\n\t\t\t\t\t\tOrganizers of the Pittsburgh BBQ & Bands Fest say the event is back and bigger than before, running through Sunday at the Monroeville Convention Center.\u201cThere\u2019s been an overwhelming response of people,\u201d Sal Richetti, the festival\u2019s producer, said on Friday. \u201cThe community wanted it back; the convention center\u2019s been great to work with, so we\u2019re back for our second year. We\u2019ll be here for many years to come.\u201d\u201cI think the ribs are ribtastic,\u201d Phil Descanio said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool to see this kind of variety, especially in this area.\u201d\u201cWe\u2019re excited,\u201d Joe Radzierez said. \u201cFor our first time at this barbecue event here, it\u2019s nice to see. If the weather stays nice, we\u2019ll be back.\u201dFood vendors from near and far came back for the second installment of the festival. That includes barbecue from Ohio, South Carolina and Texas. \u201cOur food is delicious, not suspicious. All you need is fingertips and lips,\u201d said Marlan Thomas, of Buck Em BBQ from Fort Worth, Texas. \u201cI like talking to people and getting to know new people. We share the knowledge of what we do with our food. From beef brisket to pork, chicken, bone-in and -out, and we cook it low and slow.\u201d\u201cThey bring their own flavors and spices here,\u201d Richetti said. \u201cThese are award-winning barbeque vendors. These are the big guys.\u201dNearly 50 vendors and cover bands are back for a longer weekend this year. An extra day was added to barbecue and bands, and the weekend was moved to the fourth of July, with the hope of drawing more people. \u201cThis year, we\u2019ve done four days, Thursday through Sunday,\u201d Richetti said. \u201cWe got fireworks happening in the evening on the Fourth. We also have a parade on the Fourth of July as well. It\u2019s definitely going to bring a lot more people.\u201d The festivities are partially inside the convention center to help get out of the heat, but the award-winning cooks are used to it. \u201cYou see my fans? I keep them going,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cAs long as you keep them moving and talking, you know what I\u2019m saying? The heat is nothing to us.\u201dVendors, organizers, and visitors hope that barbecue and bands becomes an annual Fourth of July tradition in the Steel City. \u201cIt\u2019s the Pittsburgh Barbecue and Bands Festival. What more could you ask for during an America 250 celebration?\u201d Richetti said. The festival starts again at noon on Saturday and ends at 10 p.m. On Sunday, it also starts at noon, but ends at 5 p.m. that day.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tMONROEVILLE, Pa. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Organizers of the Pittsburgh BBQ & Bands Fest say the event is back and bigger than before, running through Sunday at the Monroeville Convention Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been an overwhelming response of people,\u201d Sal Richetti, the festival\u2019s producer, said on Friday. \u201cThe community wanted it back; the convention center\u2019s been great to work with, so we\u2019re back for our second year. We\u2019ll be here for many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the ribs are ribtastic,\u201d Phil Descanio said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool to see this kind of variety, especially in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited,\u201d Joe Radzierez said. \u201cFor our first time at this barbecue event here, it\u2019s nice to see. If the weather stays nice, we\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Food vendors from near and far came back for the second installment of the festival. That includes barbecue from Ohio, South Carolina and Texas. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur food is delicious, not suspicious. All you need is fingertips and lips,\u201d said Marlan Thomas, of Buck Em BBQ from Fort Worth, Texas. \u201cI like talking to people and getting to know new people. We share the knowledge of what we do with our food. From beef brisket to pork, chicken, bone-in and -out, and we cook it low and slow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey bring their own flavors and spices here,\u201d Richetti said. \u201cThese are award-winning barbeque vendors. These are the big guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly 50 vendors and cover bands are back for a longer weekend this year. An extra day was added to barbecue and bands, and the weekend was moved to the fourth of July, with the hope of drawing more people. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, we\u2019ve done four days, Thursday through Sunday,\u201d Richetti said. \u201cWe got fireworks happening in the evening on the Fourth. We also have a parade on the Fourth of July as well. It\u2019s definitely going to bring a lot more people.\u201d <\/p>\n
The festivities are partially inside the convention center to help get out of the heat, but the award-winning cooks are used to it. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou see my fans? I keep them going,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cAs long as you keep them moving and talking, you know what I\u2019m saying? The heat is nothing to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vendors, organizers, and visitors hope that barbecue and bands becomes an annual Fourth of July tradition in the Steel City. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the Pittsburgh Barbecue and Bands Festival. What more could you ask for during an America 250 celebration?\u201d Richetti said. <\/p>\n
The festival starts again at noon on Saturday and ends at 10 p.m. On Sunday, it also starts at noon, but ends at 5 p.m. that day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Organizers of the Pittsburgh BBQ & Bands Fest say the event is back and bigger than before, running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17595,7182,7764,101405,101408,1137,40464,93813,87759,23193,63489,18637,29027,7865,523,73,101407,101404,75,74,101406,1837,8345],"class_list":["post-235016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-band","tag-bands","tag-barbecue","tag-barbecue-event","tag-extra-day","tag-festival","tag-food-vendor","tag-fourth","tag-holiday-weekend","tag-july","tag-many-year","tag-monroeville","tag-monroeville-convention-center","tag-music","tag-people","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-bbq","tag-pittsburgh-bbq-and-bands-fest","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-sal-richetti","tag-sunday","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}