American Royal Announces New Festival to Be Added to 26th Annual Barbecue Competition

American Royal Announces New Festival to Be Added to 26th Annual Barbecue Competition

2005 Barbecue to Feature Friday Night Concert and Public Food Festival

KANSAS CITY, Mo., May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The 26th Annual American Royal Barbecue Contest, scheduled for September 29-October 1, 2005 at the American Royal Complex in Kansas City's historic west bottoms, has announced the addition of a new public music and food festival to the world's biggest barbecue contest.

As part of the festival, the American Royal Barbecue will feature a major public concert on Friday, September 30. The headliner of the show will be secured through a partnership with Mix 93.3 and Star102 radio stations and will be announced later this summer.

"We want the barbecue contest to be a celebration of the city's heritage that everyone in Kansas City can participate in and be proud of," says Neal Patterson, American Royal Chairman of the Board of Directors and chief executive officer of Cerner Corporation. "This year's contest and festival is going to be bigger and better than ever before, and the Friday night concert is the start of a great new tradition at the Royal."

In addition to the concert, the American Royal also announced plans to build a "Barbecue Restaurant Row" in front of the main Royal building. Restaurant Row will be a designated area in which the public can taste great barbecue from some of the biggest names in Kansas City.

"The American Royal is going to be the only place in town to hear great music, along with sampling the best barbecue Kansas City has to offer from world-famous Kansas City barbecue restaurants, all in one place. We're calling it Barbecuelooza," says Mariner Kemper, co-chairman of the American Royal Barbecue Contest and CEO of UMB Bank. "We heard from a lot of people who don't have invitations to a specific barbecue team party on Friday night but still love to come down to the Royal for the festive atmosphere. We listened to the feedback and built the music and food festival with the general public in mind."

To make room for the concert and Restaurant Row, the American Royal Operation and Competition committees redesigned the layout of the barbecue contest so that the area between the American Royal building and the south side of Kemper Arena can be turned into the American Royal Barbecue Festival Lane for the weekend.

In addition to the Friday night festivities, the Royal is planning a Family Day for Saturday, October 1st as well as an additional music festival for that night. Details of the Family Day will be released later this summer.

Contest Applications Available Online

For the first time ever, barbecue contest teams can submit their applications via the Web. Beginning on May 6 at 10:00 a.m., teams can go to http://www.americanroyal.com/ and fill out their entry forms, pay fees and secure their spots for the annual contest. Teams that apply by July 20, 2005 can guarantee their same space location at the contest. An internationally renowned event, the contest boasts the largest group of barbecue contestants found in the world. The American Royal has "sold out" of competitive team space for the past five years and has a waiting list each year of new teams wanting to compete. Last year, the American Royal had 475 teams competing.

The American Royal, a not-for-profit organization that benefits youth and education, is now in its 106th year and celebrates our region's rich agricultural heritage through competition, education and entertainment. The American Royal, one of Kansas City's premier fall events, annually hosts the world's largest barbecue contest, one of the Midwest's largest livestock exhibitions, one of the top five ranked rodeos in the nation and is home to the national championship horse competition.

Sprint is the presenting sponsor of the American Royal Barbecue. Official sponsors of the American Royal Barbecue Competition are Big Sky Distributors, Kingsford, KC Masterpiece Barbecue Sauce, Bic SureStart, Price Chopper, Mountain Valley Water, Premium Standard Farms; Official sponsors of the American Royal are Bayer, Cerner Corporation, Phoenix Scientific, UMB, John Deere, Gold Bank, The Hilton Garden Inn, The Kansas City Marriott Downtown, The Raphael Hotel, KCP&L, ADM, McDonald's, Fort Dodge.

Source: American Royal

CONTACT: Suzanne Levy of American Royal, +1-816-569-4045

Web site: http://www.americanroyal.com/

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