Welcome to the BarbeQlossal Web site.

Are you ready for bbq and Blues? If you are, then I hope you are coming out to the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Friday evening, June 5th and Saturday, June 6th until 2! You will find us south of the Varied Industries Building! Just follow your eyes and nose - the smoke and smell will lead you to us! Parking will be wherever you can find parking but they will be tearing down World Pork Expo so the midway is the safest and we will have some golf carts to bring you in!

The 22nd annual Great Pork BarbeQlossal takes the stage in Des Moines once again and we hope you are a part of it! 59 teams from 10 states will be competing in the categories of whole hog, shoulder, loin and ribs! You will see lots of different smokers and grills and you are welcome to visit with the teams on Friday evening! They will be handing out samples as long as they are available so check out all the different flavors that will come from the same pork product!

Also on Friday evening you can watch 5 bbq contestants compete in pork's version of the mystery basket competition - the Big Green Egg® Scramble. If you aren't familiar with a Big Green Egg, they are a green ceramic smoker that looks like an egg! These teams will be given a mystery pork product at 5 pm and by the time judging times starts @ 6:30 they will have had to prepare a dish with sides for 4 judges! It's fun to watch the creativity come out so please stop by! They will be competing outside the north side of the FFA Building.

There will be lots of pork sampling going on! Speed and his crew from Cookies BBQ and pork producers from Washington County, Iowa will also be handing out samples!

And if those samples are like a potato chip and you can't eat just one there are going to be 2 bbq vendors selling pulled pork sandwiches and ribs! Eat there or take them home!

And what would a bbq be without some live music? We will wrap up the evening with a concert from "Sumpin' Doo" - a local band sponsored by the Central Iowa Blues Society.

And guess what - it's all FREE - NO CHARGE - no charge to park on the fairgrounds, no charge to get these samples or listen to Sumpin' Doo! There is a charge for the pulled pork sandwiches, ribs and the drinks that will be available.

After you've had fun on Friday evening, come back on Saturday because you are in for another treat! The Great Pork BarbeQlossal is one of the only contests in the country that lets you taste the same as the judges. Yes, you can get samples after each of the categories is turned in. So this is when you need to be in line on Saturday morning! 35 teams will be handing out samples of whole hog starting a little after 11! Then at 12 all 59 teams will have shoulder, 12:30 ribs and 1 loin! Remember, they are competing on Saturday for over $34,500 in prize money so please be patient as you wait in line. They are not trying to be rude or short but they will get the samples out to you as soon as they can. Unfortunately, they can't visit with you during this time period but you are welcome to stick around after the judging is complete at 1:30 and they will be glad to visit!

And at 3:30 you can see if your scoring matched up with the judges and see who takes home the money! We will recognize the top 10 in each category and the top 5 overall scores! We recognize a state each year and this year is South Dakota so we will see who scores the best from SD!

We hope you can join us! It's a great time! There were 1000s down at the 1st annual Smokin' in the Junction over Memorial Day and they all had a good time, so I look forward to having you join the party! We are going to have a great time!

We could not do it without our sponsors! Here’s a shout out to them and when you have a good time at the Great Pork BarbeQlossal, make sure you support them and tell them thank you for being a sponsor!

• Iowa Pork Producers Association
• Hy-Vee & Hormel Foods
• Cargill Meat Solutions
• Big Green Egg® & Carver Ace Hardware
• Iowa Hawgeyes and Horizon Smokers
• Central Iowa Blues Society
• Pepsi Americas
• Miller Brewing
• Dibs ice cream
• John Boos cutting boards
• Electronic Engineering
• Iowa Machine Shed
• Cookies Food Products

Questions, please call 515-223-2622 until June 1 and then you can reach me at 515-491-3492. Look forward to seeing you!

Take care –

Anne L. Rehnstrom
Great Pork BarbeQlossal Coordinator