About BBQ on the River
HISTORY
BBQ on the River is held each fall in Paducah and is celebrating its 30th year this September. The brain child of Susie Coiner and with the help of Carol Gault, the festival began as an idea to share the famous barbecue of Western Kentucky while also raising money for local charities. It continues today with the same missions, just on a much larger scale! Beginning in 2022, Beautiful Paducah has accepted the mission to keep BBQ on the River alive for generations to come, and in the two years as organizers - they have helped raise over $700,000 for local/regional nonprofit organizations. The BBQ team anticipates an equally successful year for 2024!
FOOD
The riverfront festival has welcomed upwards of 50,000 visitors per year for food, drinks, entertainment.
Barbecue is the star of this festival with more than 80,000 pounds of chicken and pork grilled, smoked, cooked, and eaten, among other tasty choices. The meat is cooked up by local restaurants, other restaurants that travel quite a ways for the festival, as well as people who are simply passionate about smoking barbecue.
CHARITY
In order to participate as a vendor at BBQ On The River, you get to choose a charity of your choice to receive a portion of ALL proceeds!
In years past, BBQ On The River has raised over $300,000 annually a wide array of local charities, including Beautiful Paducah, where we continue to put those funds back into programming like this for our beautiful community!
AWARDS
Stick around to see if your favorite vendors and chefs with the big awards of the weekend!
Awards are given in tons of categories like Best Chicken, Best Pulled Pork, Best Whole Hog, Best Ribs, Best Sides, and many more.
Make sure you keep your eyes open for the winners of previous years so you can try the best of the best in all things BBQ!