Pricey Booths Miff BBQ Vendors

Fayetteville’s Bikes, Blues and BBQ festival held Sept. 28 through Oct. 1 attracted about 200,000 people this year.

But some local food vendors felt squeezed by the competition, much of which came from outside Northwest Arkansas.

We hear Bikes Blues and BBQ had 68 food vendors this year, up from 22 last year. Cost for a booth in the parking lot across West Avenue from the Walton Arts Center went from $600 last year to $2,800 this year.

One local restaurant owner who had a booth at the festival said he barely broke even this year after making a decent profit last year.

We left a message for Nelson Driver, who headed up this year’s event, to ask about the increase in vendor costs, but we never heard back from him.