Festival time begins in Orange County

Sat, May 17 2008

— By Tommy Mann Jr.
The Orange Leader

VIDOR — Festival season is in full swing in Orange County.
The 28th annual Texas Bar-B-Q Festival begins its three day run starting at 5 p.m. Friday before concluding at 5 p.m. Sunday at Claiborne West Park, which is located on the north feeder road of Interstate 10 at Cow Bayou.
The Vidor Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the annual event, plans on continuing the success from the 2007 festival which is considered to be one of the most successful barbecue festivals to date.
“We are just building on the success we generated from last year’s festival,” said Jane Carter, Vidor Chamber of Commerce executive secretary. “And it’s going very well so far. We sold out our vendor spaces a week ago, and everything is progressing smoothly as we get ready to open. We just want it to continue going smoothly.”
Although the chamber has its plans made and the assembling of carnival rides has begun, Carter knows only two things are out of her control: weather and continued Interstate 10 construction.
The weekend weather forecast currently calls for stray thunderstorms on Friday and isolated storms on Saturday and Sunday.
“A little rain won’t hurt us too much because everything is so dry right now,” Carter said. “We already have sand positioned around the park in case we need to fill in spots, if it does rain. The vendors will be on pavement, so we think this year’s festival has the potential to be the best yet. We just want everyone to come out and see what the Texas Bar-B-Q Festival has to offer.”
Motorists must use Interstate 10 at some point to reach the festival grounds, as it is the only possible access route. Patrons attempting to reach Claiborne West Park from Interstate 10 east must drive past Cow Bayou and the park and take Exit 869 at FM 1442, then circle back around onto the north feeder road and follow it all the way to the park entrance.
Guests attempting to reach the park from Interstate 10 West must exit at FM 1442 also and use the service road all the way to the park entrance as well.
“We tried to let as many people know as we could that there is a lot of construction going on,” Carter said. “But so far, everyone seems to be finding their way. I’m more concerned about our out-of-town vendors because they have to arrive at the park by a specific time to be ready and allow us to open on time.”
Nearly all of last year’s festival attractions are back for the 2008 Texas Bar-B-Q Festival, including the highly popular doggie pageant and the newly added doggie parade.
“The parade is something we wanted to add as an extra event for our pageant participants,” Carter said. “Some of these dogs are so cute, and their owners dress them up in little outfits. We just knew it was something everyone would love to see.”
Another change from previous years is the exclusion of the annual 5K Fun Run, where participants would traverse the park in a friendly running competition held early Saturday morning.
Carter said the chamber attempted to keep the run as part of this year’s festival, but requested it be held prior to the start of the festival. However, plans fell through and Carter hopes to bring the fun run back in 2009.
“Our main reason for requesting a change to the fun run schedule was because of safety concerns,” she said. “There are so many vendors and other people arriving around that same time that we felt it is just better to not take any chances.”
The official start of the festival is at 5 p.m. Friday with a ribbon cutting at the ticket booth. Admission is $10 per person, all ages, on Friday and Saturday, while Sunday’s price is just $5 for all ages. Admission includes entry to the festival and each day’s concerts.
Live music will be featured by Centerfire at 6 p.m. Friday, followed by the all-female classic rock group, Mustang Sally, at 9 p.m. Centerfire returns at 11 p.m. to close the night.
Saturday’s main attraction is country music artist, Wade Hayes, who is scheduled to hit the pavilion stage at 10:30 p.m. Opening the show is Ricochet at 8:30 p.m.
Regional oldies rock act Na Na Sha returns by popular demand with a concert at 11 a.m. Saturday and continue performing until 3 p.m.
Sunday’s musical acts include Charlie Barrett at 11 a.m. and Section 8 at 2:30 p.m.
The gates open at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, but the fun gets started a bit earlier for participants of the Horse Shoe and Washer Board Tournaments.
Registration for the horse shoe contest is at pavilion 4 at 8 a.m. Saturday, and 9:30 a.m. for the horse shoe tournament.
A big hit at the 2007 barbecue festival was the classic car show, which included approximately 80 classic and antique vehicles.
“If the weather holds out, then we are expecting nearly 200 cars to participate on Saturday,” Carter said. “If the weather is bad, then its doubtful very many will show up because these are not your average cars and the owners don’t like to get them out in bad weather.”
Carter also said the U.S. Navy Top Fuel dragster will be on site for viewing and photographs.
Candyland Amusement returns as the festival carnival ride provider for the second straight year, but with a slight change.
Carter said the carnival owners are bringing in a couple of new attractions this year.
All day passes will be available for $20 each day, whereas last year, the passes were only valid for a day session or nighttime session.
“We felt that was something which really needed to be changed,” Carter said. “Now, it doesn’t matter what time you get here. You can literally ride all day long for $20.”
The most important aspect of the festival itself is literally the barbecue as 25 cook-off teams had already registered by Tuesday, and more were expected before Friday’s opening.
The first contest is the secretive “Mystery Cooking Contest” where cooking teams must prepare a tasty dish with a secret ingredient which is not identified until the start of the contest.
At 4 p.m. Sunday, barbecue teams which have traveled from across the region will find out who is the best barbecue team in 2008 as the cook-off awards will be presented to winners of this year’s contest.
Categories in the highly touted Bar-B-Q Cook-Off competition include brisket, chicken and ribs. Cash prizes and trophies will be presented to the winning teams in each division.

Reach this reporter at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2619 or tmann@orangeleader.com

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.