Popular Port Royal festival makes its return after a year off, change in leadership
By Mike McCombs
The Island News
After skipping a year for a transition in leadership, Bands, Brews & BBQ makes it’s return to downtown Port Royal on Valentine’s Day weekend.
The event, for years a fundraiser for the Friends of Caroline Hospice (FOCH), is now being put on by the nonprofit Zonta Club of Beaufort.
According to Marie Larson, President of the Zonta Club, the event changed hands in October or November of 2023.
Larson said that LaNelle Fabian, the Director of Community Engagement with FOCH told her, “The Board (of Directors) had decided they didn’t want to do it anymore. She said she had to let it go.”
Zonta, which raises money for scholarships and to assist other nonprofits, made the decision to cancel the 2024 event in order to gather resources to have the best chance to put on a successful event in 2025.
Initially, Zonta was partnered with HELP of Beaufort, but HELP backed out, and Zonta leaders made the decision to go ahead.
“Toward the end of January, they decided they no longer wanted to participate in this,” Larson said. “Instead of postponing it, we decided to go forward.”
Despite the hiccups, Larson is confident the event will be as good as ever.
Larson said there are 16 cook teams registered for the S.C. Barbecue Association-sanctioned event, the first in this year’s series of judges barbecue competitions. Points earned at each event accumulate through the year and there’s an overall winner crowned at year’s end.
On the event’s first day, from 5 to 9 p.m., Friday, Feb. 14, the Hometown Heroes Wing Throw Down Party will be held. The wings event, according to Larson, is a competition event featuring several dozen judges, including those from the SCBA, as well as local figures. Wings from the 16 teams will be judges and first through third place will be awarded.
Then, Larson said, the cook teams will continue to work and cook all night in preparation for the SCBA competition on the second day, from 11 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 15. The cook teams will submit samples of their Boston Butt resipes to the SCBA judges, and from 3 to 3:30 p.m., first through fifth place will be awarded.
Tickets will be sold at the event for samples of the wings and barbecue.
“If it wasn’t for the people that worked this event before, we would be lost,” Larson said, crediting the scores of volunteers and those at FOCH. “They’ve been so very helpful.”
At the last event in 2023, vendors ran out of food on Saturday, well before the end of the event. Larson said she steps have been take to insure that doesn’t happen again this year.
“We feel like we have a system in place in our first year, we have a little better communication with our volunteers,” Larson said. “When we get low on something, we’ll be signaled, … we’ll know when to slow down with the tickets. We don’t want what we had happen in 2023.”
Larson said there will also be three food vendors not involved with the cook teams to provide fare other than wings or barbecue.
There will be Piece of Yard and Abroad, which serves Jamaican cuisine; Lemons and Dough, which serves lemonade and doughnuts; and the Dog Wagon, which specializes in, you guessed it, hot dogs.
There will be live entertainment, as well.
The Marine Corps band will perform early on Friday, and Chris Jones will perform Friday night, while two bands will perform Saturday, as well.
“It’s a big effort,” Larson said. “It’s a fun event … family oriented. We hope that everybody has a great time.”
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
