By Allison Peck
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — The smell of barbecue started drawing people toward Pals Brewing Company Friday, and by the time the first-ever Sandhills Smoke Show wrapped up Saturday, North Platte had hosted a weekend built around food, music, competition and community.
The inaugural Sandhills Smoke Show BBQ brought competitive barbecue teams from across the region to North Platte September 25 and 26 for a Kansas City Barbeque Society-sanctioned competition, live country music, public tastings and $7,000 in prize money.
But organizers say the weekend was about more than finding out who could cook the best brisket.
Produced by Airstream Ventures in partnership with Visit North Platte, the event was designed to give visitors another reason to come to North Platte while creating a new weekend gathering for people who live here.
And barbecue was only part of the draw.
Friday night featured a One Meat Rib Contest, with teams turning in their ribs for judging before Brady James opened the evening's live entertainment. Nashville country duo Love and Theft followed as the night's headliner.
Saturday brought the main KCBS Master Series competition, with teams competing in four categories: chicken, ribs, pork and brisket.
The competition was tight at the top.
Smokin Outlaws took the inaugural Sandhills Smoke Show Grand Championship with a score of 704.5484. Brinkerhoff BBQ finished as Reserve Grand Champion with a score of 701.1200.
Smokin Outlaws also claimed first place in brisket with a perfect 180-point score and won Friday night's One Meat Rib Contest, also with a perfect 180.
Other category winners included Brews Cue, which earned a perfect 180 for first place in chicken; Low Eye Cue in ribs; and Team Crawford, which earned a perfect 180 for first place in pork.
Saturday afternoon also gave the public a chance to get involved.
From 2 to 4 p.m., guests could sample barbecue prepared by participating teams and vote in the People's Choice competition. Parrot Head took the inaugural People's Choice title.
For competitors, the weekend offered the chance to compete for money and trophies. For visitors, it offered something a little different: the opportunity to walk into a barbecue competition, sample food from the teams and watch the competition unfold.
C. Alan Verlander, CEO of Airstream Ventures, said the goal was to create an event that could become part of North Platte's identity while bringing people into the community from outside the area.
“This inaugural Sandhills Smoke Show was about much more than barbecue,” Verlander said. “It was about creating an event that brought visitors and competitors to North Platte while also giving the local community something they could call their own.”
The event also provided an opportunity to showcase North Platte to people who may not otherwise have visited.
Competitors and visitors stayed in local hotels, ate at area restaurants and visited businesses while they were in town.
Lisa Burke, Executive Director of Visit North Platte, said the event gave visitors a reason to experience the community while giving residents a weekend to enjoy close to home.
“North Platte showed exactly what makes this community such a special place to visit and call home,” Burke said.
That combination — attracting visitors while creating something for local residents — was part of the reason organizers wanted to bring the Smoke Show to North Platte in the first place.
Pals Brewing Company, at 4520 S. Buffalo Bill Avenue, served as the home for both the competition and Friday night's concert, giving the weekend a distinctly local backdrop.
By Saturday afternoon, the inaugural event had its first champions, its first People's Choice winner and its first Grand Champion.
Now organizers are looking at what comes next.
Airstream Ventures says it will evaluate opportunities to build on the first-year event, with details about next year's Sandhills Smoke Show expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
For a first-year event, the Smoke Show brought together a little bit of everything — competitive barbecue, live music, local beer, visitors from outside the community and plenty of people willing to spend a Saturday afternoon deciding whose barbecue deserved their vote.
And if organizers get their way, the inaugural weekend won't be the last time North Platte smells like barbecue in September.