Big Pig Jig 2009 in BBQ City, USA – Got a Team Going? Tell Us About it!

Image Credit - Official Big Pig Jig Website

The 2009 Big Pig Jig is fast approaching – with BBQ Competition teams from the southeast USA and surrounding areas heading in to BBQ City, USA (Vienna, Georgia) the weekend of November 7th.

Dating back to 1982, the Big Pig Jig BBQ Competition is one of the biggest competition draws in the country. Estimates for this year bring the cook team entry total to around 127, with more an anticipated total attendance number around 20,000 people! Man! Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

2009 Big Pig Jig Event Information

History of the Big Pig Jig

From the Big Pig Jig website:

BIG PIG JIG® was born in Vienna, Georgia when a group of self-professed gourmets made wagers on who among them could cook the most succulent pig! That year, 1982, those creative people recommended combining a barbecue cooking competition with an established and well-attended arts and crafts fair and the county’s livestock association annual hog show.

The merging of events has grown into a festival named twice by the American Bus Association as one of the Top 100 Events in America, three times acclaimed as one of the Top 20 Events in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourism Society, and recognized by Georgia Festivals and Events Association and International Festivals and Events Association with more than a dozen awards, including Best Georgia Festival in 1999.

BIG PIG JIG® was listed by Travel Agent magazine as one of America’s Top 500 Festivals, touted by Tom Clynes, author of WILD PLANET! as one of the world’s 1,001 Most Extraordinary Events, featured on the Food Network’s “All – American Festivals” and a one-hour special entitled “The BIG PIG JIG®”. BIG PIG JIG® was also named to the Discovery Travel Channel’s top ten list of “World’s Best Barbecue Contests” for the past four years and in 2004 the National Barbecue News named BIG PIG JIG® the Spirit of Barbecue Event of the Year.

Twenty-two years after the idea took shape, the contest drew 120 teams cooking over 400 entries of hogs, shoulders, ribs, plus kettles of Brunswick stew, barbecue sauce, and barbecued chicken. The event attracted over 20,000 spectators and required more than 300 judges, 300 volunteers, plus countless pounds of pork.

In 2003 the Dooly County Chamber of Commerce awarded more than $12,000 in cash plus trophies to BIG PIG JIG’s top cooks and accommodated huge crowds of festival fun-seekers at the facility now known as BBQ CITY, U.S.A.

Are You Competing in the 2009 Big Pig Jig?

Word has it that this event is a Memphis in May Qualifier. I know of at least one Florida BBQ Cook Team heading up to Vienna, Georgia to compete in this year’s Big Pig Jig BBQ Competition.

Image Credit - Official Memphis in May BBQ Competition Website

So – if youre’ heading up to compete – we’ll be rooting for you to get a chance at attending the Memphis event! In any case, we’d love to spotlight your cook team’s attendance there and relay here how you do in a blog post afterward!

Drop a line if you’re heading up. We’re hoping to hear from you!