a great styling breakfast, lunch, and awards ceremony.  We want to thank those competitors who gave back $420 in prizes which went to help CancerCare.org.  The wife had fun making the recycled bbq trophies with the recycle group kids back home.

Some kiddie activities were good for parents, too!

THE FESTIVAL:  The festival itself was small for a first year festival, having limited kids activities which included mini gas powered cars, free Cornhole, and the Monster Truck rides.  You could also see an antique Fire truck and Blue Angels plane (won't be seeing these for awhile.) We were very happy Col. Blevins dropped off the plane, which was actually flown up til the 60's.

Me and Col. Steve Blevins, retired from the military discussing the sequester.

You could walk around Fri and Sat and see the different BBQ Teams cooking it up, and shop with crafters, artists, book authors, and bbq sauce gurus. The admission charge got you in to hear some top notch bands, but the public was under the impression they would be eating or tasting samples of BBQ.   Even the Winchester Star stated you could NOT taste the BBQ from the teams, so we are not sure where the confusion was on that.  Each festival is different. Some barbecue festivals have a people's choice but ours did not.  That all depends on where you go and the competition itself. In Frederick County, the health department would have inspected and made each team giving samples to pay $40 health permit. Many teams were not interested in doing this when in fact they had to be on a strict competition schedule.

You could eat a nice country style dinner with Big Fat Daddy's from BBQ Chicken and Rib Platters to regular fair food.

 
FOOD:  Big Fat Daddy's food was offered primarily to recoup the expenses it took to put on a festival without major monetary sponsors.  There were several other food vendors present offering ice cream and kettle corn.   It wouldn't have made sense to bring in a ton of food on a first year festival because then, no one makes any money.  We were able to donate over $1400 from our Food Stands towards CancerCare !

Thanks to my family and friends for busting their butts all week to help with our festival!

FRI NIGHT JUDGING:  Some VIPs were invited to judge on Friday night's Dessert and Anything Butt contest.  This included Deputy County Administrator Jay Tibbs and County Commissioner Ellen Murphy. 

Hog-it-Up BBQ won the dessert contest!! They are from Bluemont! Michelle & Mike Lackey

COMMUNITY SUPPORT:    It was hard getting support --for six months people ignored out press releases and one newspaper even trashed it.  We were tied up in county meetings for 9 months about a vendor permit that would have required our vendors to pay the county a $500 Itinerant Merchant fee for a liscense to sell items at our festival. We fought to get it changed, and well, it was changed to $30 but only 8 weeks before our festival.   We received a lot of product donations which was great, but having to fund the whole festival ourselves hurt. Some of that money was recouped with the food and vendor fees, but not all.  


Here we are on the News.

Ken Cuccinelli stopped by on Saturday.

 
GOOD TURNOUT  For a first year festival we had a nice crowd on Friday but then a storm came and some of our vendor tents were wiped out. Ken Cuccinelli  (the Virginia Attorney General)  made it a stop on his tour and TV3 news showed up Saturday.  A magazine came and a few newspapers to interview us again.  We received positive kudos from local papers and media, but the hours were hard on our vendors. Another storm came in Saturday night and rains.  Sunday our vendors were tired and the crowd was light.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE  We know a first year festival is a learning experience. Some of the Festival goers were upset about paying $5 to get in on Friday or $8 Saturday.  Now keep in mind we were able to donate $1000 back to the Volunteer Fire Dept and Assembly of God Church!  I don't know where you can  go to hear great music like this for $5 or $8, and we had a full schedule of bands and great music on the website.
 

Here's me with Gary Smallwood, who rocked 'em on Sunday.

Many said they wanted to eat bbq samples from the teams (again, this is an issue with the health department we'd have to settle, and even if we did, we don't have the manpower to have someone run a sample tent.)   The beer had limited hours and that's because the Exchange Group could not commit to the hours of our festival.  No local wines were offered and again, that decision was based on the Winchester Exchange Group. So many of the gripes were out of our control.

Good bands were featured all weekend long. This is Stoney Creek Bluegrass.

HIGHLIGHTS:  Among certain highlights was a rare "BBQ TOUR" where 3EYZ BBQ and HOG-IT-UP BBQ Professional BBQ teams, gave out tips to the public and answered questions about how to prepare, trim and season your ribs. This is very cool that these teams actually wanted to do this and interact with the public.  You may know 3EYZ BBQ from the Season Two Pitmasters TV Show.

