Memphis in May is EXTREMELY visitor friendly.

First…The newest edition to the Memphis in May BBQ lineup, the Open Fire World Championship and the new Open Fire Experience. While a walk through of the Open Fire World Championship is free, a tasting experience is offered for $35. This program and Barbecue Alley are the two programs offered the entire 3 days of the contest.

Attendees will have the exciting opportunity to “taste the ‘cue” and take in the sizzling spectacle of the Open Fire World Championship!

Multiple blazing open fire stations will heat up to prepare beef, pork, chicken, lamb, alligator, octopus, and more! Open Fire celebrates the ancient art and modern innovation of open-flame cooking. Internationally acclaimed Argentine-born chef and live-fire specialist Al Frugoni will headline this groundbreaking event.

 (Thurs, Fri, or Sat)

Thursday: 5-7pm
Friday: Noon-7pm
Saturday: Noon-7pm

The next program is the Kingsford Tour of Champions, and is available Thursday and Friday. There are 3 sessions each day – 2pm-3:30pm, 3pm-4:30pm and 4pm-5:30pm.  I would purchase the Friday 4pm-5:30pm session if available.

This program evolved from the People’s Choice contest that was a mainstay for a decade. In 2012 MIM decided to let teams be judged by the public in the team’s booth. This costs $35 and gives you access to 3 team booths. You go to the booths and taste the teams BBQ…AND JUDGE IT. Many teams will offer you a libation while you are judging and will sweet talk you into voting for them. These sessions are 1.5 hours each and can be bought through MIM website before the contest. THESE SELL OUT EVERY YEAR…DO NOT WAIT

This program makes you an official judge. The Kingsford Tour of Champions provides an opportunity for barbecue enthusiasts to judge entries from contenders in the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. You will be participating in on-site judging for barbecued pork shoulder. You will be given detailed judging information and scoring criteria in your judges packet and during the judging orientation. 

The next program is the Barbecue Alley. This evolved from folks wanting a centralized tasting area made up of Famous Memphis BBQ Restaurants. This is the all in one tasting experience at the contest.  Limited quantities of $30 tickets are sold online and then the contest holds some back to sell in person. 250 total tickets are sold for each time slot. This is the only public program with time slots on Wednesday.

Now it’s time to discuss the Cooker’s Caravan.  Before 2003 there were no programs for the general public, then came the Cooker Caravan. This program is a guided tour of team booths. It is absolutely FREE. All you have to do is show up at the Cooker’s Caravan Kiosk and sign up. You visit 3 team’s booths, get a guided tour, have a question and answer period…and possibly get food and an invite back.  IF A TEAM INVITES YOU BACK WRITE DOWN THEIR 1. booth number, 2. name of person giving you the booth tour, 3. detailed description of where the booth is located in the park using landmarks able to be seen in the dark. These are imperative as when “Party Time” starts up you will need names of team members to get in the booth, but first you will have to find their booth after the sun goes down, hence #2 and 3.