"It's kind of like NASCAR. It is a circuit," Will Be Que BBQ's Craig Wilkerson told Hatchie Press last October, while his team was cooking on Lafayette Street. "You want to win team of the year."
The Memphis team won Professional Grand Champion in Bolivar in 2024, and it treats the Bolivar BBQ Blowout as the event that closes its competition season each year. The 2026 Bolivar Barbecue Blowout & Music Festival is set for Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24, at 110 W Lafayette Street. On those two days, two schedules share one street. The City runs a public festival with food trucks and craft vendors. Meanwhile a Memphis Barbecue Network contest plays out on a judging clock. Their overlap is best on Saturday morning.
The Last Stop On Someone Else's Season
The Memphis Barbecue Network lists Bolivar as a sanctioned contest, with organizer Suzanne Rhea and the City of Bolivar as its contest website. For Will Be Que, Bolivar is the last contest of the year, and the prize money is enough to draw a serious field.
According to the City's 2026 team application, the payouts look like this:
| Pro Team | Backyard Team | |
|---|---|---|
| Categories | Whole Hog, Pulled Pork, Ribs | Pulled Pork, Ribs, Chicken |
| Grand Champion | $2,500 plus trophy | $1,000 plus trophy |
| Per-category places paid | 1st–5th: $1,000 / $800 / $600 / $500 / $400 | 1st–3rd: $600 / $400 / $300 |
| Entry fee | $125 first category, $100 each additional | $100 first category, $75 each additional |
Both divisions also pay a mandatory $15 MBN team fee. The application caps the field at 25 teams and gives October 16, 2026 as the deadline for paperwork and payment.
Hatchie Press reported nine professional teams and six backyard teams in 2023. MBN's 2024 professional results show 6 Whole Hog, 11 Pulled Pork, and 13 Ribs entries. In 2025 those counts rose to 8, 13, and 14. Those are category entries, not a count of teams, because one team can enter several categories, so they can't be compared directly with the 2023 team count. Between 2024 and 2025, every professional category gained entries.
The people behind those entries take it seriously. Wilkerson told Hatchie Press he has been on the circuit since 1991 and sat in the first Memphis in May judges' class ever held. In summer 2025 his team won first place in the Whole Hog Division at Memphis in May. For teams like his, a Saturday downtown in Bolivar is the year's final scoreboard.
Friday Night Belongs To The Trucks
The public side of the weekend begins Friday, October 23, from 5 to 9 p.m., and the City's vendor form says Friday is food trucks only. Food trucks can set up both nights. Craft vendors come Saturday only. Each truck pays $75 and needs a food permit and health inspection.
The contest clock starts in the same hour. The team application calls a mandatory cooks meeting for Friday, October 23, at 5 p.m. So when the trucks open their windows, competing teams are in a meeting about the next day's contest. MBN's rules say a contest's application should list the judging order and times, because teams need them before they start cooking. Bolivar's 2026 application doesn't list them.
Friday evening is the easy visit. You eat from the trucks and walk past the team sites while cooks prep for Saturday.
Saturday Morning, Minute By Minute
Saturday, October 24, runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the public side. Vendors are asked to stay set up until the 3 p.m. close unless severe weather forces an early teardown.
MBN's 2026 rule update gives a standard schedule for turn-ins. The judging times below come from that general schedule, and Bolivar hasn't confirmed them.
- 7:30 a.m. Craft vendors and trucks start setting up along the sidewalks.
- 9:00 a.m. The public festival opens.
- 9:45–10:00 a.m. Typical MBN turn-in window for Whole Hog, with judging at 10.
- 10:45–11:00 a.m. Typical Pulled Pork turn-in, with judging at 11.
- 11:45 a.m.–noon Typical Ribs turn-in, with judging at noon.
- 1:00 p.m. Typical finals.
- 3:00 p.m. The public festival closes.
From 9 a.m. to about noon, the vendor booths are open while teams rush to make each turn-in window. MBN's standard schedule puts Whole Hog first. Will Be Que's Traci Adcock told Hatchie Press that her team splits the work across categories. "We've got two people that are working on ribs and two people working on shoulder/pulled pork, and several people working on the hog."
If you arrive at 9 a.m., teams will still be working toward their turn-ins. If you arrive at 2 p.m., the typical schedule has finals already over. The 2026 materials don't say whether the public can taste or buy competition barbecue, so plan to eat from the trucks.
Names To Look For On Lafayette Street
In 2025 the competition was held at the farmers market pavilion, with grills lining Lafayette Street. These are the recent champions, as Hatchie Press reported them in its 2023, 2024, and 2025 coverage:
| Year | Professional Grand Champion | Backyard Grand Champion |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Hog Addiction, which swept the professional categories | United Pork Smokers |
| 2024 | Will Be Que BBQ, also first in Whole Hog and Ribs | United Pork Smokers, second year in a row |
| 2025 | Swine Life, also first in Ribs | Heavenly Manna BBQ |
A few more names stand out. Meat Whiskey took first in Professional Pulled Pork in 2025. Will Be Que won Whole Hog again that year after it lost the overall title, and it placed in all three professional categories. Butt Hurt BBQ won Backyard Pulled Pork in 2024. Poker Porkers and Slabs-A-Smokin were among the professional teams that returned in 2025. The same year, officers from the Bolivar Police Department formed 5-0 Smokers to compete in the Backyard Division.
Bolivar's own 5-0 Smokers cooked in the Backyard Division. If you know someone cooking this year, look for them in the Backyard lineup. Their categories are pulled pork, ribs, and chicken. Whole hog is a Pro category only.
What The City Hasn't Posted Yet
The City's event page welcomes visitors to the 2026 festival. Under Event Information it still says "COMING SOON!!!" As of October 12, no 2026 music lineup, set times, or admission details have been published.
Past years give some idea of what may come, though none of it is confirmed for 2026. Hatchie Press's 2024 coverage listed carnival rides, vendor pop-ups, a cornhole challenge, and the March of the Dogs, a costume contest for adoptable animals. Courtney Little Band, Small Shack, Southern Rose, Sinsay, Piper & the Hard Times Band, and the Bolivar Central High School marching band all played that year. In 2025 the Blowout wrapped up almost two weeks of Bolivar Bicentennial events that began October 18.
Sources also disagree on the event's age. Hatchie Press called 2023 the third annual Blowout and 2024 the fourth. Wilkerson told the same paper in 2025, "Suzanne [Rhea] and I were talking last night. This thing has been going on 26 years." He may be counting an older barbecue contest in Bolivar that came before the City's current festival. The published sources don't explain the gap.
With 11 days to go, the dates and hours are confirmed. Trucks run Friday 5 to 9 p.m. Trucks and craft vendors run Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The contest's turn-ins fall in the first half of Saturday. Keep an eye on the City's Blowout page for the music lineup when it's posted.
If you'll be on Lafayette Street on the 24th and have been wondering what your Bolivar home would sell for, Inlow Real Estate can give you a value built from comparable sales. Schedule a free consultation.