Hey, Marylanders won, what can I say? 3EYZBBQ, way to go guys.

WHO WON?  3EYZ BBQ was also our Grand Champion!  They are from my home town of Maryland, so I was glad to see them win. Even though I figured it would be anyone's guess who won since we had judges from all over the map and not just local judges.  Many contests pick the closest and most local judges to avoid no show issues but my wife was adamant about mixing it up and picking those who would come and visit Winchester, which was the point of bringing some out of town revenue.

Full list of results is here: Results

Delicious Food!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:  Will we do this next year?  That remains to be seen. We've been asked to do it in other locations or other states, but it was a lot of work (nine months of dedication to one festival) and of course, costs a lot of money to put on an event.  We did what we set out to do and we'd like to leave it at that.  We  would like to thank our family and friends for putting in the excruciating hours and supporting us. It was very sentimental to us to have a big festival and raise money for something that meant so much to us personally, since losing my wife's mom to Cancer.  There's not a lot of BBQ places around Winchester. Maybe you need to use Betamenu to trade buy or sell barbecue in the meantime. One of our competitors, Jordan Springs, has the Jordan Springs Market near the fairgrounds and sells bbq on weekends!

Just like this little pig on my BBQ pit, I needed a vacation.

VACATION:  After this festival we needed a vacation to relax and reflect on things.  Here's a vacation idea:  how about having a great vacation package which includes dining out, sleeping in and afternoon tea?  Best vacation packages and ideas on Les Routiers , covering all UK and Ireland. Nothing like getting out and seeing the world and exploring great places to eat!

Here's my hideout. Danforth, Maine

Virginia Festival Obtains Grass Roots Community Support

Thanks to all the competitors coming out to cook at the KCBS BBQ competition. All are helping us with our cause.  This one: Aporkalypse Now just won at  Swinetastic 2013!

I wanted to give a great big thank you for everyone who is helping me get this festival going in Winchester--well, I call it Winchester but it's really the tiny hidden unincorporated town of Clear Brook that houses the old Frederick County Fairgrounds. 

Thanks to my vendors like Jay Dickey's Sauces who are coming out to sell their wares!

I explained to the Winchester Star that when I was 19 I set up a food stand and started my career there. The fair used to be jammed with people and they would come from neighboring counties. It's a tradition, the old Frederick County Fair.  It's not the newest fairgrounds, or the biggest,  but it's the one that means something to me.  It's country.

Kirsten Sowers, is coming all the way from Philadelphia in the middle of her vacation to perform for us.

I really couldn't do it without all the help from the bands or the community. People don't realize how much effort or cost it takes to have a festival.  You have bands to pay, a soundman, ASCAP & BMI fees (even after you pay the bands to sing), security, permits...............

 

MIK Woodworking helped us set up our cornhole area!

..............  fairground rental, insurance, dumpsters, cleaning, port a johns, attractions advertising, radio ads, cable tv ads,tshirts, flyers, signs,  and trying to get an electrician to modify or generators to give enough juice to your competitors, oh my gosh it all costs a pretty penny.

Centennial Broadcasting was willing to work with us. Shout out to Mario Ordonez. The other station thought $67 for 15 seconds was a great deal. Um, no, those dollars need to be raised for Cancer Care pal!

Thanks to all the local companies like Johnny Blue for helping us by giving us a great deal!

You try to cover some costs from vendors, sponsors, or admission but in this case we've decided to drop so many free passes or discount coupons just to get the community involved. On top of that, a portion of the gate we feel strongly should go to the Clear Brook Volunteer Fire and Rescue because volunteer firemen don't nearly get enough thanks period.  Additionally some of the gate will  help the local Clear Brook church who is helping  us with the parking.

The local Exchange Group is doing the alcohol sales and they do a lot of good for the community. Come out and support their organization.  As for the food, we are giving a portion of that to CancerCare, so we hope you will come, drink and eat!  

Did we mention we will have deep fried oreos and kettle corn ?

So how do you come out on top so that you can donate a nice sized chunk to charity? You hope for good sunny weather and lots of Community Support.  I was in shock that even people from Pennsylvania wanted to help me - they were willing to donate generators (Keystruct) if I needed them or propane (Thanks Suburban Propane).

