Dunkirk brings in the blues

Written for The Villager

   Get the hips swinging and the music playing because this Saturday, August 14 the Boats, Blues and BBQ Festival will be rockin’ the Dunkirk pier.

   Music begins booming and ribs begin ablazing at 2 p.m., but the festival starts a bit early with a garden walk at 10 a.m. But then as promised, at 2 p.m. the BBQ begins cooking when local restaurants and “weekend warriors” start up the grills, said Kory Ahlstrom, director of planning and development. There will be all kinds of chicken, pork, ribs and sausage as well as homemade brisket.  All the food is available until sold out. To go along with the massive amounts of BBQ is a “Budweiser Beer Garden,” sponsored by Spike Dailey’s Pub, which will be opened from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.

   At 2:30 p.m. the music joins the food with “The Todd Eberwine Band.” The band plays till 6:30 p.m. and then at 7 p.m. the Bruce Springsteen Tribute band, “Jersey” will perform until 9:30 p.m. when the festival ends. “The music is fresh … we don’t recycle music that is played too close to home,” Ahlstrom said.

   But don’t worry, for those of you who want to bring your kids it’s not all blues and booze, from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. there are plenty of opportunities for your kiddies to enjoy the day. Kids will be able to play carnival games, do arts and crafts, play with bounce slides and other bouncer items, and kids of all ages, adults included, will be able to give the festival’s mechanical bull a try.

   To Ahlstrom, what makes this special is that people can come any way they want. “They can come by boat, by car, by any other way too,” he said. “They can just get out of their boat and come right up to the festival.”

   There will be covered seating available throughout the festival for when people want to get out of the sun or want to really dig into their ribs. People will be able to buy meals from a certain BBQ vendor or can do a mix-and-match by buying one rib from each vendor. Everything is priced to please whatever variety people want.

   “It’s a very reasonable day,” Ahlstrom said. The only thing people have to pay for at the festival is their food and drink, everything else comes free.  Call 716-366-9876 for more information about the festival.