Festival to be a part of Kingsford Series
February 11, 2011
By CHRIS TRAINOR
Index-Journal
Greenwood, SC - Chase will be on this summer in Uptown Greenwood.
The South Carolina Festival of Discovery - set for early July in Uptown - has been selected as one of 25 barbecue competitions that will be a part of the Kingsford Points Chase.
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The Kingsford Points Chase - sponsored by Kingsford Charcoal - is a seven-month long event in which barbecue teams can collect points at each of 25 barbecue competitions. The team that tallies the most points will be crowned series champion at the end of the Chase.
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The Festival of Discovery is among elite company with some of the other competitions on the list, including Memphis in May, the American Royal Barbecue Invitational and the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue.
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This will be the 11th edition of the Festival of Discovery, an event that has grown tremendously in recent years. More than 20,000 people attended last year's festival, which had a $1.2 million economic impact on the area.
Greenwood Mayor Welborn Adams said he is excited the Festival of Discovery will be a part of the Kingsford Points Chase.
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"Every time I think we've hit the apex (with the Festival of Discovery), we wind up going to a whole other level," Adams said. "I think this takes us to another level, being recognized as one of only 25 sites. I think it will give us even more exposure and bring even more people to our festival."
Uptown Greenwood Development Corporation manager Angie Jones said the Kingsford Points Chase awarded more than $40,000 in prize money in last year's series.
Jones said she is pleased to see the Greenwood festival on the same list with a number of world-renowned contests.
"It's quite an honor in looking at the other competitions that are participating in the Chase," Jones said. "Just to be affiliated with Memphis in May, the Jack Daniel's, the American Royal, to be grouped in a tour with them is quite an honor for us and we are just 11 years old."
Meanwhile, city manager Charlie Barrineau said the support of local residents and the hard work of the festival organizers continues to pay off.
"This just continues to speak to the success of our community and the festival and the vision we had to grow it," the city manager said. "It's always nice to not have to go after sponsors, but to have them come to you. That's a change for us."
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