From the BBQ to the concert and all logistics in between

How was the parking?

Quote from a well-respected local . There's a 2-3 page post on premium raving about it. Seems they knocked it out of the park.

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Very impressed with this event. Organized, clean, and efficient. Plenty of space, and the vendor lines have moved pretty quick since we got in here.


They knocked it out of the park with this thing. I hope it becomes a yearly tradition in College Station.

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I'd give it a solid thumbs up. Surprisingly well organized and executed. Aggie Park was a perfect venue for the event. BBQ tastings during the day were mostly good with just a few misses (trying to get too artsy fartsy with BBQ or one vendor just put what looked like part of a Slim Jim on a plate). Music lineup was excellent, all bands were different but good; good mix of rock and country with a little blues (Uncle Lucius was my favorite). I talked to one of the organizers and she said they're already looking to do it again same time next year.

Only hiccup I noticed was the LONG lines for the food trucks after 4:00. Friends said they waited in line for over an hour to get nachos.

All in all, a good event and fun day.

Yeah we thought it was great also. Definitely would go again, and we had our little one with us.

I was skeptical of that food truck situation. Considering the BBQ ends at 4, and you also have a bunch of people without bbq tickets, and how long the music was going to go for, that's a lot of people for a lot of time to feed with food trucks.

bobinator said:

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Yeah we thought it was great also. Definitely would go again, and we had our little one with us.

I was skeptical of that food truck situation. Considering the BBQ ends at 4, and you also have a bunch of people without bbq tickets, and how long the music was going to go for, that's a lot of people for a lot of time to feed with food trucks.

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What would you estimate the total attendance? I wanted to go but couldn't pull it off last minute.

Thought it was just awesome. Great event and the music lineup was so good. Would love to get Midland back for it next year again

TyHolden said:

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Quote from a well-respected local . There's a 2-3 page post on premium raving about it. Seems they knocked it out of the park.

Quote:

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Very impressed with this event. Organized, clean, and efficient. Plenty of space, and the vendor lines have moved pretty quick since we got in here.


They knocked it out of the park with this thing. I hope it becomes a yearly tradition in College Station.

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Sounds like it was prolly a win-win.

Attendance was about 7500

We went. Bought VIP tickets so we would have an extra hour with the BBQ.

Overall, very good event. We commented that it was an "Adult" Chilifest. Food, Music, Drinks without all the drama.
I wish there was a little less time between BBQ opening up and the bands starting but that was my only improvement suggestion.

What was the seating/standing arrangement like? They have a vip section?

Yeah I get why they don't overlap the bbq and the big bands but I think it would be good if they did a little.

VIP tickets were totally worth the additional cost (air conditioned toilets, free water, more space to sit and move around, etc.). We got our money's worth even though we left before Midland to beat the crowd.

The decision to hold this after A&M's graduation was a great one. It allowed us olds to get out and enjoy it. Yes there was a younger crowd there but the majority of them only bought tickets for the music, so they didn't get there until after 4pm.

My only gripe was that there weren't enough food trucks. We stood in line for 30 minutes to order then waited another 45 for our food. The family operating the truck were very overwhelmed and ended up not taking anymore orders halfway through Charlie Robison's set because they were so far behind.

Some of the fancy things were awesome. Blood Brothers bulgogi and kimchi on the Asian pancake was my favorite. The pork belly crostini from Interstellar was great. I also got a full beef rib with a Korean bbq sauce that was great but I don't remember which bbq vendor it was from.

I didn't care for Brett's brisket but I need that Nutter Butter pudding recipe.

bushytailed said:

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Some of the fancy things were awesome. Blood Brothers bulgogi and kimchi on the Asian pancake was my favorite. The pork belly crostini from Interstellar was great. I also got a full beef rib with a Korean bbq sauce that was great but I don't remember which bbq vendor it was from.

I didn't care for Brett's brisket but I need that Nutter Butter pudding recipe.

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I'm all for interesting and creative. The smoked crab cake with remoulade sauce was one of my favorites. My point (not well expressed) was that some places tried to hide mediocre bbq with a sauce or exotic topping. If the protein can't stand on its own, a sauce ain't gonna save it.

