You can’t beat a combination of tasty barbecue and great blues music. For both, head to Wildwood this weekend for the 10th Annual Anglesea Blues Festival, July 11-13, and the New Jersey State Barbecue Championship.
The three-day open-air festival, staged at 2nd and Olde New Jersey Ave. in North Wildwood, features a fabulous lineup of bands, along with a championship barbecue competition, live cooking demonstrations, celebrity chefs, cooking classes and food galore. Plus there is an antique car show and a juried craft show adding to the festivities. Festival hours are 5–11pm, Friday, July 11; 10–10, Saturday, July 12 and 10am–6pm, Sunday, July 13.
Bands performing free concerts on the festival’s main stage this year begin with BlueBone on Friday from 5-7pm. Linwood’s Patrick Droney, 15, a blues guitarist who has opened for B.B. King at the House of Blues in Atlantic City, performs from 7:30–10:30pm. For the complete musical line-up, go here.
The festival’s barbecue championship competition is sanctioned and officiated by the Kansas City Barbecue Society, the world’s largest association of barbecue enthusiasts. More than $8,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded. The judging takes place at noon on Sunday. A special barbecue cooking class also will be offered at 12:30pm on Saturday and Sunday by national competitive barbecue authority, Ed Roith. Advance registration for the class and a nominal fee are required. Not only is this a great time, but proceeds from the Anglesea Blues Festival and New Jersey State Barbecue Championship benefit the Anglesea Volunteer Fire Company, which has served the community since 1897.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Festivals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.