After 22 years, Ribfest is no more.
The annual August event that brought rib vendors from around the country to Lincoln for a weekend’s worth of barbecue and music, sponsored by the Nebraska Pork Producers and operated by SMG-Lincoln, won’t be back in 2019.
“Ribfest will not happen,†said SMG-Lincoln/Pinnacle Bank Arena manager Tom Lorenz. “This would have been our 23rd year. We looked at it last year after the event. While we loved the event and it had been very successful over the years, it had started to decline. We decided to retire Ribfest while it was still successful and a fun event.
At its peak, Ribfest drew as many as 35,000 people to the grounds and streets around Pershing Center. Last year, 15,000 people attended the event in the festival space north of the arena, where it moved in 2014.
Ribfest’s decline, Lorenz said, is primarily due to the success of the arena, Pinewood Bowl and other entertainment venues and offerings along with the influx of barbecue in Lincoln in the last decade.
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“When we started 23 years ago, Ribfest was a huge deal in the middle of the summer,†Lorenz said. “It really filled a gap for people to come out and have some food, listen to music and have a good time. There simply wasn’t much else like it. It was very successful for 10 to 15 years. Then there were more opportunities, more competition, if you like.â€
On the barbecue side of things, some of that competition came as a direct offshoot of Ribfest.
“When we first started, the opportunity to buy really good barbecue in Lincoln was not as widespread as it is now,†Lorenz said. “This was before Famous Dave’s came into Lincoln. They were at Ribfest for a couple years, in 1999 and 2000, and did really well. I’m not saying it was entirely because of us, but they then opened here and have been busy since. Now, there are a host of wonderful local BBQ places around town, some that are contest winners.â€
As for the music, the opening of large local venues like the Bourbon Theatre and the revitalized Royal Grove took care of providing indoor venues for Ribfest acts like Shooter Jennings, The Derailers and Here Come The Mummies.
And bigger artists -- a la Edgar Winter, who once played Ribfest -- have, since 2012, moved to Pioneers Park.
“Since we started doing things at Pinewood Bowl, we could fill that niche with great music outdoors in a more appropriate setting,†Lorenz said. “And ZooFest has continued to grow and now brings in top artists, like Mavis Staples this year.â€
Even though it had declined, Ribfest remained profitable for both SMG and the vendors, but less so each year, Lorenz said.
Vendors, some of whom grumbled at last year’s turnout and sales, were notified that Ribfest wouldn’t be held in December -- “they were disappointed,, but they understood,†Lorenz said.
Several of the vendors also lost another event as Council Bluffs Riverfront Ribfest, usually held the week before the Lincoln’s Ribfest, will not be held this year. So the calendar for Desperado’s BBQ & Rib Co., the only vendor to be at all 22 Lincoln events, is blank for the middle two weeks of August this year.
Some have suggested that Ribfest be moved back to the Pershing Center area in the center of downtown. But that is impossible for multiple reasons, including the reconfigured N Street with bike lane and because Pershing is no longer used means there is no power supply for the booths, Lorenz said.
There is almost no chance that Ribfest will return.
“We’re looking at other opportunities for the festival space,†Lorenz said. “In the future, we may see some sort of major summer concert there. But as far as a food festival, like Ribfest, probably not.â€