VP Rotary welcomes Smoked Meat Festival representatives

May 6, Meeting
Rotarian Larry Lachney invited Renee Brown and Ava Morein with the Smoked Meat Festival to discuss the upcoming event at the May 6, meeting of the Ville Platte Rotary Club. Also during the meeting, Rotary Interact student Emily Claire Soileau read her winning essay, which led to her being named Rotary Interact Student of the Year for District #6200.
Brown and Morein discussed plans for the 22nd Annual Smoked Meat Festival, which will be held June 27-28, at the Northside Civic Center.
They noted that for the first time, everything from vendor, cookoff entry and pageant forms are available to download from the festival’s web site www.smfvp.com, and that advanced tickets may also be purchased through the site. They said it takes many volunteers to put on the festival each year and the board is looking for volunteers to help with the event. Board members are willing to come to businesses in order to recruit volunteers.
They also stated the teen, miss and ms. pageant will be held Sunday, June 22, and the youth pageant for ages newborn to 13 will be held Thursday, June 26.
The festival will kick off Friday, June 27, with local entertainment. On June 28, the world championship cookoff will be held. Last year, 175-200 entries were included in the cookoff and another large turnout is expected this year. With the new festival layout, the event has more open space to better accommodate the crowds.
Saturday night’s entertainment will be provided by Jared Layne and Mark Chestnutt.
Brown and Morein invited everyone to visit the web site and like the Facebook page to keep up to date with festival events and look for contests to win t-shirts and other prizes.