Nothing sums up summer quite like the smell of pork and hickory pouring out from the smoker. The 18th annual Ribfest returns June 10-12 to Chicago’s Lincoln Avenue, stretching from Irving Park Road to Berteau Avenue.
The event is open to the public and free, though organizers ask for a $5 donation at the gate. The donation is used to fund philanthropic efforts in the North Center neighborhood, according to the festival’s site.
Food and drink tickets cost $1 each. For an idea of what that will get you: a three-bone rib sampler is eight tickets, and a beer is six or seven tickets, depending on the brew. Most food items will cost between four and 12 tickets.
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Look for more than 15 ribs vendors, including Lakeview restaurant The Piggery, Rogers Park spot Rub’s Backcountry Smokehouse and Austin’s Texas Lightning, a traveling team of barbecue enthusiasts who enter competitions all over the United States. In the nonrib department, vendors include Taco in a Bag, Chubby Wieners, Dinky Donuts and Black Dog Gelato.
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While it might cost to eat your fill at your own pace, the event’s amateur rib-eating contest (6:30 p.m. June 9) is free to enter. The event’s 10 contestants are chosen on a first-come, first-in basis; the winner will get a seat at RibMania VII (6 p.m. June 10), the event’s pro eating contest put on in conjunction with Major League Eating.
The three-day festival includes other ticketed events, like Culinary Fight Club (noon to 2 p.m. June 12). Four cooks have 45 seconds to run to a pantry stocked by judges and 60 minutes to create a dish. This month’s theme: bacon. Tickets are $40 before June 10 and $50 afterward; 20 percent of the proceeds benefit Fight2Feed, a Chicago-based non-profit fighting to elimate hunger.
Ribfest runs 5-10 p.m Friday, June 10, and noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 11, and Sunday, June 12.
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