Vendors Setting up Shop for Bikes, Blues & BBQ
By: Marissa Stevens, KNWA
Updated: September 25, 2012
Sights and sounds are shifting around Fayetteville, as the city prepares for Bikes, Blues & BBQ.
"We started coordinating and planning right after the rally last year... We're getting our vendors set up, we're getting our infrastructures set up with the power and water and everything," said Bikes, Blues & BBQ Event Director Coleson Burns.
Tents are going up as vendors are gearing up for the 12th annual motorcycle rally.
"We've got everything from your food vendors to your clothing vendors, leathers and chaps, ladies apparel with the rhinestones and the fashion statements."
Bikers are already rolling into town, but when things kick off Wednesday, Burns believes there is something for everyone.
"You don't just have to be a biker to come out and enjoy what the vendors are offering here."
Some vendors are driving cross-country for the 12th year in a row, but others are just driving across the Natural State.
"One of our goals is to keep things local as much as we can," said Burns.
"Two days of setting up, getting all your food in place, the logistics are crazy," said Jerry Carsten of Carsten Concessions, based out of Siloam Springs.
"We're trying to get them opened up and get the owner turned on and the water hooked up and make sure there's no problems," said P.T. Murtha of Pat's Kitchen, based out of Little Rock.
"We've had some of the award winning barbeque all over the nation this year, that's what we love. We love to come back home and serve it to our hometown people as well as the people visiting," said Mark Grant of Porky Chicks BBQ, based out of Farmington.
Organizers are expecting more than 400,000 folks to end up with Northwest Arkansas. And as the hundreds of thousands are heading to Fayetteville, hometown crews know it is just the beginning.
"When they start seeing the setup and everything, there starts to get that little bit of electricity in the air... So it's very exciting."
"We started coordinating and planning right after the rally last year... We're getting our vendors set up, we're getting our infrastructures set up with the power and water and everything," said Bikes, Blues & BBQ Event Director Coleson Burns.
Tents are going up as vendors are gearing up for the 12th annual motorcycle rally.
"We've got everything from your food vendors to your clothing vendors, leathers and chaps, ladies apparel with the rhinestones and the fashion statements."
Bikers are already rolling into town, but when things kick off Wednesday, Burns believes there is something for everyone.
"You don't just have to be a biker to come out and enjoy what the vendors are offering here."
Some vendors are driving cross-country for the 12th year in a row, but others are just driving across the Natural State.
"One of our goals is to keep things local as much as we can," said Burns.
"Two days of setting up, getting all your food in place, the logistics are crazy," said Jerry Carsten of Carsten Concessions, based out of Siloam Springs.
"We're trying to get them opened up and get the owner turned on and the water hooked up and make sure there's no problems," said P.T. Murtha of Pat's Kitchen, based out of Little Rock.
"We've had some of the award winning barbeque all over the nation this year, that's what we love. We love to come back home and serve it to our hometown people as well as the people visiting," said Mark Grant of Porky Chicks BBQ, based out of Farmington.
Organizers are expecting more than 400,000 folks to end up with Northwest Arkansas. And as the hundreds of thousands are heading to Fayetteville, hometown crews know it is just the beginning.
"When they start seeing the setup and everything, there starts to get that little bit of electricity in the air... So it's very exciting."
