The Texas BBQ Forum

Are there no BBQ groups in Eastern Texas?

If any of the Brain Trust that are in the loop would like to assist me I'd like to start something

Look at the IBCA's website for a list of competitions, if that is what you are meaning

TexasSmokers wrote:Look at the IBCA's website for a list of competitions, if that is what you are meaning

Thanks. IBCA has Deep East Texas in Region one. There is one in Grapeland & one in Rusk. Surprisingly, nothing in Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Tyler, Longview, Henderson, jacksonville, Carthage, Marshall, or Texarkana.

Deep East Texas BBQ Cook-Off is in Region 2 kirbyville Texas the first weekend in August.

Thanks KAM. Kirbyville is darn near the Gulf. The purpose of my Post was to point out there was no activity in the largest of the East Texas cities. Is it lack of interest, lack of support, ?

i Would hazard a guess and say lack of promotors wanting to put on a cook-off

It would be a great opportunity for KCBS to make inroads in Texas. Hold a contest in Marshall, and you have an easy draw from Tyler to Shreveport. And it is not THAT far for Dallas and Texarkana folks either. Seems like an opportunity missed to me.

Okie Sawbones wrote:It would be a great opportunity for KCBS to make inroads in Texas. Hold a contest in Marshall, and you have an easy draw from Tyler to Shreveport. And it is not THAT far for Dallas and Texarkana folks either. Seems like an opportunity missed to me.

Being a regional director for IBCA and working with over 100 cook-offs a year in east southeast Texas most promoters have a hard time with our fees. KCBS is quite a bit more so unless someone wants to foot that bill it will be tough for KCBS to push events in places as remote as east Texas.
I have a tough time in areas such as Jasper to get good turn outs unless the cook-off is sporting a healthy payout because the team count is not high in the area. When you look at our calendar and most of the cook-offs are Houston area that is a heavily cooker populated area so when a smaller cook-off in deep east Texas is happening it suffers because teams do not have to travel far from home for a lot of times more money.

Markw142 wrote:i Would hazard a guess and say lack of promoters wanting to put on a cook-off

You are correct Mark. I get very few calls from the Lufkin area.

I'm just guessing but after looking at their schedule being stuck in Region 1 may be the issue. With the region covering everything to Oklahoma north and the other side of Tarrant County west it's covering some major population areas. The IBCA is going to host events with the largest possible draw. Rusk is going to be the draw for what I think you are referring to as East Texas. Easy trip for most every town you listed. Is it totally fair that most the events are much closer to DFW? No, but life ain't fair. Many of the towns in that area have their own festivals and annual events already on the books. Promoting another may be too much for the powers that be to take on. Would the Chamber of Commerce in these towns be open to hosting without direct involvement, perhaps. Then there is always the standing comps with their preset dates intact. Scheduling another event too close, either date or geographically, may not work with the IBCA and their by-laws. Best bet would be to contact the region office and see what all would need to be in place to host an event in that local area.

GTR wrote:I'm just guessing but after looking at their schedule being stuck in Region 1 may be the issue. With the region covering everything to Oklahoma north and the other side of Tarrant County west it's covering some major population areas. The IBCA is going to host events with the largest possible draw. Rusk is going to be the draw for what I think you are referring to as East Texas. Easy trip for most every town you listed. Is it totally fair that most the events are much closer to DFW? No, but life ain't fair. Many of the towns in that area have their own festivals and annual events already on the books. Promoting another may be too much for the powers that be to take on. Would the Chamber of Commerce in these towns be open to hosting without direct involvement, perhaps. Then there is always the standing comps with their preset dates intact. Scheduling another event too close, either date or geographically, may not work with the IBCA and their by-laws. Best bet would be to contact the region office and see what all would need to be in place to host an event in that local area.

IBCA does not host events we only judge them, we will sanction an event in any town we have no criteria on the location. We do prefer to limit cook-offs from being closer than 40 miles on the same day but sometimes scheduling prevents us from this. We also require the cook-off to have a minimum of 15 teams to be sanctioned. Debbie and I live in Vidor which is basically on the Louisiana line on I-10 and when we cook our average distance to a cook-off is 85 to 150 miles.

You may need to look further out on the calendar. Its flood season and many promoters have been there and done that this time of the year.

I'm going to do some research on forming a group from Livingston south, Madisonville west, Hemphill east, Marshall north.

Rambo wrote:

TexasSmokers wrote:Look at the IBCA's website for a list of competitions, if that is what you are meaning

Thanks. IBCA has Deep East Texas in Region one. There is one in Grapeland & one in Rusk. Surprisingly, nothing in Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Tyler, Longview, Henderson, jacksonville, Carthage, Marshall, or Texarkana.

This is a little late for this year, but there's a huge ATV/UTV event each March just outside Jacksonville, TX - the Highlifter Mud Nationals ( http://www.mudnatevents.com/ ) - 10-20k outdoor-lovin people all holed up in one location with few options other than riding in more mud (there's actually concerts, racing, other events). I'd be kinda shocked if they wouldn't be open to adding on some sort of BBQ cookoff as part of the event. Lots of overlap in people, I'd think. I'm skipping the cookoff in Bryan to go to the MudNats in Jacksonville :)