FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) -- Motorcycles will soon rumble into town for the 18th Annual Bikes, Blues & BBQ Rally that starts on Wednesday (Sept. 20).
One of the biggest complaints, according to event organizers, is there just wasn't enough barbecue to back up Bikes, Blues & BBQ. They are working to change that by beefing up food options at the rally.
Rally executive director Tommy Sisemore said they are adding more food option to the rally, and they have partnered with Pagnozzi Charities to create a full service barbecue restaurant on the corner of Dickson and West and one at Arvest Ballpark.
"We met with Tom and Tom was willing to undertake the project," Sisemore said. "Tom does great things during the Razorback football game tailgates. He's used to cooking a massive amount of food and he puts out a really great product."
Fayetteville native Mark Grant spent the day setting up Porky Chicks Barbeque. He said this is his 11th year selling barbecue at the rally.
"It takes us a couple of days to setup and get everything going and you know with the food and everything we have a semi-truck full of supplies across the street that we pull from and pretty much use them up," he said.
Grant says they'll start smoking the meat on Tuesday, and they plan to serve up a ton of pork.
Dimitri Sakerlkriadis has been coming from Florida for a decade to cook Greek and seafood at the rally.
"We need a couple more hours today to prep and a couple of hours tomorrow and then we just start cooking around noon on Wednesday and we go from there," he said.
The main stage and beer garden will open at 5 p.m. on Wednesday with the first band taking the stage at 6 p.m. Arvest Ballpark and Baum Stadium will be open Wednesday at noon.
Around 275,000 people came to last year's rally, which was down from year's past. They are expecting around 325,000 people this year.