LEXINGTON, N.C. — Restaurants are preparing for the 39th Barbecue Festival in Lexington taking place Saturday.
Barbecue lovers of all kinds are set to flock to Lexington this weekend for the highly anticipated Barbecue Festival.
October has even been deemed “Barbecue Month” by Davidson County and city of Lexington officials with barbecue and pig-themed events all month long.
The festival was started in 1984 by Joe Sink Jr. and Kay Saintsing, according to the festival's website.
Festival officials say the first year of the festival attracted 30,000 people, and since then it has continued to grow in popularity.
One of the first restaurants brought on board to be a part of the festival was the Bar-B-Q Center on North Main Street.
“My dad was one of the first people they brought in case anything and just kind of got together and decided we needed something to honor Lexington and let's honor the barbecue,” said Cecil Conrad, co-owner of Bar-B-Q Center.
Sonny Conrad, Cecil’s father, bought the restaurant from his brother-in-law in 1967, and it has been open since 1955.
“I've been back here for about 26 years now working,” Cecil Conrad said.
After his father’s passing in 2013, Conrad and his brother, Michael Conrad, took over the restaurant and continued participating in the festival, expanding on their father’s legacy.
“We've participated in every festival, so all 39,” Cecil Conrad said.
Lined around the restaurant walls are posters from past years' festivals, each holding fond memories and fun facts.
“This year, the 26th festival in 2009, a young lady you may have heard of, Taylor Swift, performed for free downtown,” Conrad said.
Festival officials say there are four restaurants participating in the event, along with vendors, performances and a 50-ton sand sculpture of pigs. It is projected to bring in hundreds of thousands of people and millions of dollars to the economy.
“It's just been great for Lexington, and we've watched the festival grow from about 10,000 people to close to 150,000 people. And, you know, with great weather we're going to have this weekend, we expect a large crowds,” Conrad said.
He says the restaurant normally sells hundreds of sandwiches a day and expects to sell thousands during the festival.
“This is our single busiest day of the year, so it's a pretty good impact,” Conrad said.
He says the restaurant brings in an extra 35 employees for the festival to help feed the rotational crowd of 125 seats within the restaurant.
“The advertising from it carries year round. It's not just getting ready for one day. I mean, we get people who come back and, you know, March or April saying we were here in October. It was great. We'll come back and see you again. So it's mainly you don't make as much of a profit as someone would think, but it's more just getting out there,” Conrad said.
Make no mistake, he says that the only way to do barbecue is with the Lexington-style dip.
“When we pour it over a sandwich for your plate to permeate all the way down to the bottom, not just lay, like, thick on the top,” Conrad said.
Clearly their customers keep coming back for the delicious food.
“We honor the Lexington-style tradition, that they've been doing it since the beginning of the 20th century. Pit cooked with hickory and coals and basically firing meat in the way they did over a hundred years ago,” Cecil Conrad said.
There is a one-day special train stop that unloads in Lexington 10 times for the festival every year. To look for tickets, use the city code “LEX” on NC By Train or Amtrak’s websites.