The Great Texas Barbecue Fest

This is one of the poorest events I’ve ever attended. We bought tickets for the original festival, which was to be held in April at Sam Houston Park, mostly because we were interested in the band lineup. Advertised as “rain or shine” – but they canceled because of a threat of thunderstorms two days ahead of time. OK, new dates are while we are on vacation – a total bummer – but we got home in time on Sunday to go and see the Suffers, which was our main interest that day. Now the event is being held in a nasty parking lot vs. a nice park. Very little BBQ, basically a half dozen food trucks (mostly not BBQ) and maybe 3 or 4 BBQ vendors. We were there for 45 minutes before they decide to call off the “rain or shine” concert—AGAIN—because of rain. They announce they will reschedule the remaining acts. Which they do a few hours later, as a “doors open at 10:30 pm, music starts at 11pm” indoor concert for that night. I appreciate that the weather is the weather, but we have jobs and cannot attend a concert that doesn’t start until 11pm on a Sunday. So we were out $80 for absolutely nothing. A double bait-and-switch with extremely poor communications throughout to convey all the endless changes.
1 7 years ago (21-05-2018)

Terrible festival. I'm glad I got my tickets for free or I would have really regretted paying the $35 ticket price. Maybe it's just me, but a "Great" bbq festival should have more than 3 bbq eating options. Even if the event hadn't been rained out on Sunday it still would have sucked.
1 7 years ago (23-05-2018)

Terrible! Gates didn't open on time. Music didn't start till later in the afternoon. The whole event was on hot pavement with little shade and no access to any free water. We had VIP tickets to the event which included the VIP area. What a joke! It was a patch of grass with a couple of portapoties. An hour later they brought out a couple of picnic tables. Then at three there was finally a tent. It was never advertised that our VIP free food tastings only were held during once and not till 3pm. They held off giving out free drinks because they didnt know what drinks were included. We never got the VIP swag bag. We will never go back!
1 7 years ago (21-05-2018)

TL:DR at the end if you don't want to read this horror story.. These tickets were a Mother's day gift. At least that was the intention. One Article said a line of 50 people were eagerly awaiting food at one vendor who judges his success on how long he has to keep his back turned to customers to watch the pit. To address the line of 50 people eagerly awaiting food.. we had no choice because they held the bbq ransom with no indication of when it would be served and told when it was served to run to the front of the line because they might run out. We were third in line and everything was already cold. I guess the pitmaster should have spent less time with his back turned and more time paying attention to the fact that he accidentally used bags of ice instead of hot coals. EDIT: This may be why the beer was warm but more on that later. I paid $150 for VIP, $172.56 after fees for 3 tickets for a total of $517.68. For that money I was promised, and I quote, "VIP passes are available for $150 and include complimentary BBQ and beverages and access to VIP lounge." -(from the website itself) What I received was a postage stamp of dead grass and dirt, other VIP guests sitting on the ground in the dirt because there were so few benches, a single plate from a single vendor whom I did not get to choose consisting of two small pieces of COLD average flavor brisket.. COLD beans.. and potato salad.. and not a single opportunity to go back for anything else. God forbid you did what I did and hold off eating that day in anticipation of the many vendors promised. And finally I was able to wash down the lovely taste of regret while sitting in the dirt with, and I quote again from the website, "a highly curated selection of beers brewed from across the great state of Texas" which turned out to actually be a selection of either bud lite or modello especialle. Fun fact the beer was actually warmer than the beans because they actually kept running out of ice. On the second day we had just enough time to wait in line for cold food and bring it back to the VIP dirt before we were unceremoniously told we have to leave due to weather. *******TL:DR horrible, no refunds rain or shine event canceled twice for rain succeeded in serving up a nice helping of indigestion paired with warm beer, dirt and harassing venders trying to sign you up for anything and everything. Music was... there.
1 7 years ago (01-06-2018)

1. Houston is blazing hot, especially downtown. They have zero communal shade or seating, and will not allow you to bring in umbrellas or allow you to check them in. 2. This is a bunch of high priced food trucks parked in a giant cement lot. 3. No BBQ tastings to be found. 4. Although the music was loud, the discomfort factor was not even worth a free ticket. Honestly felt bad for everyone who paid thinking this was an actual BBQ cook off.
1 7 years ago (19-05-2018)