By Delayna Earley
The Island News
PORT ROYAL – Beautiful weather and the promise of good food and music brought thousands of people out to the Bands, Brews & BBQ event hosted by Friends of Caroline Hospice (FOCH) in Port Royal on Friday and Saturday.
So many, in fact, that the event sold out of wings and barbecue a lot earlier than they anticipated on both days.
“We sold out of everything!” said LaNelle Fabian, the Director of Community Engagement with FOCH. “We sold out of barbecue on Saturday, a little earlier than we anticipated, but you can’t control when people show up.”
The event, which benefits FOCH, featured a barbacue and wing competition, with the wing competition on Friday, Feb. 24, and the barbecue competition taking place on Saturday, Feb. 25, along with live music by Mike Ponder, Steel Rail Express, Chris Jones, The Bull Grapes and The Chiggers.
“[Selling out] has happened in past events, just not so soon,” Fabian said.
Fabian said that while the weather ended up being beautiful, the forecast for the weekend when they were placing the order for the meat showed a lot of rain.
“We don’t want to end up with a lot of food at the end of the event either, so it is hard to figure out what the demand is going to be,” said Fabian.
The meat is provided to each of the barbecue cook teams by the event in accordance with the South Carolina BBQ Association.
Each team had 40 pounds of wings, and they had eight Boston butts.
Fabian said they have been talking about bringing in more food next year, but she said that it cannot be through the competition teams.
“While some of the teams have rigs that could handle more meat, not all do, and it would be unfair to allow some teams to have more options to choose from to turn in for the competition,” Fabian said.
On Saturday, 2 oz. barbecue samples were sold to customers who had purchased food tickets.
The tickets could also be used to buy beer and other concessions such as hot dogs and hamburgers sold by FOCH and French fries sold by the Boy Scouts.
Fabian said that the Boy Scouts went through 600 pounds of potatoes during the event and that the FOCH sold out of hot dogs and hamburgers on Saturday before the event was even half over.
They did offer refunds for people who had purchased tickets but were not able to use them due to food availability, but Fabian said that there were quite a few people who only requested a refund for half of their tickets because they understand this was a fundraiser event for FOCH.
She said there were people disappointed that they couldn’t get any barbecue, but mostly people were understanding.
Looking forward to next year’s event, Fabian hopes to provide more food options for people to enjoy once the competition barbecue is gone.
Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She spent six years as a videographer and photographer for The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette before leaving the Lowcountry in 2018. After freelancing in Myrtle Beach and Virginia, she joined The Island News when she moved back to Beaufort in 2022. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
