The largest barbecue competition and tasting festival in St. Louis, Q in the Lou, has been canceled. The event was planned for Sept. 6-8, but organizers decided to cancel it due to poor ticket sales and insufficient corporate sponsorship.
The traveling festival had low attendance in Denver last week, said Sean Hadley, a festival organizer.
“We made the tough decision to cancel Q in the Lou,” said Hadley. “We're seeing a lack of support … it's just not there.”
The traveling event began in St. Louis in 2015 and drew hundreds of people to downtown St. Louis for barbecue, live music and a “major party.”
“It shut down out of the blue … I've gone every year,” said Scott Thomas, local chef and food blogger. “It's brilliant. You could take a tour of some really amazing barbecue restaurants and competition barbecue guys all in one place.”
In a late July news conference, city officials touted Q in the Lou as a significant tourism draw and a boost for downtown revitalization.
“Bringing a signature national festival back to downtown St. Louis … is making us stronger,” Greater St. Louis Inc. CEO Jason Hall said then.
Less than a month later, ticket holders from every festival stop learned they’d be refunded. On Monday, organizers privatized the Q in the Lou website and deleted its social media accounts.
Conner Kerrigan, a spokesperson for Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office, said city officials are disappointed the festival won’t be back this year.
“St. Louis knows how to throw a festival … bringing people together to celebrate our culture is one of the things we do best as a city,” Kerrigan said in a statement. “Should Q in the Lou try to come back next year or any year after that, they’ll have the support of the Mayor Jones administration.”
This story has been updated to reflect that Q in the Lou started in St. Louis.