Companies like AskNeal, helped reduce their normal rates to help us with this festival.

Countless hours, planning, and still so much to do.  So why even do it?  

My wife (left) learned how to cook from her mother (right). She had her when she was 21.

For us, it's personal.

When my Mother-in-Law told us she had colorectal cancer in September 2010, she had decided to go thru chemo and get a small tumor removed. Routine operation, and she was in good health. She cooked for a living, loving her job and the town of Danforth, Maine where she lived. Two weeks before Christmas in December 2010, her surgery was a success in a Maine hospital. She was declared cancer free--the tumor removed and her lymph nodes were clear. Plans to take her home the afternoon of the next day were foiled when they got the call later that evening that she was dead from unknown circumstances. Even after an autopsy, no one to this day will ever know why.   

Sending light to all of those battling or that have lost someone to cancer.

My mother in law told me when she died, not to mourn or have a funeral. Have a damn big party, lots of food and music and celebrate her life.    We couldn't seem to regroup fast enough when seven  months almost to the day, my wife's stepfather took his own life. After 33 years of marriage and a broken heart, he drank himself to death, taking off his wedding ring and writing a note. He could not bear life without her and carried her tin of ashes with him wherever he went.   Our family was in turmoil.  When you are faced with something so horrible, it is sometimes hard to shed light on it. 

CF Sauer helped us with banners, free spices, and more. Thank you!

Our first ever HoggingUp.com is dedicated to her. and that's what we are doing.  That's why we are putting our money, and our soul in it. It's purely a do good festival.   We've  cut our competitors off to give them personalized service.  We've not sold tickets to avoid passing ticket fees to the public. We've gone grass roots and knocked on doors of businesses in Clarke, Stephens City, Winchester, Martinsburg, Inwood, Clear Brook and Shepardstown to tell them about this.

Signet helped us with a giant sign, reducing it by LOTS off the regular pricing. That's community support!

If it's a success, we will damn sure make this an annual event. We would want to choose different area non profits each year to help. 

Thanks for big names like Hatfield for believing in us!

It's a hell of a lot of work, and it's not going to be perfect, but it's going to be our best shot of giving something back to the world and the community.  Turning a bad situation into something good.

So much support from West Virginia, and from  Around the Panhandle Magazine, check them out here!

Thanks to the companies who helped me with donations for the public, the hotels for giving great discounts, and for all the help I received from Richard Leight and the Frederick County Fair board.

Grand Rental Station has helped with product donations.

So the next two weeks I will spend modifying the Frederick County Fair into Virginia's hottest new festival......I will be busy as all get out and unable to talk to you guys.   I hope to see you there.

Virginia Festival Uses BBQ To Raise Money and Awareness

Barbecue is magical to me.

Barbecue: What Does It Mean to Me 

I've not  talked to you all about what barbecue means to me. Barbecue is something more than just a past time, hobby or career for me. I choose barbecue when I was still young and dumb, not sure where I wanted to go in my life.  I experimented with rubs and smokers and open pits, different woods and different methods. In Baltimore, back then, dry rubbing was not as familiar as it is now. After the little barbecue shack my brother and I had made the papers, and Pit Beef was deemed Baltimore's BBQ, the rest for me was history.


However, for me a life in barbecue takes a lot of work.  I took the hard road. Barbecue in my world means an old stick pit, feeding the fire with hardwood,  turning my beef , pork, turkey legs, chicken or ribs tirelessly for hours.  I don't have a fancy smoker, and no electronic devices to keep my pit going. It's 100% my manpower and I'm an old dog now, gonna be the big FIVE-O this year.   After a long day at the fair feeding the masses, I can barely walk, my hands are swollen and I'm a burnt up mess. All in a day's work for me.

Look how purdy. Wouldn't change a thing.

I don't want to change my way of doing things, even though I wish I could sometimes.  What's really important is the things I've learned along the way.  For one, I learned to follow your dreams. Sooner or later you will succeed.

I've also learned you can make some of the best friends in Barbecue. Some of my pals are my fellow food vendors--we can sit right next to each other at a fair, sell the same items against each other, and still talk at the end of the day.   They eat my beef and I eat their ribs. That's how it is in Barbecue.  You can eat twenty different kinds and they all taste different and all taste good.

