KCBS News FeedNew Orleans BBQ Contest Postponed
July 16, 2010 Organizers of the Louisiana Tailgate & BBQ Festival announced today that their August event in New Orleans has been postponed due to conditions in the Gulf. The following statement was shared with KCBS:To all sponsors, partners, vendors, bbq teams and fans of The Louisiana Tailgate & Barbecue Festival
We appreciate all of your support. However, in light of the Louisiana communities' focus on the crisis in the gulf and the local economy -we have made the difficult decision to postpone the 2010 Louisiana Tailgate & Barbecue Festival until August 2011.
Below, please find the formal announcement from Bob Johnson, General Manager of the Morial Convention Center of New Orleans.
We have received and appreciate great corporate and community support for the event. We know that this situation affects many of us. We recognize the affect on you - our partners. We will be announcing 2011 dates very shortly as well as additional program details. In the meantime, we will be working with each and everyone of you to process payment refunds as fast as possible so that you are not affected further.
We want you to join us in 2011 and will be working on incentives and special accommodations to all of you who have supported us and been affected. This good news will be forthcoming.
In the meantime - thank you for keeping Louisiana in your thoughts and the 2011 Louisiana Tailgate & Barbecue Festival on your calendars!
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2010 LOUISIANA TAILGATE AND BARBEQUE FESTIVAL DEFFERED
New Orleans, LA – Organizers of the Louisiana Tailgate and Barbeque Festival announced today that the 2010 festival will be deferred until next year.
“The intent of the festival is to stimulate activity in what is traditionally a slow period of the year not only at the Convention Center but in the community in general. All who we talk to remain very enthusiastic about the program, but we wanted to be completely confident that we could deliver a successful event for and to the community. However, as we are all aware; Louisiana businesses, communities and families are rightfully focused on the events in the Gulf and the local economy – and will be until such time that the crisis has passed.” said Bob Johnson, General Manager, New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. “We have received and appreciate both the corporate and community support for the program, and will carry this good will and momentum forward. We will reinvest our energy into next year with the full expectation that this can become another one of New Orleans iconic festivals, Johnson concluded.”
The Louisiana Tailgate and Barbeque Festival will include a barbeque competition sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, indoor and outdoor exhibits of everything about outdoor living and entertaining, with a special emphasis on tailgating. The outdoor portion of the festival would be staged on the recently improved parcel of what was to be the location of the Phase IV expansion to the Convention Center with the indoor portion being in Hall J. The August date is to take advantage of the lull before school starts and the anticipation of football and hunting seasons.
The related markets of outdoor living, and tailgating in particular, have grown exponentially in recent years, now accounting for an excess of $40 billion in sales annually. Louisiana is known for its unique culinary culture which includes crawfish boils and cochon de laits that are typically big gatherings outdoors and tailgating which has become an art form in and of itself.
The dates for the 2011 festival will be announced soon. For more information go to www.louisianatailgate.com
