This was one AWESOME event. The Hudson Valley Ribfest (HVR) was as good as it gets. It had good food. Affordable beer and ribs. Plenty of space to chill. Excellent music. Lots and lots of parking. Excellent location to run an outdoor festival with a few thousand folks. Outstanding. I am a big BBQ fan from my days in Florida and I make it a point to visit 2 or 3 BBQ Competitions every year. I heard about The Hudson Valley Ribfest from The BBQ Festival Directory which list all the competitions and festivals across the country. Great site for the BBQ enthusiast. http://www.bbq-festivals.com/bbqfestival_directory.html The HVR was held at The Ulster County Fair Grounds in New Platz, NY. This place was huge. Getting to from NYC was a breeze even with weekend traffic. Parking was free and with plenty of attendants to direct you. Admission $5 per person to the Ribfest. If anyone has ever been to any of these competitions, they are very exciting or very boring. At this location you had about 40 or so Teams competing in various forms of BBQ cooking: ribs, chicken, hogs, brisket. I walked through the BBQ Team Village and everyone was just chilling. The cooking was in progress and only drinking beer was the order of the day. Let me tell you, I had more ribs than I should have and they were all good. I don't want to single out and praise one stand over another, but there was some serious cue. I am a ribs fan and each stand represented their style with smoke, good crust and very, very tasty. The ribs were moist and they had that pull. Very nice. The Big Apple Barbecue Block Party at Madison Park should seriously review how the Hudson Valley Ribfest does business. Lines were as long, but moved. I mean there where 50 to 70 people ahead of me and the wait was less than 12 minutes. The food was hot. Not warm like at Big Apple, but hot which made for an enjoyable experience. Overall, I can't wait till next year. Rib samples at $7 for 3 bones and they were full bones. Beer selection was slim, Bud and Bud Lite, but you were not robbed. Only $5, not the end of the world. Hudson Valley Ribfest was very family friendly and with the weather sunny, one awesome day. read more

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First time at the Ribfest here in New Paltz. I've come to the Ulster County Fairgrounds before for wine events so I kinda knew what to expect. Well I couldn't have been more surprised, the amount of vendors here was triple the amount of the ones that were here for the wine events. Lots of food with all kinds of variety. Yes BBQ was king, but there was something for everyone. Parking in the field across the road is plentiful. I did not see any pets so keep your four legged friends at home. The staff running the event are courteous and friendly. Security does check bags at the entrance. I didn't bother to ask what they were looking for since most large events have the added security and I'm all for that. We got here about a half hour after they officially opened and it wasn't as crowded yet. There were some lines already forming for the food so we scouted a bit and decided on Butch's for the ribs. The ribs were tender, gooey and tangy. Utterly delicious, specially after adding extra sauce. Later on we had some deep fried shrooms and fried green tomatoes. Beer and wine slushee's helped wash it all down. I ended the afternoon with some Argentine chorizo with chimichurri sauce without the bread. Very good I must add. Overall, a good way to spend the day. They've already posted the date for next years event. Oh yeah bring hand wipes, you're gonna need them. read more

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Amazing festival. We will be back next year without a doubt. We arrived when it opened when the lines were non existent and that was great as we were very hungry when we got there. The staff are very friendly and helpful, the food is fantastic. Good selection of beer. The kids areas are really good. They have a younger child slide area for $15 for the whole day and my 4 year old went round and round in it. She loved it. Meanwhile we sat at picnic tables nearby, drank a beer and played beanbag toss at the games set up in the middle of the field. There was a lot of space, even when we left around 4 there was still a lot of room. Lines were longer but maybe 10-15 minutes and the teams kept the food available and fresh. Highly recommended!!! read more