I eat at other barbecue guys' restaurants when I'm not selling my own and I buy their spice and barbecue sauces to use at home on my own food.  The Barbecue competitors wow me, and I've met some great people along the way.  Eric, the Hess brothers, and Myron Mixon gave me some tips on competing but I'm too darn busy selling each weekend to try.  Retirement for me will mean competing although I never see that day coming. I'll probably die with tongs in my hand, at least that's how I envision going to barbecue heaven.  You see, barbecue is in my blood.

What BBQ Really Means to Me  : Raising Awareness

Two years ago, something I don't like to think about, was when my wife's mother beat cancer. At least that's what the doctors said.   I saw her fight for her life with the chemo and I had to go back to Maryland while my wife, her brother and stepfather drove back to Maine for her routine operation to remove a small intrusive tumor in her rectum.

It was that day at the hospital the doctor said he removed her tumor successfully, and surrounding lymph nodes just to be safe, and they tested negative for cancer. My wife, her brother and stepfather were celebrating her success that day, while my mother in law recuperated in the hospital.  They left her about 7pm, to get some rest.  I was so happy she was okay.

They would never see her again.  A call from the hospital at 1am would put everyone in shock. Calls from my wife in Maine to Baltimore to wake up our whole family, she was gone. Just hours after they celebrated her life--she was dead.

Even an autopsy would not explain just why. She didn't appear to have a blood clot or heart attack.  Was her system depleted from worrying for months about it?  Did the chemo drain her?  Was it just her time?  Only God knows I suppose. We will never figure it out.

What's worse than that?  After 33 years of marriage, my wife's stepfather would die only months later.  He took off his wedding band and wrote a note.  Suicide, you may say so, but a broken heart, for sure.

The family was immobilized by all of this. There were no funerals or viewings. Everyone was in shock. That's when my wife said, "Mom always said if she died to throw a big party and celebrate her life. Why not try to raise money for cancer awareness?"

Raising Awareness Through BBQ  Find a Cure and Stop Procrastination

If you ask my wife about Cancer she is very jaded.  Perhaps because it's taken her whole family from her. Her mom (colorectal), her grandfather (lung), her grandmother (colorectal and pancreatic) and of course had a direct result on killing her stepfather.  She complains that  Cancer is all about the research and chemotherapy when in fact it should be about truly finding a cure.  Is it impossible because there are so many toxins on our food, in our water, and in the very air we breathe? Or  is it possible and just simply a money maker and form of population control?

So, when something bad hits you it's time to move in a different direction. The Hogging Up BBQ & Music Festival started out of an idea that we can make a difference. I can use my voice in BBQ to do something GOOD.  The first festival is in Winchester, Virginia. This location is because it's one of my very first fairs (ever.)

First and foremost one benefactor will be CancerCare.org, who wish to thank for helping my mother-in-law when she was so stressed about her bills. They gave her options, ways out, free counseling and loopholes to get some of her excessive copays and coinsurance paid.  They aren't into the drug end of it, or the treatment end of it, but all about the patient and their families. That's why we are doing it.

Let's not forget how we will be helping three area non profits :

• Beer & Wine 100% profits the Winchester Exchange Group
• Some of Gate: Clear Brook Volunteer Fire Department
• Some of Gate:  Local Church

 If that doesn't tell you what BBQ means to me, I don't know what does.  I'd like to thank all my supporters of this festival, but will do that in another post. Stay tuned. 

What Does BBQ Mean to You?
Shoot me an email and tell me for a feature.

 

What's Cooking in Winchester, Virginia #winchester #festival #pork #kcbs

If you are central to Baltimore, Frederick, Hagerstown, Harpers Ferry West Virgina, or Frederick County Virginia check this out and help us spread the word!

The 1st annual Hogging Up KCBS Festival in Winchester, VA to be held June 28-30th in Winchester at the Frederick County Fairgrounds! Finally, the competitor's applications are up, 9 months in advance-we already have $5000.00 in cash prizes for the winners in top five places plus overalls.  This festival is very important to us as we are donating a portion of all proceeds to CancerCare.

In the upcoming months we will be finalizing bands, wineries, and cool vendors.  We are now accepting local business sponsorships!

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