PIG IRON BBQ
The 19th annual Pig Iron BBQ Challenge is set for Friday night at the Hoover RV Park next to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
About 30 teams, mostly corporate, will be competing to see who can make the best barbecue meat and sauce and who can put together the best booth decorations, said Rachel Rounsaville, community relations and fund development coordinator for Children's Harbor, the nonprofit that puts on the event.
For $20 per adult, people can sample all types of barbecued meats from each of the booths, along with a host of other side dishes. Tickets for children are $10 for ages 13 to 17 and free for children 12 and younger with a paying adult. The city of Hoover is offering free pie made in a giant pan that is 10 feet, 3 inches in diameter and weighs 2,000 pounds, and it will be supplemented with Mayfield ice cream, Rounsaville said.
People pay at the gate, and the event is open to the public from 5 to 8 p.m. It’s very much a tailgating-type atmosphere. Last year, an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people attended, organizers said.
A team from Alabama Power Co. has won the best meat and best sauce competitions the past two years.
The event is a fundraiser for Children’s Harbor, a nonprofit that serves the families of long-term seriously ill children. The companies that compete pay to do so.
Organizers last year said the event raised at least $100,000, which is about 10 percent of the annual revenues for the charity’s Birmingham operations.
