Feast in the East to showcase Wayne barbecue
By Sam Atkins
Published in News on September 9, 2004 2:00 PM
A celebration of eastern North Carolina barbecue will be at the center of the first Feast in the East Festival.
Patty Graham, membership and marketing director for the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, hopes that promoting barbecue will attract crowds, and when the people come, they will see everything else the county has to offer.
The event will be held Oct. 29-30 at the Wayne County Fairgrounds. It will center around the Wayne County Swine Fest Barbecue Cook-Off held by the Arts Council on Oct. 30. Other festival activities will include entertainment, music, children's activities, arts and crafts, and more.
Shirley Fong-Torres, a spokesman for Kikkoman products, has been a Chinese cooking teacher since 1973 and has been featured in the New York Times, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, USA Today, Travel & Leisure and many other publications. She has also appeared on "Good Morning America," the Food Channel, the Travel Channel, the "Today" show and others.
She will spend several days in Goldsboro filming a cooking show and hosting cooking demonstrations using eastern N.C. food products during the Feast in the East celebration.
Other entertainment during the festival will include the swing band, SWING ON!, Elvis and Tim McGraw impersonators, gospel and bluegrass music by The Wells Family, and Roby Huffman and the Bluegrass Cut-ups. There will also be a Feast in the East golf tournament on Oct. 29 sponsored by the Goldsboro Exchange Club at Goldsboro Municipal Golf Course.
Representatives from the Goldsboro Travel and Tourism office, Chamber of Commerce, Cooperative Extension, Seymour Johnson, the Arts Council and the Wayne County Fairgrounds along with other city and county officials are helping to organize the festival.
The Goldsboro tourism council did a study in 1999, and the results indicated that people know this area for its history, barbecue and the Air Force base, said Marlise Taylor, director of tourism.
All Wayne County communities are encouraged to develop their own barbecue-related activities during the celebration, she said.
There are still a limited number of sponsorships available for various festival activities as well as vendor opportunities.
Residents and organizations of the county interested in participating in the event are encouraged to join the planning committee.
For more information, contact Ms. Taylor at 734-2245, Ms. Graham at 734-2241 or visit the Web site www.feastintheeast.org.