From our friends at Safeway's National Capital Barbecue Battle...
Top BBQ Competitors, Cooking Demos, Interactive Exhibits, Musicians and More, Benefiting DC Children’s Charities and the Capital Area Food Bank
Award-Winning BBQ Festival Kicks-Off Summer in the Nation’s Capital
The Safeway Barbecue Battle has been cooking up lots of great food, music & fun on America’s Main Street, Pennsylvania Ave. NW, for more than two decades. Kicking off the summer in DC, this unique event takes place June 21st and 22nd and is Washington’s largest annual food and music festival. The exciting Safeway Barbecue Battle offers Washington area residents and visitors the chance to celebrate the first weekend of summer with family and friends in our nation’s capital.
This two-day festival includes delicious barbecue and grilled treats of all kinds from around the country, two days of non-stop music, family entertainment, cooking demonstrations by Top National BBQ Chefs and America’s Only National Barbecue Cooking Championship, sanctioned by the National Pork Board. While entertaining so many food, music and fun-lovers, the Safeway Barbecue Battle has also raised over $1.5 million dollars for DC Children’s Charities and donated tons of food and funds to other area charities over the years. In 2014 the event will be helping to raise funds for DC Children’s Charities and the Capital Area Food Bank. In addition, this year’s event features a Military Chef’s cook-off presented by IKEA in which representatives from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard will participate in a cook-off to benefit the USO Metropolitan Washington.
Pennsylvania Avenue will be smoking with plenty of great BBQ provided by top chefs from across the country along with Competitive BBQ teams battling to win over $40,000 in cash and prizes in the Safeway National Barbecue Championship contest, sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) and the National Pork Board. The ever popular Safeway Sampling Pavilion showcases a line-up of delicious and tempting free BBQ & Grilled food samples while celebrity chefs and cookbook authors entertain with cooking demonstrations on the Safeway Demonstration Stage. The BBQ Bazaar area at the Battle features legends of BBQ from Destination America’s popular “BBQ Pitmasters” show with book signings. There are activities for kids of all ages to enjoy such as NBA Nation featuring NBA Basketball Stars and plenty of court action.
There’s something for everyone’s musical taste with 30 bands and family entertainment on multiple stages along with interactive exhibits providing hands-on and virtual fun for all. All weekend long well known headliners like Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Rare Essence and EU featuring Sugar Bear cap off days filled with bands from various genres like Trouble Funk, The All Mighty Senators, Familiar Faces, David Bach and Deanna Bogart and many more great bands.
The Safeway Barbecue Battle has received many awards and distinctions over the years including being named “One of 5 Can’t Miss Summer Festivals in the US” by CNN Travel, a “Top BBQ Event” by The Travel Channel and Discovery.com and one of “America's Best BBQ Competitions” by Saveur Magazine. The event has been covered extensively on national and international television, as well as radio, print and online media. For more information about this unique annual Washington celebration please visit our website at www.bbqdc.com or Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bbqindc. Be sure to download our free BBQDC App.