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Went to Ribfest for the first time this year. Drove up 90mins from NYC to go. It was okay. Not something I would want to drive up 90mins for again. I don't plan on going next year. I hit unavoidable NYC traffic on the way back down leading to a 2-hr ride. Food vendor wise, there was plenty of different types of food: BBQ, burgers, hotdogs, fried foods, etc. The food vendors were scattered all over the event space. I felt bad that some decent BBQ vendors were FAR away from the action. If you didnt walk to the other end of the venue you would have never seen them. I wish they would just put all the vendors together in the same area giving everyone a fair shot at customer dollars. The food was priced well and not overpriced for the quantity of food. The BBQ was good, but not 90min drive good. One vendor didnt event sell smoked ribs. Their ribs were boiled and then grilled with BBQ sauce. Not real BBQ. Ill stick to the Big Apple BBQ that comes to NYC once a year. At least they have rockstar pitmasters attend from all over the country. read more

Sweet corn stand is underrated, that's one delicious corn buttered salted etc.. It's right behind all the rib stands. Great ribs, if you prefer to taste them all you can the samplers from different stands. Pulled pork mac and cheese was pretty good. Lemonade was great, the place was right by the entrance. Boy Scout place had great options for baked potatoes and maybe they should be down where the rib stands are instead of the side of the entrance. Pretzels were good, Nutella fired dough was good.. If you're a 2-3 group, just get small samplers if you prefer not to go after the meal deals. For us it was more fun to get one and try more. Great Sunday band -around 12pm. read more

When to the rib fest today and was very disappointed with the ribs from Butch's BBQ. They were very dry out and hard, could have been left over from the following day. We complained and they replaced them with good ones that were moist and meaty. But they should have never been served in the first place. read more

This was my first time at the HV Ribfest and since it was in its 10th year I thought it would be fun to go check it out. Purchasing the VIP tickets seemed to be the best deal because it was a fixed price to sample some ribs, sides and some beers. Or $5 per person and $7 for 3 ribs to taste $13 for a half track at some vendors $5 cheap beers. The Johnny Appleseed Hard Cider seemed to be better as it did not make me feel bloated like the Shocktop did. So the VIP package was $50 and that included 6 drink tickets (beer, water, soda), a roped tent next to the stage for Friday only and under this tent are ribs from participating vendors and sides and cupcakes for dessert (Forget Me Not Cupcake Bus), a cool gift bag filled with cool stuff (BBQ sauce, Kingston Candy Bar samples, a rib towel from the Rotary Club, a keepsake cup, coupon for fried pickles, a coupon for 2 free tastings to Tuthilltown Spirts, who had a tent there, but found out when I went up to their table that it was to use at their distillery 10 mins away LOL ok. They looked at us crazy but maybe that should have been written on the coupon. Also what should have been written on coupons was the fact that the drink tickets had to be used Friday only. That makes no sense especially when the $50 ticket includes entry to the event all weekend long. They were also very disorganized on Friday. VIP tickets say that we get in an hour early, We got there at 4pm and everyone seemed surprised that people were coming in. They were confused as where to sent us. We walked to the VIP tent and they were not ready. We were told at the door to get gift bags and they we get them and they are like don't touch the gifts bags come back at 5pm etc etc. Like I was going to steal the bags or something. I was like come on guys get it together, you guys been putting this on for ten years. WTH? Also included, was meeting the band that was headlining (Angel Mary and the TN Wolves) which was at the same time they decided to bring out the ribs so no one left the rib line to meet the band. #fail Overall, I had a great time and would def go again but it would be nice to see a little more organization on opening day and maybe be a little more clearer with the VIP ticket holders I felt like I had no idea what was going on, as did they. I should have called with questions but i thought it after ten years it would be more structured so that is my only complaint. All the ribs were delicious Handsome Devil out of Walkill was a standout to me. Went back the second day and got more some them. They cupcakes were kinda of forgettable. I also tried Butch's bbq which was not so great despite the all the awards he had in first and the long lines he had. They're cornbread was delicious but the mac n cheese was inedible, tasted cheaply made. I def recommend checking out this event and calling with questions if you purchase the $50 ticket. The scenery is beautiful up in the farm lands of New Paltz with the view of the Shawangunk Ridge in the distance. read more

was a nice day, wish i could have sampled some of the 60 in the contest, long lines, ribs were somewhat dry, went on a saturday last year went to same vendors, this year on sunday ribs werent as good. read more