Wichita Festivals Inc. announces plans for a new barbecue and food event
Less than a year after taking over the top job at Wichita Festivals Inc., BreAnna Monk is already checking an item off the wish list she shared in May.
Monk, who in January took over as president and CEO of the group that puts on Wichita Riverfest, said before this year’s festival that her big dream was to organize a large downtown food event separate from Riverfest.
Enter Flavor & Barbecue Fest, a two-day event planned for Oct. 2-3 near Century II. It will feature food trucks, competitive and amateur barbecue cooks, local restaurants and vendors, and local bands. People who attend will be able to buy tasting kits, similar to ones offered at the annual Wichita Wagonmasters Downtown Chili Cookoff, get samples of all the barbecue vendors’ food, then vote for their favorite.
The barbecue competition won’t be sanctioned, but those competing for prizes will be able to offer pulled pork, pork ribs and chicken. Those not competing can serve whatever they want.
Food vendors that aren’t selling barbecue also will set up at the event. People will be able to fill up with the tasting kits, order full meals, or do both.
Monk said she wanted to beef up Wichita Festivals’ offerings by adding a third festival. In addition to the annual Wichita Riverfest in late May/early June, the organization also puts on the Autumn & Art festival every September.
No buttons will be required at the new event.
“Flavor & Barbecue is completely free,” Monk said.
Monk, who was born in Chicago, said that she was inspired by Taste of Chicago, a three-day festival that happens every September in Grant Park. She and her staff scaled the idea down to Wichita size and gave the festival a theme.
“It’s going to be really fun,” she said. “... You can get off work on a Friday, and within that four-hour bubble, you’ll still be able to make it.”
Organizers are still working out all the details, Monk said. But they know that they’ll start Friday, Oct. 2, with the golf tournament that was taken out of the 2025 Riverfest. It will be over at 4:30 p.m., and at 5 p.m., the Flavor & Barbecue Fest will begin and run until 10 p.m. The next day, on Saturday, Oct. 3, the festival will run from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Barbecue cooks — competitive, amateur and professional — will operate from tents along Century II Drive, the same place where the main food court is set up during Wichita River Fest. Food trucks will be set up on Douglas Avenue, where they’ll have access to plug-ins, and just east of them, non-food vendors will sell their wares.
Food vendors selling things other than barbecue will be lined up along Main Street. The shady area where the Riverfest’s main food court is usually set up will also be filled with seating for Flavor & Barbecue Fest and will be called Pine Island.
The footprint will also include two stages — one on Kennedy Plaza and one near the food court area — and organizers plan to keep them filled with local bands. Kennedy Plaza also will have a beer garden.
The event will be paid for with sponsorships and by entry fees paid by vendors, Monk said. Sign-up information for vendors will begin appearing online in February.
Many cities the same size as Wichita put on annual barbecue festivals, Monk said. While researching, she said, she learned that the last time Wichita had anything like it was when Intrust Bank Arena put on Ribfest, which ran from 2012 through 2014. It featured national vendors who sold food and competed against each other for titles. (Derby puts on a barbecue festival each year called Smoke on the Plains.)
Monk said her staff plans to make the event an annual affair.
“This particular thing is a smaller footprint, very intimate,” she said. “I love where it’s going. I just definitely want to see it take off in a very positive way.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2025 at 5:10 AM.
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