I had two 'nana puddings that were great, and a welcome treat. And the chocolate cup from Tejas bbq in Tomball was very memorable; I could have eaten 20 of those.

We had a blast. Great venue and set up. BBQ was great. Music was great.

10/10

How can traffic be that bad with 7500 people when there are 100000 at a football game across the street?

Thanks for posting the photo. And glad to see the chairs were relegated to a dedicated section it looks like. I was reluctant to purchase a ticket because I've been to shows where people just camp out with a chair all day and start drama when you go stand in front of them.

Also, the week after graduation is great. Hope it stays that way if they do it again.

I wonder how many tickets they had to sell to break even. Kind of like Bryan ending the Texas Reds Festival even though it was busy.

I thought it was a fantastic event. I'm very excited that they're already describing "Aggieland" as one of their permanent locations for it. Can't wait until next year.

D Nauti said:

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How can traffic be that bad with 7500 people when there are 100000 at a football game across the street?

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BTW traffic wasn't bad at all. There might have been some delay getting out of the garages at the very end but we left early because we had our son with us so I wouldn't know.

But we reserved parking ahead of time at the university center garage right next to the event, and when we drove to campus about 1 we were actually concerned that nobody was there because there wasn't any traffic at all.

bobinator said:

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D Nauti said:

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How can traffic be that bad with 7500 people when there are 100000 at a football game across the street?

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BTW traffic wasn't bad at all. There might have been some delay getting out of the garages at the very end but we left early because we had our son with us so I wouldn't know.

But we reserved parking ahead of time at the university center garage right next to the event, and when we drove to campus about 1 we were actually concerned that nobody was there because there wasn't any traffic at all.

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We had a family member drop us off, but we pulled all the way around Coke/Throckmorton with no issues. Got picked up at Dexter/GB also with no issues.

Even with Pharmacy school graduation taking place at the same time.

Great event the parking was a breeze and the bbq was awesome. The only negative was the 200% humidity. Maybe next year maybe a more divererse music line with some alt rock/rock bands?

Not sure why this was a reply to my comment but I didn't have an issue with traffic. We left after the Shane Smith set.

We thought the event was great! We were "chair people", and we sat far enough back that the people in front didn't bother us. The lawn slopes downward so it helps to see over the standers up front. No way I want to stand up for 7-8 hour of music, after eating a fill of BBQ.

(My daughter and I went to the Two Step Inn event in Georgetown a couple weeks ago. After the first day of no chairs, we brought them the second day. 10 hours plus of standing or sitting on the ground is for the birds. I can stand all day for work, but standing still for that long does me in!)

Food was mostly good. Some of the brisket and a couple other offerings were meh. I don't recall who was bad. I was disappointed with Tejas Chocolate. I haven't had them at their restaurant but really have wanted to try them. Not much flavor at the festival. Others were similar.

It seemed a lot did street tacos to stretch the bbq out to a more filling bite or two.

The snack sticks thing was really weird. I thought surely it was a placeholder while they were waiting for meat to be done or something. It wasn't even that great.

Some had a couple slices of sausage as their sample, one as mentioned had a whole rib beef rib. It was pretty good.

My best bite was from 44 Farms, aware from the BBQ row. It was a birria taco, I actually stopped walking and finished the taco, savoring it. It was awesome, and arguably better than the BBQ joint offerings.

As mentioned, the food trucks were an issue. I waiting in line close to an hour for the Halall truck, from start to getting food. For all the people that bought concert tickets only, there was only 6-8 trucks.

Bathrooms didn't have a line that I could tell. I didn't use them.

Music was good. I enjoyed Shane Smith, Uncle Lucius and Bruce Robison. Treaty Oak and Midland weren't for me. Shane Smith and the Saints looked like they had the most fun playing the event.

We will definitely go again!

For those who went to this AND the REK concert at Aggie Park, how did they compare (not the bands but the experience)? We decided not to go to this because we could barely see/move/hear at all at REK.

Wasn't REK a free concert right before yell practice?

This event didn't have all the vip rigs, elevated sets ups on both sides blocking views from different directions. There was a vip area on the left, mostly people in seats from what I saw and a sponsor vip area on the right side but it didn't block views.

We were toward the back of the lawn and could see and hear fine.