The Great American Barbeque & Beer Festival

Prepare your bellies for Arizona’s largest BBQ event, The Great American Barbeque & Beer Festival, returning to downtown Chandler on Saturday, March 19 from noon – 10 p.m. This year, the 2016 festival will be bigger and better than ever with a newly expanded city stage and more than 30 pit masters from across the nation set to please the masses with their mouthwatering ribs, pulled pork, brisket, chicken and more.
Expect delicious grub from Smokehaus, serving their claim to fame, the Tri Tip Sandwich, which is hand rubbed, cut thick and served on a grilled French roll. Or try their ABTs, bacon wrapped jalapenos stuffed with mini sausages and cheese.
Tom’s BBQ will grill up BBQ ribs, pulled pork, rib tips, brisket, burnt ends and their famous BBQ nachos loaded with pulled pork, jalapeños, pico de gallo, BBQ seasoning and nacho cheese.
Other highlights include Porkopolis BBQ’s Red Neck Street Tacos, with pulled pork on a flour tortilla topped with jalapeño coleslaw and BBQ aioli. Montana BBQ will have whole hog sandwiches on a Hawaiian roll topped with grilled onions and pineapple. Or enjoy their filet mignon wrapped in bacon on a stick.
Don’t forget to stop by Raging Cajun Smoking BBQ, bringing a bit of Cajun cuisine to the festival. They will be serving gator sausage, loaded nachos, Po Boys, seafood platters, and New Orleans style gumbo. Also, The American Poutine Co. will be dishing out bacon poutine, pulled pork poutine, Philly cheesesteak poutine, and much more.

All the food shall be kept to high safety standards by keeping the food in hired refrigerators from places like Ice Cool Trailers. This ensures that people can enjoy their time at the festival and enjoying delicious foods without having to worry about the storage methods that the vendors are using. It should be a BBQ extravaganza!

If that’s not enough to get your tummies rumbling, check out the complete list of BBQ vendor menus packed with delicious grub at the Great American Barbecue and Beer Festival:

• AZ Barbeque Catering – pulled pork, chicken, brisket, tri tip, hamburgers, hot dogs, and sides
• Foods Product International – Sausages, Philly cheesesteak, gyros, falafel, hot dogs, pulled pork, bacon wrapped pork kabob, corn dogs, bacon wrapped hot dogs, carne asada fries, burgers, BBQ chicken and ribbon curly fries
• Bama BBQ 4 ever Catering— Pulled pork, smoked chicken, brisket, pork ribs, beans, cole slaw, potato salad, wings, nachos
• Big Top-Gorditas, nachos, sausage wraps, curly fries, tacos, burritos, chile relleno, turkey legs
• Bobby Q-Brisket, baby back ribs
• DL Foods-Pulled pork, tri tip, sausage and chicken sandwiches. Signature BBQ sauces: pineapple prickly pear and habanero prickly pear along with signature dry rub
• Elmer’s Tacos-Bean and cheese, red chili and green chili burros, quesadillas
• Hogwear DBA Hogg Dogg-Hotdogs, Louisiana andouille, polish sausage, beer brats, meatball subs, pulled pork, chocolate covered bacon, pickle on a stick, waffle dogs
• Honey Bear’s BBQ-Pork, beef, chicken, hotlinks, hot dogs, beans, coleslaw, mac n cheese, French fries
• JJ’s Louisiana BBQ-Ribs, pulled pork, brisket, rib tip, chicken, baked beans, potato salad, hot links
• Memphis Best BBQ-Briskets, ribs, pork, links, beans, coleslaw, potato salad, greens, turkey legs
• Montana BBQ -Whole hog sandwiches on Hawaiian roll with grilled onions and pineapple, filet mignon wrapped in bacon on a stick
• PorkoPolis BBQ-Pulled pork, Red Neck Street Tacos, burnt ends
• Q Up! BBQ-Pulled pork, beef brisket, sausage, mac n cheese, spicy slaw, fries, nachos
• Raging Cajun Smoking BBQ-gator sausage, Cajun wings, loaded nachos and loaded potatoes, Po boys, shrimp, seafood platters, New Orleans style gumbo
• Sally’s BBQ-Pork, beef, ribs, roasted corn, pork nacho chips and loaded ribbon fries
• SanTan Brewing Co-pulled pork sandwich, brisket mac n cheese, potato salad
• SmokeHaus-BBQ nachos, tri tip sandwich, ABZTs, ranch beans and coleslaw
• Sweet Magnolia Smokehaus-Brisket, pork, chicken
• Texas BBQ House— famous brisket sandwich
• The American Poutine Co.-Original poutine, bacon poutine, pulled pork poutine, porker poutine, philly cheesesteak poutine, buffalo chicken poutine
• The Gym Grill and Bar-Smoked turkey legs, ribs, pulled pork, smoked wings, burgers, hot dogs, beans, French fries
• Tom’s BBQ-BBQ ribs, pulled pork, rib tips, brisket, burnt ends, BBQ nachos
• The Hitchin’ Post-Brisket, pork, chicken sandwiches, baked potatoes, chicken, pork/bacon kabobs, southwest coleslaw
• Vekol Smoke Shack-Mesquite smoked beef, pork and beer canned chicken with side of chili
• Waldo’s BBQ-Mesquite smoked baby back ribs, pulled pork, pulled chicken, cowboy beans

Other food concession offerings include kettle corn, fry bread, pizza, funnel cake, gourmet pies, jalapeño poppers, fried pickles, shaved ice, corn dogs, ice cream and much more.
Headlining this year’s entertainment will be Granger Smith, best known for his hit single, Backroad Song from his 4×4 EP. Supporting acts include the Ben Miller Band, Zack Deputy and Georgia Chrome.
The seventh annual Great American Barbeque & Beer Festival will be held in downtown Chandler, spanning the entire east and west Dr. AJ Chandler Park – as well as the connecting Arizona Ave., which will be closed from Buffalo St. to Boston St. on Saturday, March 19, 2016.
General admission tickets are available online for $12 at www.chandlerbbq.com and $15 at the gate. Children 12 years of age and younger are admitted for free and all valley Bashas’ locations have discounted $10 admission ticket available.
The Great American Barbeque & Beer Festival official sponsors include; Bashas’, SanTan Brewing Co, Ak-Chin Indian Communities, Downtown Chandler Community Partnership, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Crowne Plaza San Marcos, City of Chandler Office of Tourism, Alta Steelyard Lofts, Alliance Beverage, Crescent Crown Distributing, 102.5 KNIX, Jack Daniels, Discount Cab, BBQ Island, Phoenix New Times, Local First AZ, and Yelp Phoenix who all remind you to enjoy BBQ and beer responsibly.
A portion of the event proceeds will benefit the Boot Campaign, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to providing assistance to wounded military and their families with job placement and securing mortgage free homes, post-traumatic stress disorder counseling, adaptive clothing and much more.