After cancelling Friday’s festivities due to storm damage, the Queen City Ribfest will be starting up Saturday morning.

The strong winds associated with Thursday night’s thunderstorm resulted in extensive damage to one of the vendors

Organizer Rob Reinhardt says the festival will go ahead with the two remaining trucks.

“One of our three operators is out of commission, his trailer actually flipped over due to the wind, but our other two, we’ve gone over the equipment, everything looks safe, so we’re going to open tomorrow,” said Reinhardt. “It’ll run a scheduled, 11-8 Saturday, and 11-7 on Sunday. If people are still here lined up in front of the booths, we’ll keep serving and stay open late.”

Reinhardt says it was important for them to try and go ahead with the event, especially coming out of the pandemic.

“Barbecue is all about fellowship and food, people have been desperate to get together with their friends and family for so long. What better reason to do that, than to pick up some great barbecue and hang out and eat it together,” said Reinhardt. “We do have the park here available at Evraz Place, Confederation Park, what a beautiful spot, green, relaxing, and lots of shade, so people can stay here and enjoy their food in the park if they like.”

People participating in the event this weekend, will notice a bit of a different experience this year.

“It’s a drive-thru experience, so they’ll enter from Lewvan Drive, there will be volunteers to greet them and share some menus as they come in,” said Reinhardt. “They’ll have to pick a barbecue vendor at some point, just order their food when they arrive and because it’s barbecue, it’s all cooked ahead of time, so we’ll be able to package up that food pretty quickly and keep the line moving.”

More information can be found on Queen City Ribfest’s Facebook page.