Initially created by folks looking for a way to serve whatever hunters brought back from the woods, burgoo was offered at church picnics and political gatherings, often with squirrel as a major ingredient. Today, mutton gives burgoo its decidedly gamey flavor. Rain in the pit will affect the taste, and dry years beget a truer one. Yet, rain or shine, people come and the barbecue still sells out. Come 4 o'clock sharp on Saturday, the public stampede is on and the festival's raison d'etre becomes satisfyingly clear.
Visitors come to the festival literally from all over the world.
In this hilarious annual rivalry, which benefits Special Olympics, local restaurant teams must carry a tray of burgoo through an obstacle course that changes each year. As a rule, only two cooking teams are not church-sponsored, United Steelworkers and Crooked Creek. The latter has been a part of the festival since year one, when some friends who'd been chefs at their own backyard picnics for years decided they could run a pit as well as any church team. Twenty-three years later, they're still at it. Now their children and children's children are working.