Boss Of The Sauce BBQ Festival Comes To Jacksonville’s River Front Plaza

From The JAX Chamber:

February 26, 2021

The Boss of the Sauce BBQ Festival, a world championship qualifying competition sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS), is coming to Jacksonville from April 8th through the 10th. With support from Downtown Vision, Inc., the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, Visit Jacksonville and The City of Jacksonville, this exciting event will feature world-class country music talent, as well as BBQ chefs and local craft beer and bourbon distillers.

The festivities will begin on the night of Thursday April 8th, with a live performance by local opener, The Firewater Tent Revival and headliner Chase Rice, hosted by Jax River Jams. On Friday April 9th, attendees of Boss of the Sauce will be able to enjoy a BBQ, craft beer and bourbon tasting from local vendors. The culminating event of the weekend is the BBQ competition. Saturday, April 10th will be the kick-off of the first ever World Championship Qualifying BBQ competition, sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society.

Teams from around the country, and at varying skills levels broken out by category including amateur (Backyard Division) and professional (Professional Division) are eligible to participate and can register at https://bossofthesaucebbq.com/. Professional teams eyeing to compete for what is already one of the largest prize pools in the Nation include Smokey D’s BBQ and Lucky’s Q, both flying in from Iowa. Both teams have won high level awards, including grand champs at the American Royal World Series of BBQ and third overall in the Kansas City Barbeque Society 2020 overall rankings. On the local front, Ryan King of King’s BBQ recently won second overall in the Jimmy Jam competition in St. Augustine.

Lead sponsors for this event include Miller Electric Company, Money Pages, Grill Perks™ and Drummond. Sponsorship opportunities are still available. To learn more about being a sponsor and sponsor benefits, click here.

"Jacksonville has always been a passionate BBQ town. Now, we're entering the BBQ big leagues. The sponsors, organizing committee and volunteers of Boss of the Sauce are so excited to bring the first ever KCBS-sanctioned event to Jacksonville. We look forward to a fun weekend of entertainment and competition. This inaugural event is poised to become a new First Coast annual tradition." said John Falconetti, Chairman and CEO of Drummond, and Organizing Chairman of Boss of the Sauce.

To learn more about the Boss of the Sauce festival, click here and for the most recent information regarding the festival, follow them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. To stay up-to-date with the world class Kansas City Barbeque Society, you can follow them on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

In accordance with CDC Guidelines to reduce the spread of COVID-19, all competitors and attendees of the festival will be required to social distance and wear face masks. In addition, there will be signage placed around the park with personal hygiene and coughing protocols highlighted, barriers to reduce airborne disease spread and several disinfecting stations throughout the park.

The Boss of the Sauce BBQ Festival started off as a fun idea to get some friends together for a one-day amateur BBQ competition. From there, the idea caught on fire. The Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, Visit Jacksonville, Downtown Jacksonville, and City of Jacksonville got excited and wanted to support the event. Through these partners and an initial committee of over 50 community leaders, The Boss grew to be a 3-Day event with its inaugural festival to be held on April 8-10, 2021. The event will be held on the sprawling River Front Plaza (former site of the Jacksonville Landing).

This press release was produced by The JAX Chamber. The views expressed here are the author’s own.