Corbett jumps into barbecue wars; 'It's as messy as eating ribs,' he says

Eating ribs in the open air this summer in Cedar Rapids promises to be a mess unless somebody does something quick.

For that reason, Mayor Ron Corbett reports that he has jumped into the middle of the battle between the city's BBQ Roundup and an upstart competitor - the Freedom Festival's own RibFest - to say that holding both events at the same time is a recipe for both to fail.

Corbett on Monday tossed out this suggestion: Move the long-standing BBQ Roundup, which traditionally has led off the Freedom Festival and raises money for the city's U.S. Cellular Center, to Labor Day and let the Freedom Festival's RibFest have its new culinary run leading up to the July Fourth holiday.

“I'm trying to solve the dispute. It's been festering for months,” Corbett explained.

If nothing else, Corbett appears to have thrust the matter toward a resolution. The issue has landed on the City Council agenda for Wednesday, at which time the council will decide if it will grant an events permit to the Freedom Festival's RibFest or not.

Monday afternoon, Patrick DePalma, chairman of the city's Five Seasons Facilities Commission, was feeling good about the prospects to keep the city's BBQ Roundup exactly where it has been for more than 20 years - as a late June event helping to kick off Freedom Festival.

DePalma noted that the event had a successful history until 2008, when he said national barbecue vendors canceled out 13 days before the event after the June 2008 flood. Last year's event had problems, too, because of the inability for the roundup to secure a downtown site because of flood-recovery issues, he said.

What puzzles DePalma now is why the Freedom Festival thinks it can hold a RibFest event in downtown Greene Square Park when the BBQ Roundup sought to hold its event there last summer and was turned down.

DePalma said the city turned down the request for an assortment of reasons, among which were the concern about killing off the park's grass and a concern about traffic problems associated with closing off Fifth Street SE and Fourth Avenue SE for a few days.

“What's changed since last year that makes that site a viable site for the same (kind of) venue?” he asked.

Janet Wilhelm, executive director of the Freedom Festival, said Monday that the non-profit festival decided to have its own barbecue event after she said national vendors complained about the city's recent administration of the Roundup and asked for the festival to run it instead.

Wilhelm said the Freedom Festival doesn't see RibFest as a big moneymaking event for the festival, but rather one that might pull in $10,000 to $15,000 in profit. DePalma said the BBQ Roundup will bring in $35,000 to $50,000 for the city's U.S. Cellular Center, which he said means less money that the center needs to seek in city revenue generated by the hotel/motel tax.

Interestingly, at a city budget session last week, council member Chuck Wieneke expressed some interest in reducing what the Freedom Festival itself gets in hotel/motel revenue to make up for money the BBQ Roundup might lose to RibFest.

The Roundup is slated to be held in late June in the city's park-and-ride lot at Eighth Avenue SE, where it moved from a downtown parking lot in 2006.

DePalma said the Roundup isn't about to give up its June dates and move to Labor Day - and “assume the risk” that people will come and vendors will show up - without a fight.

The Freedom Festival's Wilhelm noted that the festival already has signed national vendors for RibFest. DePalma repeated that national vendors dumped the BBQ Roundup 13 days after the 2008 flood, so the festival shouldn't have trouble changing its RibFest plans six-and-a-half months before Freedom Festival.