With almost twice the BBQ vendors and well over double the menu items than last year, the 2019 Beer & BBQ Festival (BBF) BBQ line-up is sure to satisfy having just dropped the country’s biggest brewer line-up last week!

In a festival first, BBF will be presenting Mal & Mates, a stall where chef Mal Meiers (founder of Food For Thought) will host some of SA’s best chefs to produce a rotating menu, raising funds for Food For Thought, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to raising awareness of mental health in the hospitality industry.

“Food For Thought is such a crucial conversation in our industry and we are so proud to be putting it front and centre at BBF. The calibre of chefs who have come on board to join him and donate their time is testament to the cause. #fuckstigma will be in everyone’s face and the food they will turn out is going to be bang on” said Festival Director, Gareth Lewis.

Mal & Mates will showcase dishes from Mal Meiers (Subo, NSW), Simon Bryant (who should need little introduction), David Swaine, Sharon Romeo and Sam Smith (Fino), ‘Gus’ Love (Pink Moon Saloon), Karena Armstrong (Salopian Inn) and Emma McCaskill (Sparkke at The Whitmore).

The complete BBQ line-up includes a couple of debuts; ‘Buk Buk Southern Hot Chicken’ and ‘Syrian Mobile Disco’ which are both brainchildren of outstanding locals with a passion for food, some rock star interstaters; ‘Burn City Smokers’ and ‘8-Bit Burger’ both making the trip from Melbourne and some one-off blink-and-you’ll-miss-em projects designed specifically for the festival; a Japanese yakatori pub ‘Izakaya Kevin’ and ‘Something Wild Deadly Sauce’ sausage sizzle putting indigenous ingredients front and centre in your snag in a bag plus heaps, heaps, heaps more, including all dietary requirements (vegan, vego, gluten and dairy free).

SURPRISE BBF MISSION STATEMENT: TO BE SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S MOST SUSTAINABLE LARGE EVENT

Beer & BBQ Festival has always been proud to reduce single use waste by providing all guests a 360ml glass stein on entry. This year the BBF team are undertaking to eliminate single use food containers from all dishes where possible also.

In a SA first BBF are introducing an enamel plate system that will see all punters pay a $5 deposit for their first sexy retro enamel BBF plate and either refund that $5 back to their card at one of the washing
1 of 2 stations or take the plate home with them as a souvenir, plates can also be swapped over for a fresh clean one before you leave.

Festival Director, Gareth Lewis explains “We don’t claim to have invented the system, but we are the first in SA to invest in it. Food waste generates so much landfill and no matter how good your waste management systems are, the fact is, it will always be better to have a reusable product, like we have for the past 4 years with the handles on arrival for your beers. We have an internal goal to be the most sustainable festival in the state and we hope punters will embrace the challenge.”

Full BBQ line-up:

8Bit. (VIC)*

Boston Bay Smallgoods x The Smokin’ Grillers Bread & Bone*

Buk Buk Southern Hot Chicken**

Burn City Smokers (VIC)*

Comida Co Mal & Mates: Food For Thought (NSW)**

Four Seeds*

Gang Gang*

Izakaya Kevin**

Pizzateca*

Sneaky Pickle*

Something Wild x BBF presents Deadly Sauce**

Staazi & Co – The Greek Vegan Project*

Syrian Mobile Disco**

The Filipino Project*

The Ghetto Smoke Show Toly Vietnamese*

**denotes world debut,

*denotes BBF debut