Escanaba comes together to celebrate Rib Fest

ESCANABA — Summer means grilling and barbecue parties and community members of Escanaba we’re ready to celebrate.

Today was Escanaba’s annual Rib Fest. People came downtown to listen to music, eat ribs, and come together as a community.

“A long time ago, when I grew up in Escanaba, people used to come downtown all the time and it’s not as much as it was back in the day. This is one of the opportunities we have to get people downtown and they see how much fun we have and it’s a great event. We have a parade after and it’s something to just bring people back downtown,” said Ed Legault, the Executive Director of Escanaba’s Downtown Development Authority.

The event is so popular that only a limited amount of tickets were sold to make sure everyone who came could eat. Six different restaurants were serving up ribs and those in attendance voted for their favorite recipes

“It really is just a good natured contest. You kind of love coming in first but if you come in last that’s fine too! It’s just about giving people a nice opportunity to try something different. Everybody gets along, it’s a real good community down here,” added Mark Cowman, who is a cook at Bobaloons.

Immediately following Rib Fest was the Kruisin’ Klassics classic car parade and the Fun Run Parade.