Thousands flock to field at Jabara for food and funk (+video)

In a field next to Col. James Jabara Airport on Saturday, a rare sight – possibly the first in the city’s history – could be seen: a dance-off between a Wichita city council member and a Kansas City city council member.

At Wichita’s first Grub & Groove Festival, Lavonta Williams, of Wichita, and Jermaine Reed, of Kansas City, wiggled around on stage for a bit along with former Wichita mayor Carl Brewer, until the event’s emcee cut the music, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours.”

“I see that we have some city council dance problems on both sides of the stage, so there will not be a ‘City Council Dancing with the Stars,’” KC radio personality Sean Tyler said.

More than a thousand people flocked to the field by Jabara on Saturday night for the Grub & Groove Festival, a soul food and funk music festival that Brewer called “long overdue” for Wichita.

“The one next year will be off the chain, if we support it,” Brewer said.

The event’s organizer, Chuck Byrd, and his Kansas City-based Platform Promotions group signed a three-year deal with the city to host Grub & Groove at Jabara. In other large markets, similar events of his have drawn 12,000 people.

Multiple food vendors were on scene, including local food truck Brickhouse BBQ and local restaurant T.O.P.S. Steaks and Hoagies. Brewer also set up a barbecue stand at the event.

Side streets, including 39th Street North, were jam-packed with cars parking on both sides of the street. Empty fields across Webb Road became makeshift parking lots for people willing to jump the curb.

Many cars traveling north on Webb turned into the main Jabara parking lot in an attempt to locate the festival, only to turn around and find it farther north on Webb Road.

Hutchinson resident John Williams was at the festival on Saturday, and he said the parking situation could be improved upon in the coming years, “but I think the music and the atmosphere make up for it.”

“For an event like this, it’s kind of hard to get all the logistics together,” he said. “The next time will probably be a whole lot better.”

Despite the parking problems, most festival attendees were enjoying themselves at the festival, swaying to the near-constant funk beats.

Steve Turner, who hails from New Orleans, said “it’s really good for the city” to have an event like Grub & Groove.

Brewer echoed that sentiment.

“It’s a clear demonstration of how this community can support it and how bad we want it, just by looking at the faces that are out there,” he said. “Tell me what could be better than bringing people together with food, music and opportunities to reflect back in time, and back in the day when you were young and carefree. Be young just for a few hours and remember what it was like.”

Brewer said the festival was one of his last to-dos before retiring as Wichita’s mayor earlier this year – he assisted event organizers in finding the right venue for it. Organizers were also looking at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, but decided on Jabara.

“Certainly the city was open to them coming and having it, but they wanted a certain climate and a certain tone, kind of the old-school picnic, family environment,” Brewer said. “They wanted to be out in a field.”

And as for Brewer’s barbecue interests?

He said he’s still “got a lot of work to do,” but in the three tournaments he’s entered since his “retirement,” he’s “managed to come from the bottom and get into the middle of the pack.”

This story was originally published August 29, 2015 at 9:25 PM with the headline "Thousands flock to field at Jabara for food and funk (+video)."