Georgia State Pork Barbeque Championship Cook Off

'Slosheye Trail Big Pig Jig'

Adopted in 1997

Dooly County Chamber of Commerce's "Slosheye Trail Big Pig Jig" Barbecue Championship was made the official state pork barbecue championship cookoff and the Hawkinsville Civitan Club's "Shoot the Bull" Barbecue Championship was made the official state beef barbecue championship cookoff when Governor Zell Miller signed House Bill No. 854 on April 14, 1997.

In the fall of each year, the Dooly County Chamber of Commerce hosts the "Slosheye Trail Big Pig Jig" in Vienna, Georgia. This contest is considered the "Cadillac of Barbecue contests," and teams from all over the southeastern United States compete to create the most mouth-watering pork barbecue, one of the most exquisite, treasured and relished foods in Georgia. The contest grows larger every year and has become one of the most highly anticipated festivals in the state of Georgia.

Georgia Pork Barbeque Championship Cookoff
'Slosheye Trail Big Pig Jig'

BIG PIG JIG® was born in Vienna, Georgia when a group of self-professed gourmets made wagers on who among them could cook the most succulent pig! That year, 1982, those creative people recommended combining a barbecue cooking competition with an established and well-attended arts and crafts fair and the county's livestock association annual hog show. The merging of events has grown into a festival named twice by the American Bus Association as one of the Top 100 Events in America, three times acclaimed as one of the Top 20 Events in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourism Society, and recognized by Georgia Festivals and Events Association and International Festivals and Events Association with more than a dozen awards, including Best Georgia Festival in 1999. BIG PIG JIG® was listed by Travel Agent magazine as one of America's Top 500 Festivals, touted by Tom Clynes, author of WILD PLANET! as one of the world's 1,001 Most Extraordinary Events, featured on the Food Network's "All - American Festivals" and a one-hour special entitled "The BIG PIG JIG®". BIG PIG JIG® was also named to the Discovery Travel Channel's top ten list of "World's Best Barbecue Contests" for the past four years and in 2004 the National Barbecue News named BIG PIG JIG® the Spirit of Barbecue Event of the Year.

Twenty teams competed, cooking whole hogs only, at BIG PIG JIG® in 1982 and $1,000 in prize money was awarded to the top seven contenders. STUMP & SON, a team from Marietta, Georgia won the grand prize on their "train" grill.

Once the smoke cleared, the crafters packed and headed home, and the hogs were "gone to market," the community recognized it had a winning combination. The fall setting was ideal, so an October festival was born. A new site located on Interstate 75 near Georgia Highway 215 in Vienna was purchased and developed for the ever-increasing number of participants. Expansion at the facility has been necessary each year to accommodate the event's growth.

The success of the festival was demonstrated in 1991 when prize money was increased to $10,000. The festival now has expanded activities to include a parade, sidewalk art contest, crafts and collectibles, 5K Hog Jog, QuizFest academic scholarship competition, a scholarship golf tournament, local, regional, and national entertainment, plus a People's Choice contest where visitors choose the best barbecue of the day!

Twenty-two years after the idea took shape, the contest drew 120 teams cooking over 400 entries of hogs, shoulders, ribs, plus kettles of Brunswick stew, barbecue sauce, and barbecued chicken. The event attracted over 20,000 spectators and required more than 300 judges, 300 volunteers, plus countless pounds of pork. In 2003 the Dooly County Chamber of Commerce awarded more than $12,000 in cash plus trophies to BIG PIG JIG's top cooks and accommodated huge crowds of festival fun-seekers at the facility now known as BBQ CITY, USA.

More than 25 events similar to BIG PIG JIG have appeared across the Southeast since 1982. Some remain; some do not. Often imitated but not yet duplicated, BIG PIG JIG® remains the southeast's largest and Georgia's oldest and OFFICIAL barbecue cooking contest.

BIG PIG JIG® is presented by the
Dooly County Chamber of Commerce
& The City of Vienna, Georgia

For more information, please contact:

Rhonda Lamb-Heath
Special Events Coordinator
229-268-8275/8615
bigpigjig@sowega.net

Georgia House Bill 845

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT

To amend Article 3 of Chapter 3 of Title 50 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to state symbols, so as to designate the Hawkinsville Civitan Club's "Shoot the Bull" barbecue championship as the state's official beef barbecue championship cookoff; to designate the "Slosheye Trail Big Pig Jig" as the state's official pork barbecue cookoff; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

WHEREAS, the Hawkinsville Civitan Club annually sponsors the "Shoot the Bull" barbecue championship which attracts competitors from throughout Georgia and the surrounding states; and

WHEREAS, the funds raised from this outstanding event are used to assist the Civitan International Research Center, which is working toward a cure for Down's syndrome and other developmental disabilities, to provide disabled children in the community with an opportunity to attend Camp Civitan during the summer and to assist disabled people in the community and others with unexpected needs; and

WHEREAS, the "Shoot the Bull" barbecue championship has earned a well-deserved reputation for the quality and flavor of the barbecue which is submitted by the participants; and

WHEREAS, many of those who participate in this event go on to claim championship awards in barbecue competitions throughout the United States; and

WHEREAS, the Dooly County Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring the sixteenth annual Slosheye Trail Big Pig Jig in Vienna, Georgia, on October 4 through 11, 1997; and

WHEREAS, this unparalleled "Cadillac of Barbecue Contests" attracts teams from across the southeastern United States who match their culinary craftsmanship and highly refined skills in the consummate art of pig cookery with the creation of one of the most exquisite, treasured, and relished foods in Georgia; and

WHEREAS, this event, which has grown in magnitude each year since its inception and has become one of the Southeast's most widely anticipated and popular annual festivals, reaches as far as Texas, where many uninformed persons still mistakenly refer to burnt beef as "barbecue"; and

WHEREAS, it is only fitting and proper that these outstanding events and the hard work and dedication of the members of the Hawkinsville Civitan Club and the Dooly County Chamber of Commerce that have made this event so successful be properly recognized.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:

SECTION 1.

Article 3 of Chapter 3 of Title 50 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to state symbols, is amended by adding at the end thereof a new Code Section 50-3-75 to read as follows:

"50-3-75.

(a) The Hawkinsville Civitan Club's "Shoot the Bull" barbecue championship is designated as the official state beef barbecue championship cookoff.

(b) The Dooly County Chamber of Commerce's `Slosheye Trail Big Pig Jig' is designated as the official state pork barbecue championship cookoff."

SECTION 2.

Notwithstanding the provisions of Code Section 1-3-4.1, this Act shall become effective upon its approval by the Governor or its becoming law without such approval.

SECTION 3.

All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.

Georgia Law

The law designating the Dooly County Chamber of Commerce's "Slosheye Trail Big Pig Jig" as the official Georgia state pork barbecue championship cookoff is found in the Georgia Code, Title 50, Chapter 3, Section 50-3-75.

TITLE 50. STATE GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER 3. STATE FLAG, SEAL, AND OTHER SYMBOLS
ARTICLE 3. OTHER STATE SYMBOLS

O.C.G.A. § 50-3-75 (2014)

§ 50-3-75. Official beef barbecue championship cookoff; official pork barbecue championship cookoff

(a) The Hawkinsville Civitan Club's "Shoot the Bull" barbecue championship is designated as the official state beef barbecue championship cookoff.

(b) The Dooly County Chamber of Commerce's "Slosheye Trail Big Pig Jig" is designated as the official state pork barbecue championship cookoff.

HISTORY: Code 1981, § 50-3-75, enacted by Ga. L. 1997, p. 588, § 1.