Smoke filled the air in Lethbridge and it’s not just from forest fires; Ribfest was back in town.

Music, RV’s and most importantly ribs were showcased last weekend at the Enmax Centre. 

The event ran from Sept. 18 to 20, with Lethbridge residents lining up to try some authentic southern style barbeque. 

The festival looked a little different this year due to COVID-19, with the event taking place as a drive thru.

The event was organized by the Lethbridge Rotary Club, who had to make the tough decision to go ahead with the event rather than cancelling it. 

Event organizer Nick Nicolacopoulos said a lot of discussion, with different health groups went into this decision to find the safest way to host the event. 

“The health officials said if we do it this way, it will work and it will follow all the guidelines that all the different health boards have put out there for COVID.”

Food was being served up by four award-winning barbeque vendors, Billy’s BBQ, Pistol Pete’s Smokehouse, Buckeye BBQ and Camp 31. 

Vehicles lined up at the main entrance to the Enmax centre, where they would be given a menu showing all the vendor’s food. 

They would then make their way to the main area where vehicles would get in line for which vendor they wanted. 

After getting their food, participants had the choice to park and eat while listening to music or continue home. 

“People really aren’t supposed to sort of just stop and stick around, they’re supposed to come in and buy their ribs and off they go kind of thing. So, it’s going to be a lot different,” said Nicolacopoulos. “I’m kind of curious to see what it looks like.” 

Jinay Patel, a University of Lethbridge Student was excited to partake in the event and shared his thoughts on what he was hoping good ribs would look like at the event. 

“It’s got to be the sauce. It’s got to be a nice thickness; you don’t want it essentially solid, but you want a nice, sticks on the ribs sticks on the fingers.” 

The smoke from the vendors filled the air as did the smell of ribs, chicken, sausage and pulled pork.

“It smells like what I would imagine my favourite Food Network show smells like,” said Patel. 

A portion of the proceeds will go back into the community, funding different projects and charities. 

Recently the Rotary Club donated $100,000 to the Big Brothers and Big Sisters here in Lethbridge.

Donations like this are only made possible by people attending these types of events.  

“Most importantly it’s about raising money that we are going to give back to our community. That’s what Rotary has always been about. People in this city that are trying to do the right thing for those places, people, and causes that need us,” said Nicolacopoulo. 

Lethbridge was the last stop on the western tour of Ribfest. The rotary club hopes the event will be back and functioning as normal next year.