Safeway Barbecue Battle

Oh dear Safeway BBQ Battle, I want to LOVE you not LIKE you!
OK, so I finally made it back to the battle and I’m sorry to report that even after 5+ years nothing has changed!
There are several entrances. Once you enter you are given a brochure and a site map and sent along your way. No details or suggestions are given to you.
The people that work here are extremely hands off! Like, don’t need to know where something is because they basically refer you to the map. It would’ve been nice to have people standing throughout to kinda point in the right direction for your journey but nope not a person in sight. Well the ones I did see were too busy zipping back and forth through the crowd on golf carts. Everything was just disorganized. There were quite a few samples when they first opened but what they don’t tell you is the samples are basically everything BUT the BBQ. That was a tad bit disappointing. The lines were terribly long and there was no crowd control there at all. I was so irritated that I didn’t even stay for the band that came up later. Just wasn’t enough to do to keep me occupied and interested to past time and wait.
Bottom line is; yes they have several stands with BBQ from different states and next year I will go just to go to those stands, get BBQ and head back home to eat it. There was just way to much dysfunction going on here for me. In and Out is the name of the game!

I worried about waiting for sample in long lines but it was ok today because of heavy rain.
I parked near the venue at $ 10. Their website says $ 13. I bought a normal admission at $ 15 at gate and used buy one get one free. If you buy a ticket and print it out and bring here in advance at $ 10 – 12.5. To taste famous BBQ, you must pay. But tons of samples make you full. I expected famous BBQ restaurants’ samples though.
I’m not sure about next year. If I can get free tickets, I’ll join it again;)