Thousands of BBQ lovers devour pulled pork sandwiches at food festival in North Carolina

Nothing in the world tastes quite like that good ole Southern barbeque.

And for the smoke-masters of North Carolina – meat is a serious business.

Whole-hog barbeque is traditional in eastern North Carolina, and although some may have their secret recipes, these cooks will butterfly and season the pig before throwing the entire thing on an outdoor smoker for around 12 hours.

With a little love and patience, the interior meat comes out so soft it almost melts in your mouth, while the exterior skin renders into crispy strips… before it all gets chopped up and drenched in a tangy vinegar-based barbeque sauce absolutely bursting with flavour.

In short – yum.

And the lucky folks attending the 44th annual BBQ Fest on the Neuse in Kinston, North Carolina, USA this May got the chance to sample some of this famous barbeque – and make Guinness World Records history.

BBQ Fest of the Neuse is a regular event in the state, and this year they welcomed over 40,000 people downtown for the largest whole-hog cookoff in the world.

Customers lining up for some pulled pork sandwiches

It’s a competitive but fun event –  around 100 teams receive a raw hog and cook it overnight. The teams are then judged in the morning in both amateur and professional categories, before the pork is chopped and sold to the public as pulled pork BBQ sandwiches starting later that morning.

And with all the barbeque the festival prepares, they thought it would be amazing to try and take home a Guinness World Records title for most pulled pork sandwiches served in 8 hours, by recruiting dozens of southern smoke-masters to prepare piles of pulled pork for hungry guests.

“We’re stacking sandwiches and stacking up stats,” said Waylon Adams, BBQ Fest Chair. “Let’s show the world how it’s done in Kinston!”

The record was set at 2,400 sandwiches, and Adams told Neuse News that their plan “is to surpass this with ease.”

And surpass it they did – with a total of 4,775 sandwiches sold, they nearly doubled the prior record in just eight hours!

The process was difficult but rewarding, and the cooks spent all night preparing their pulled pork. Early festival goers – no doubt smelling all the freshly cooked meat – started buying the sandwiches at 10:19 a.m., and by 1:19 p.m. they were already sold out of all their buns!

But not a drop of that delicious meat went to waste – leftover pork not used for sandwiches was stored and donated to local food pantries and shelters. 

And all that good food also went to a good cause, because sales from sandwiches alone raised $38,000 for the local Kinston Foundation, which provides grants to local organizations.

Sales were monitored at the ‘Chop Tent’ by representatives from the NC Pork Council and a Guinness World Records Adjudicator, who made sure all the sandwiches were properly counted.

And by the end of the day, the assembled crowd was thrilled to find out they took home the title for the fun and delicious event.