Langley will be smoking hot again this year when the 26th annual Canadian Festival of Chili and Barbeque comes Back To the Cascades Casino on June 22 – 23 2013

This is a family-friendly festival and samples of the teams delicious BBQ are available to the public. Visitors arrive on-site and are greeted by our firefighter volunteers and given a wristband and a pulled pork sandwich. A donation, typically $5, is suggested when receiving the wristband. They can then wander the site and taste the foods prepared by any team. All monies raised from wristband sales as well as a portion of team registration fees are donated to the charity we support. In honour of our firefighter founder, Dave Veljacic, we supportThe BC Professional Firefighters Burn Fund. In the past few years over $25,000 has been raised for this charity.

There are four competition categories on day one.
Best Darn Burger – Teams can do whatever they want in this category and we see some pretty amazing burgers come to the judges tent!
Chefs Challenge – Teams are given a mystery protein to perform their magic on. We have seen loin of Kangaroo and rack of Muskox taken to amazing heights. In 2012 there was a Northern Surf and Turf theme with a side of Arctic Char (Albion Fisheries) and a Bison Sirloin (Hill’s Foods) presented to each team.
CASI Chili – The Chili Appreciation Society International is the sanctioning body for authentic Texas chili. Texas style chili is not what you or I would make at home, it MUST consist of only meat (ground or cubed) and sauce. Points would be deducted or the chili disqualified if the judges saw anyspecks or foreign materials (like beans or veggies). The top three BC resident winners that enter The Provincial Championships for C.A.S.I. Chili qualify to cook in Terlingua, Texas at the Terlingua International Chili Cookoff,the world championships for Texas style chili.
Home-style Chili – To let the chili cooks have some fun we also have a Home-style Chili category where cooks can add anything they want to their chili, and boy do they!
In 2013 we are endeavouring to create an additional chili competition exclusively for restaurants, pubs and bars to enter. We bet there are many professional cooks who would love the BBQ atmosphere as well as the opportunity to cook and compete with other passionate individuals. We also feel it would be a great draw for different members of the public to come out to the event and cheer on (and sample!) their favourite establishments.

June 23, 2013 -Day 2: The BC BBQ Championship 

For the main BBQ event there are four categories: pork shoulder, beef brisket, chicken and pork ribs. The meat is cooked for a long time at low temperatures indirectly by only wood and charcoal fires. The competitors cook on small Weber Smokey Mountain Cookers all the way up to huge trailer pit smokers.
Provincial proclamation makes this event The BC BBQ Championshipsand is sanctioned by The Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association and recognized by The Kansas City Barbecue Society. Winners can qualify to cook at the Jack Daniels Invitational Barbecue in Lynchburg Tennessee and the American Royal in Kansas City.