The annual River Rockin' Ribfest sponsored by Rhythm City Casino began last night at LeClaire Park in downtown Davenport with three bands and a lot of ribs cooking. I'm the stage manager and the announcer for the music acts once again - my 8th year of doing that job.
The Ribfest is the best - and most popular - event of the summer season. We've had a lot of great bands play here over the years and the food is usually good to outstanding.
Spatterdash, The Andrew Landers Project and Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls played on the bandshell stage last night. Tonight, the highlight is the Beatles tribute band - 1964, the Tribute - who are here again this year. They just packed in the people last year - over 10,000 people came to see one of the best Beatles tribute bands playing. Hal Reed and the Mob, and Jim the Mule will also play tonight.
Tomorrow night, the headliner will be the Key West Band - a Jimmy Buffet tribute band that features Doyle Grisham, a world class pedal steel guitar player who has played with Buffet on a number of his albums. The Fry Daddies, Identity Crisis and The Juke Joint Sinners, an all-star band of some of the best blues musicians in the Quad Cities, will also play on Saturday.
Sunday is the annual car show that displays a large number of vintage cars and hot rods in the park. Blue Collar Band, The Royal Rockers and One Night Standards will play in the bandshell on Sunday afternoon.
Saturday is another highlight for me - the amateur rib cook-off is taking place and, once again, I'm the head judge and coordinator for that event. 18 every day "Joe's" and "Jill's" will go head to head in a competition that has become pretty competitive over the past couple three years. I'll have an entry on the competition in the coming days.
But I'm still checking out the rib vendors who are in town this weekend. There are seven national touring rib vendors this year (there are normally six), with four new ones who are here for the first time. We have Desperado's BBQ out of Ohio, Cowboy BBQ from Texas and Porky and Bean's from Florida who all have been here before. This year the newcomers are Pigfoot BBQ from Ohio, Chicago BBQ Company from the Chicago suburbs, Rib-bins BBQ from Pennsylvania, and Elmer's Texas BBQ from Minnesota. And two local rib joints - Jim's Rib Haven and Lil Lou's BBQ - are here, as well.
You can be sure that I'll have a full report on who I felt had the best ribs and sauce after the fest is completed on Sunday afternoon.
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