Smokin’ On Main this weekend

By Devese “Dee” Ursery
dursery@timestribunenews.com

The city of Collinsville and Code 3 Spices, Inc. are making preparations for their sixth anniversary of Smokin’ on Main Barbeque Competition and Festival coming up this weekend.

Smokin’ On Main is a two-day event that will feature a barbecue competition as well as a festival on Main Street in Uptown Collinsville. The festivities will take place from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m on Saturday, July 29. Then again from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

There will be live music, cold drinks and plenty of world class barbecue for visitors to sink their teeth into.

The event is an annual Collinsville tradition, which happens every July and provides the community with barbecue from some of the best professional and backyard barbecue cookers in the country. Chris Bohnemeier, owner of Code 3 Spices, Inc. has been coordinating the event since its inception in 2017. 

“My business partner, Mike Radosevich, and I had been to many bbq competitions and festivals and wanted to bring that same experience to downtown Collinsville.“

Bohnemeier said the event will host over 10 food vendors from across the region, with a lot of them being of the barbecue culture. Vendors like Sugarfire, BeastCraft BBQ, Takozz, Red Top BBQ and Super Smokers to name a few. The barbecue competition will have professional and backyard teams participating in the event. 

The barbecue competition will take place on both days, with teams competing in a pork steak and steak competition. On Sunday professional and backyard teams will compete in chicken, ribs, brisket and pork contests. New to the event is a children’s bbq competition, where adolescent grill masters get to show off their skills on the grill.

Saturday’s music line-up consists of Steven Woolley hitting the stage from 6-7 p.m. and the Steve Ewing Band taking over from 7-10 p.m. On Sunday, the Blue Marlin Band will take the stage at noon and finish around 4p.m. Bohnemeier said the yearly average of people attending the event is around 10,000 to 15,000 visitors. He explains what he likes most about the event.

“What I love most about Smokin’ on Main is the community support mixed with BBQ family while giving back to the community,” Bohnemeier said. “The public gets exposed and interacts with the top cooks in both the area but also the country.”

Bohnemeier said that 100 percent of proceeds will go to help the local US Veterans Foundation and Collinsville Food Pantry. Petroff companies, Laura Buick and Korte Meat are a few of the local businesses that will sponsor the event.

“Both Mike and I have either grown up here or are currently raising our kids here,” Bohnemeier said. “There is a long tradition of pride and community involvement.  We’re excited to share the experience with cooks from across the country.”