NEWS PHOTO MO CRANKER
Ribber Alex McGrath calls out to all hungry Hatters Friday afternoon during last year's RibFest. The event is being held by the Rotary Club of Medicine Hat to support its initiatives.
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@mocranker
While COVID-19 has cancelled quite a few events this year, RibFest will still be happening.
The event will run differently, using a drive-through format, and funds raised will go to the Rotary Club of Medicine Hat.
This year’s RibFest will be running August 7-9 and four different rib vendors will be selling their southern barbecue classics. There will also be a Tater King booth and a lemonade stand.
“It’s going to be just like grabbing a coffee, but with southern barbecue,” said organizer Andrew Reinhardt.
The event will run from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at Murray Chevrolet. Sunday will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
People will enter the Murray parking lot in their vehicles and pick one of four lines to get into. They will drive up to a cashier with an iPad, place their order, pay with either cash or debt and then grab their food.
“The cashier will operate the iPad so people don’t have to themselves,” said Reinhardt. “People can stay in their car the entire time.”
Reinhardt says the rib trucks are highly efficient and can do an order in 15-20 seconds and that they are expecting 2-2,500 cars over the weekend.
“This is a safe fundraiser and we’re going to meet every guideline for Alberta Health,” he said. “I know people are dying to do something and this is going to be a fun event.”
There will not be tables set up this year for people to sit and eat at, because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Rotary Club treasurer Gail Halderman says the group is still looking to get sponsors on board and that it is planning on selling pop and other things to raise a bit of money.
“We’re holding this to get money so we can give back to the community,” he said. “We do a lot of work in our community like the Rotary Music Festival every year. We also put over $100,000 into a trail project last year that went from Desert Blume back to Medicine Hat.”
The event has been held in previous years to support the local chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters, but money from every sale will go to Rotary this year instead.
“The RibFest people approached me and our board thought this was a great idea,” said Halderman. “We know they work with a lot of Rotary groups and we’re looking forward to this opportunity.”
More information can be found by searching for Medicine Hat Rotary Drive Thru Ribfest on Facebook.
