The Kinsmen Telkwa BBQ will be back in its full glory this September.
While a July 1 announcement from the provincial health officer delayed planning of the annual shindig, the Kinsmen club is rapidly putting together a full slate of events including the ever-popular demolition derby and softball tournament.
“It’s really exciting and we’ve had a really good response from the people that typically participate, so that’s exciting,” said Lisa O’Sullivan speaking on behalf of the Kinsmen.
The late start has presented some challenges, however, the biggest of which is finding food vendors O’Sullivan said.
“We only have one confirmed right now because we’re finding a lot of people haven’t geared up their truck or their trailer because at the beginning of the year when they would normally get going their prospects didn’t look good or they’ve completely closed,” she said.
The BBQ is accepting applications for vendors through its Facebook page until Aug. 6.
The main food draw, however, the famous Telkwa BBQ Beef on a Bun, will be back in full swing.
Last year, a modified take-out version of Beef on a Bun allowed the BBQ to maintain its claim of being the longest continuously running event in B.C. even as the COVID-19 pandemic derailed the other events.
“It did require some out-of-the-box thinking to come to a way that we could still facilitate the Beef on a Bun, but meet the restrictions at the time,” O’Sullivan said. “It did heavily exceed our expectations. I know going into it we were unsure as to what kind of response we were going to get and we were concerned that it might be a losing endeavour. However, we cooked eight hips of beef, which is slightly less than we would normally cook, but we sold out in under two hours.”
Also back this year is a partnership with Royal Canadian Legion established last year.
“They were wonderful to work with and it went really well.”
The organizers are still working on a few other special features for this year, but the theme, O’Sullivan said, is simply to get out and have some fun.
“The biggest thing is we’re wanting to just get back in the swing of things. I think everybody’s just genuinely excited and we’re hoping to offer a great event for the community and everybody will be out and happy and we’ll be able to carry on.”
The 109th Telkwa BBQ is scheduled for Sept. 4 - 6.