Details for this year's Ribfest in Chatham have been revealed and they are juicy.
The organizer of the 17th annual Chatham-Kent Ribfest, to be held July 3-5 at Tecumseh Park in Chatham, said this year's event will be extraordinary with great ribs, a new $10 all-day access Family Zone, a new country-themed bar serving wine for the first time, and live music each night.
Friday night's live bands include 40 Hours Over and Big Shiny Toons, while Saturday night has an AC/DC tribute band called AC/DC Eras and a Kiss tribute band named Destroyer.
The new Family Zone will have an inflatable axe toss, inflatable games, face painting, giant Jenga. It will be open on Friday from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Also new at Ribfest this year, is a Kids Rave dance party on Saturday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., a Taylor Swift dance party, and a chance to learn K-Pop Demon Hunter dance moves.
Ribfest organizer Chris Glassford said new features at the event this year are critical to keeping customers happy and returning.
"Adding different elements every year is a key component to making sure that people don't get bored of the same thing. Having our motorcycle show and different things for kids to do is really important to us this year. We want to pivot in ways that add to the event and not subtract," said Glassford.
Glassford said the popular July event will have six ribbers with the celebrity rib judging taking place on Saturday at 1 p.m.
"We're going to back to some of our roots of the early Ribfest, bringing in Destroyer, bringing in some of the bands that used to really hold down the event, and we have a lot of the ribbers that started the Chatham Ribfest," Glassford noted.
Glassford said the craft sauce competition will return this year, but Art in the Park won't.
The first annual Show and Shine Bike Show will be held on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Bike registration is $5. Click here to register for the Bike Show.
The motorcycles can win awards, such as Best Custom, Best Vintage, People's Choice, and Junior Judge Award.
The Canadian Motorcycle Cruisers of Chatham-Kent will also have a 50/50 draw on Sunday at 6 p.m. with proceeds to be donated to the Chatham Goodfellows. Raffle tickets will be sold throughout April at various locations in Chatham and Dresden for $5. The payout is $20,000 if all 8,000 50/50 tickets are sold.
Admission to the Ribfest event is free.
A charity event will be held on Sunday night between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. to raise money for Music for the Mind. Sunday night's theme will be Punk and Emo featuring 89 NEXT and Strike Tyson. Tickets are $20.
