B-B-Q ’n’ Blues
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.
