What Part of Ribfest is Fun?

I've always been interested in the summer ribfest weekends. Although they seem to occur all around the province, I've never attended one.

This year, we had some visitors so we decided to venture to the park where this activity was to take place. We had lunch at our favourite downtown restaurant first, since we really didn't plan to partake of the picnic style $13 half racks of ribs. Besides, hubby planned to barbeque his own ribs the next day. Well, not his own ribs but the ones he had defrosted....from the store. Adam's ribs as it were.

As we neared the makeshift entrance we noted that two ladies who had trekked to the park in wheelchairs were turned away. One had a tiny dog on her lap. What nerve !

Next, we were frisked. I had my purse searched, (I thought for tiny dogs), but was told that they were looking for "outside food". Fortunately, the mints which were stuck to the inside lining of my bag were not noticed. Little did they know that I smuggled a tummy full of schnitzel into their facility.

We wandered through the park and admired the trophies of the rib chefs. We entered some contests and left the area unimpressed. As we exited, we saw that the entrance also had a large trash bin for people to deposit water bottles and drinks. A friend told me that they even took away water from children. That's almost worse than taking candy from a baby (or in this case an old lady but fortunately they didn't find my sticky stash).

Interestingly enough, despite the ban on dogs, the groups "Garage Dog" and "Rufbuki" were allowed to appear at ribfest.

If I had seen the following rules sooner, I might not have bothered to go to the park to learn that ribfest is all about selling food and drinks to make money, nothing more. I don't consider this one of the many wonderful community building events happening in our parks and on the beach throughout the summer.

Rib Rules - Note the shouting capitalized and bold letters

In order to ensure a safe and secure visit during your time at Northumberland Ribfest and because this event is Licensed by the Liquor License Board of Ontario there are a few rules to follow:
1 – NO FOOD or LIQUIDS of ANY kind are allowed into the site, including water bottles, open or unopened.
2 – ALL Handbags and Purses will be checked prior to entry.
3 – NO Bags, Coolers, Backpacks or Other containers are allowed on the site.
4 – NO Pets are allowed in the site. The site can become quite crowded at times and it is not a safe environment for your pet.
5 – NO Bicycles are allowed in the site. If you ride your bike to Ribfest, it can be locked to the fencing at either entrance where our security personal are in attendance during our open hours.
6 – NO Recording Devices – Please respect our Professional Entertainers.
7 – Footwear is mandatory – While we Endeavour to keep the site as clean as possible, occasionally something can go unnoticed so please make sure that you and your children have proper footwear.