Charleston has a new BBQ Festival: Inaugural Event Benefits Hogs For the Cause

By Wendy Pollitzer

The Holy City is already known for its festivals that bring foodies from all over to taste oysters, shrimp, and now… barbeque!

The inaugural Holy Smoke BBQ Festival was held at The Bend, 3775 Azalea Drive in North Charleston on November 13th. Over 3,700 barbeque enthusiasts spent the afternoon on the east bank of the Ashley River enjoying unique recipes in three distinct villages: classic, Texan, and new School BBQ. The range of All-American barbeque samples differed in cooking style, presentation, and flavor. From slow smoking over an open pit to braised on the grill, fans flocked to the all-you-can-eat affair to appraise the finest pulled pork, brisket, and ribs in the country from over two dozen professional and local pitmasters. When the pork aficionados were not sampling the heat and flavor, they were dancing to the funky vibes of Mac Leaphart, The Cordovas, and headliner, Elizabeth Cook.

Organizers of the festival invited leaders from the national barbeque community to pay homage to the history, culture, and traditions of American barbeque while raising awareness and funds for families affected by pediatric brain cancer through the generous donations from the Charleston community to Hogs for the Cause. Raised funds topped $100,000 and will stay in the Holy City to benefit the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital to alleviate the financial burdens local families face while their children battle cancer.

Several pre-pandemic years ago, in 2017, Aaron Siegel and Taylor Garigan, co-owners of Home Team BBQ began thinking about producing a BBQ festival in Charleston. Their crew went down to New Orleans to the Hogs For the Cause BBQ Festival to investigate.

Becca Knox, Director of Marketing at Home Team BBQ, describes the feeling of the crew after the memorable event. “The team fell in love with the cause and heart behind the event after hearing the powerful stories from families who received help from Hogs For the Cause.”

Home Team BBQ then started its annual Rock the Block party to start raising funds and awareness for a much larger event. They wanted to create a BBQ festival built for chefs by the chefs themselves. Eventually Siegel and Garrigan, Anthony DiBernardo of Swig & Swine, and Robert Moss, the Contributing BBQ Editor for Southern Living came together, and the Holy Smokes BBQ Festival was born.

“We put a lot of focus on taking care of the chefs involved to ensure participating in the event was not a strain to the chef or their business,” explains Siegel.

“When we set out to do this thing, we wanted it to be a little different. We were thinking about all these events that kick our butts, and we thought about some collaboration,” Siegel said. “Why don’t we try to express certain aspects of barbecue, throwing some different styles together and giving people an idea about how certain types of barbecue are constructed.”

They had chefs work together on menu items instead of each cooking their own—and the festival goers loved the collaboration.

One family, who benefited from Hogs For the Cause, was invited on stage to say a few words about their experience. The Dennard’s—dad, Clayton; mom, Christina; and the son, Super Joseph—brought tears to the crowd’s eyes when they explained their personal journey. In 2020, Joseph was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma after doctors found a golf ball size tumor. After invasive surgery, several rounds of chemotherapy, transplants and more, the Dennard’s received news of No Evidence of Disease (NED) at his first post-treatment MRI in October, just before the Holy Smokes Festival. Super Joe, as his family calls him, will have scans every 6 weeks for the first year to monitor his progress of healthy cancer-free living. To learn more about Super Joe and his story, please visit www.josephssidekicks.com 

Since 2009, Hogs For the Cause efforts have raised over $1.5 Million in direct grants to families battling pediatric cancer and another $2.2 Million to hospital programs and charities nationwide.

The date for the 2022 Holy Smokes BBQ Festival in Charleston has not been set but keep an eye out @HolySmokesBBQFestival on Instagram or go to www.holysmokeschs.com to receive notifications about further details.

Side Bar:

Pitmasters At the 2021 Holy Smokes BBQ Festival Included:

·      Carey Bringle - Peg Leg Porker (Nashville TN)

·      Chris Lilly - Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q (Decatur AL)

·      Cody Sperry - Hoodoo Brown BBQ (Ridgefield CT)

·      Elliott Moss -Buxton Hall Barbecue (Asheville, NC)

·      Evan LeRoy - LeRoy and Lewis (Austin, TX)

·      Harrison Sapp - Southern Soul Barbeque (St. Simons Island, GA)

·      Madison Ruckel - Mama Jean's Barbecue (Roanoke, VA)

·      Michael Bessinger - Bessinger’s BBQ (Charleston, SC)

·      Pat Martin - Martin’s Bar-B-Que (Nashville, TN)

·      Rodney Scott - Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ (Charleston, SC)

·      Sam Jones - Skylight Inn (Ayden NC) and Sam Jones BBQ (Winterville and Raleigh, NC)

·      Tank Jackson - Holy City Hogs (Charleston, SC)

·      VIP chefs such as Shuai Wang, Ben Berryhill, and David Bancroft.