Over the Labor Day weekend, more than 15,000 people are expected to pass through the gates of the Beach, Boogie, and BBQ festival at Grand Park in Myrtle Beach.
Saturday marks the second day of the annual festival, now in its sixth year.
Hours before the thousands of hungry barbeque fans crowded into the park, 48 teams were working on their own masterpieces for the KC Barbeque Society's top honors.
"We have teams from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia. We've got people using mustard base, ketchup based, vinegar based, and then they mix em all together," Festival Chairman with the Shiners Dennis Weaver said.
The Killer B's BBQ team from Georgia won the grand prize of Saturday's contest.
Another draw to Saturday for festival goers: a meet and greet with celebrity chef Richard Blais. He signed autographs for fans during the afternoon. The Atlanta based chef is most known for winning the most recent season of Top Chef on cable channel Bravo.
"I really, really wanted him to win and I was rooting for him all the way and I'm really excited to meet him," Sophie Stevanovich of Myrtle Beach said.
This was Blais's first visit to Myrtle Beach.
"I'm having a blast. I mean it's a great day and the weather is amazing. And {with} the smell, the aroma from all the barbeque, the music is good. So I'm having a great time," Blais said.
He also spent this morning jogging 13 miles on the beach and loved the scenery and hopes to come back again.
The money from the weekend's festivities go towards Omar Shiners. The non-profit organization has Shrine jurisdiction over the extreme 22 eastern counties of South Carolina.
Weaver says the money will go towards the Shriner's Hospitals for Children, which consist of 22 hospitals offering state of the art cost care to children under the age of 18 for orthopaedic, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate needs regardless of the ability to pay.
The Beach, Boogie, and BBQ festival continues tomorrow.
