Canberra gets its first BBQ fest - the Big Smoque AAA Barbecue Festival

Canberra's love affair with barbecue is far from over. Get ready for the Big Smoque AAA Barbecue Festival which will be held in Civic Square on the weekend of December 5.

It's the brainchild of Grant Kells, the owner of popular barbecue restaurant Smoque (and Smoque Woden), and will be held in conjunction with the Australian American Association.

There will be an official American barbecue competition held during the weekend under the auspices of the Australasian Barbecue Alliance, with teams working to produce pulled pork and other meats overnight.

But Kells says the festival will also be a celebration of international barbecue.

"We want to see Vietnamese barbecue, Korean barbecue, Greek barbecue - obviously the actual competition itself will be the traditional American barbecue, brisket, pulled pork and lamb," he says.

"We're going to do lots of live entertainment, have hay bales everywhere and have a traditional American barbecue. Competitors have to be up all night cooking and turn in will be between 10am and 12pm on the Sunday morning."

There will also be cooking demonstrations, including a visit from an Alabaman pit boss who's a friend of Kells, a children's competition and a judges training session.

Kells says the idea came to him a couple of months ago. He'd previously attended one or two food festivals which had been disappointing, particularly after an inspiring visit to the gargantuan World Series of Barbecue in Kansas City, the spiritual home of American competition barbecue.

"For us it's going to be about the whole experience, you come in and you have a bit of Korean barbecue, a bit of Japanese barbecue, have a beer, watch a live band. It'll all be contained in Civic Square," he says.

He enlisted the help of Australian American Association president Alicia Doherty, who brought the ACT Government's multicultural office on board.

"I said, 'Let's do this sooner rather than later, let's keep it small and make it a nice experience,'" she says. "I don't want people to be just standing in line the whole time, I want it to be a nice vibe and easily flowing."

So she's looking to sign up entertainers, such as rodeo performers who might do whip cracking demonstrations ("I'm trying madly to find a lassoo") and there'll be live music, "hay bales everywhere, lots of red and white gingham and a few American cars".

"We want to focus on local producers and multicultural flavours," she says.

Because of the liquor licensing, space will be limited and Kells says they will probably have to add an entrance fee to keep numbers within the legal requirements.

Smoque will, of course, have a stall at the event and other food stalls will be "50 per cent American and 50 per cent international barbecue".

At the moment they're taking expressions of interest for food stalls, sponsorship and competitors. They've already had nine local teams apply for the competition but Kells is looking for more, particularly a team of women. "There's never been an all-female team in any ABA sponsored event," he says.

Doherty has been working with the Canberra Theatre, the Canberra Museum and Gallery and Civic Library on tie-in events and family friendly activities.

"We want to encourage people to tell us their childhood memories of barbecue and if they have photos we could do a mini pop up exhibition," she says.

"Shane [Breynard, the director of the Canberra Museum] is looking into doing a treasure hunt for the kids and extending the opening hours so people can walk through the exhibitions. We're being very collaborative and trying to make it fun"

The Big Smoque AAA Barbecue Festival will be held in Civic Square on December 5-6. See australianamericancanberra.com.au

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