Smoked Dallas BBQ and Music Fest 2016

The third annual Smoked festival in Dallas was held September 24, 2016 with an ominous weather forecast for the day. The festival has grown since inception to become a genuine music fest as well as an event providing a full days worth of entertainment. While I was unable to attend the event last year, the 2016 event was an impressive one.

The Dallas fest pulls in barbecue from across Texas, with representation from the DF/W area, Austin, Lockhart, and Taylor this year. In addition to great barbecue, dessert was also provided via Haute Sweets

Black’s BBQ
BBQ on the Brazos
Bet The House BBQ
Cattleack BBQ
Chef Dean Fearing
Cousin’s Bar-B-Q
Heim Barbecue & Catering
Hutchins BBQ
Lockhart Smokehouse
Longorias BBQ
Louie Mueller Barbecue
Meat U Anywhere BBQ
The Slow Bone
Schmidt Family Barbecue
Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ
18th & Vine Barbeque
Side Dishes: Cafe Momentum
Dessert by: Haute Sweets Patisserie

The fest strengthened their musical line up and was strong enough on it’s own that they offered concert-only tickets, similar to Red Dirt. For 2016 the musical entertainment included Madison King, Dean Fearing’s Lost Coyote, The Roomsounds, Dirty River Boys, Shinyribs, and the Toadies.

Beyond food and music, this year also saw the Trailer Park Olympics hosted by local bar Doublewide. Horseshoe style ring toss with toilet seats, chicken shit bingo, armadillo races, and a mechanical bull were on hand to provide fun for young and old.

Leslye and I arrived only a handful of minutes prior to the general admission start and the line was already wrapped around the block. By the time they began allowing entry I would estimate there were several hundred queued up. We knew better than get to a fest right before entry time but we were delayed en route.

After entry my only complaint was due to the patrons not really lining up properly. Directly after the entry gate the first six or seven booths had people lined up parallel to the booths, with the line moving along from one to the other rather than perpendicular individual lines for each booth. That’s a fairly minor quibble though.

In addition to the other festivities a Jack Daniels bus and the Sunday Night Football bus were available for perusal. We were really impressed with the variety of entertainment throughout the day. I missed catching Madison King’s performance as I was chowing down, but did hear the music while in line(s). Dean Fearing’s band played classic rock, the Roomsounds were a great roots rock throwback, and the Dirty River Boys, who I had seen at Red Dirt this year, were just as fun with a rocking country sound that reminded me at some times of a celtic rock band. Shinyribs was a surprise as I had not caught them before. They were very entertaining with backup singers and a brass section rocking a party sound behind Kevin Russell’s antics. While there were only a few sprinkles earlier in the day, strong lightning and a wild looking storm cell on radar forced the event to halt. While some of those who paid only for concert tickets were upset and I didn’t get to see the Toadies, it was a tremendously fun day.