Contributed byLake High

Lake High and Walter Rolandi, two Columbians who are certified barbeque judges see Columbia as the perfect place for a huge barbeque festival.

“We’re in the center of the best barbeque state in the nation,” said High. “SC is the only state in the nation that regularly cooks and serves all four of the recognized barbeque types. We have vinegar and pepper barbeque in the low country, tomato based barbeque in the upstate, light tomato based in the Pee Dee, and our own mustard based barbeque here in the Midlands. We’re the only place in America that has such a rich diversity of barbeque.”

High and his barbeque–judging buddy, Walter Rolandi, decided to do something about it. As Rolandi says, “If Vienna, Georgia, which is in the middle of nowhere and has as it’s only physical asset, I-75, which runs within a mile or two of the town, can have a humongous barbeque festival, why can’t Columbia have one? We’re in the center of the best barbeque state in the nation, and we have three interstates running through Columbia.” “We’re a natural location for a barbeque festival.”

The two went to the SC Department of Agriculture. “Pork is Agriculture,” says High, and asked for some help in getting a festival started. The people at the department saw the possibilities and the Carolina Q Cup was born.

“Our cook–off is a Cup, like the Ryder Cup or the America’s Cup,” said High. “When you can win a cook–off in the middle of the only state in the nation where every style of barbeque is cooked, you can rightly claim to be the best in the nation,” he asserts.

Maybe so, but there are many towns that are vying for the crown of barbeque capital of America.

In Vienna, Georgia, a town of fewer than 5,000 souls, they stage, once a year, the Big Pig Jig. The Big Pig Jig is a barbeque cook-off, and it is the largest such event in Georgia.

The Big Pig Jig started 19 years ago when two friends, self styled “drinking buddies,” challenged each other to a “barbeque duel.” They each thought they cooked the best barbeque in Georgia, and they decided to cook some barbeque, side–by–side, and let their friends sample it and decide for themselves.

Last year, according to the narrator of The Food Channel’s All–American Festivals, Vienna hosted 110,000 people at its weeklong cook–off. There were 140 cooking teams vying for the right to say they cooked the best barbeque in Georgia, a far cry from the original two friends cooking one Saturday night.

The best part about that small town cook–off is it generates so much revenue that the volunteer fire department is funded entirely from the proceeds, and the town takes in so much money that even their local town taxes have remained low. Barbeque cook–offs are moneymakers.

Lexington, NC, which likes to think of itself as the barbeque center of the Old North State, started its barbeque cook–off just five years ago. Last year Lexington, a smallish piedmont North Carolina town known for its furniture factories as well as its ketchup based barbeque sauce, hosted nearly 125,000 barbeque lovers who turned out, like Simple Simon, to taste their wares.

And then there is the Granddaddy of them all, Memphis in May, as the folks call it out on the Mississippi. Memphis will be hosting, for the 25th time this year, a barbeque festival that is the largest in the world. Last year an estimated 230,000 people turned out for the festival that some people consider the Super Bowl of swine. It’s an insiders joke that it always rains at the festival.

Rain or shine, the Memphis in May barbeque festival has put Memphis, Tennessee, on the map.

“We solved the rain problem,” High commented, “that’s where the Department of Agriculture came in. We’re holding our Carolina Q Cup at that large shed at the Columbia Farmers Market, the same 100,000 square foot shed where Gov. Mark Sanford held his Inaugural Barbeque. Even if it rains, we’ll all be under that giant shed.”

Could Columbia be the next Memphis In May? “Give us five years,” said Rolandi, “and we could have the biggest and best barbeque festival in the South. We’ve got all the elements: location, talent, and something no one else has, SC barbeque. That’s going to be our trump card.”

And while the Department of Agriculture is lending logistical support, the Carolina Q Cup isn’t using any tax dollars to fund the festival. “I’ve even told them we’ll refund any postage they use,” said High. “We made a $7,000 profit the first year, thanks to the generous support of our sponsors. We expect the future years to generate big money for the community sales–wise, tourist–wise, and income-wise,” High commented. “These festivals are all money makers which is why so many towns and communities hold them,” he observed. “They bring money into a town rather than the Columbia habit of paying big money to some group that then takes it back to wherever they come from.”

At the Carolina Q Cup October 28, 5 pm ’til; and 29, 9 am–5 pm; at the State Farmers Market, just as in the last, the lucky festival goers will have the opportunity to taste barbeque from 50 different teams from all over the state and even neighboring states. “Everyone likes a good plate of barbeque,” High said; “it appeals to everybody in the whole community, young and old; everyone can come to a barbeque.”