6 Corners BBQ Fest

I think this was the 4^th year of the fest and I’d have to say the food is good and the atmosphere too but it’s always the same vendors and not from the area. I should know this because I lived in the area for many years. Seriously. Robinsons #1 ribs? I don’t recall them in Six Corners. I’ll still go but the promoters have a year to think about putting local joints at the fest.

I am not a big fan of street fests, but figured we’d give it a shot to support our new neighborhood. We went on Saturday afternoon, somewhat between typical lunch and dinner times.
Overall, the offerings seemed underwhelming compared to other fests. I did find one local spice vendor, Spice Heist, that I’ve purchased from previously, so that was nice. And as a wine drinker, the selection was much better than I’ve seen elsewhere. I was very disappointed to not find any local BBQ restaurants participating. Considering Smoque, Gale St and Pitchfork are all so close, it was unfortunate they were not part of the fest. While the food was decent, I did not recognize any of the BBQ vendors at all.
I did see a couple small carnival-​type rides, but was quite turned off by the sad, lonely camel and few ponies corralled for «rides» that were along Belle Plaine. I would have rather seen another carnival ride instead of some poor animals tied up for the sake of entertainment.
With all that said, I really enjoy our new neighborhood and love to support it. I don’t know however, that I will rush back to this fest unless there are some more local vendors participating, especially the BBQ restaurants!

Every year the fest gets better and better. It’s far enough from downtown where you don’t get the big crowds of people. If the taste of Chicago is to much for you this is the place to be. The food was better then expected and I could try everything in one day. Overall it was a good experience. Think carnival meets backyard BBQ.
Pros–
–smaller crowds (less lines)
–decent music
–kid friendly
–local sponsors
Cons–
–little seating in shade
–standard pricing (though coupons are available)

It’s nice to have our own fest, but I really hope it grows over time. I went for the first time this year and was a little disappointed in how small it was… almost seemed amateurish. I do like that they had lots of activities for the kids. But, it needs many more food vendors. Hopefully, the reviving Six Corners businesses will contribute to it’s growth. Only time will tell.

6 corners BBQ Fest is located off of Irving Park road on the north portion of Milwaukee avenue. Located in the Portage Park neighborhood 6 Corners BBQ Fest offers a taste of some of the best BBQ in the Chicago area.
This fest has the $ 5 suggested entry much like all other Chicago summer festivals. It is important for the growth and foundation of these events. Tickets are sold by cash and credit and follow the same pattern as all other bbq festivals. Food and drink are plenty to choose from. There are also some art tents and other promotional groups that are available.
6 corners BBQ Fest offers music and the south entrance off of Irving Park road as well as in the north side parking lot. The parking lot area serves as a place to sit and eat as well as providing bleachers to listen to the musical entertainment. The Portage Theater was also open during this event which was nice as it is currently not open due to some business ownership disputes.
Overall, 6 Corners BBQ Fest does it right and is a nice taste of the Portage Park/​Old Irving Park neighborhood.

We had a great time at BBQ Fest! The entertainment was fun, the food was good and it wasn’t overly crowded. Will definitely go again next year!

I’m sure the organizers worked really hard and this idea looks good on paper, but this fest was definitely underwhelming and disappointing. It seems you have to go on Saturday, because by Sunday the few BBQ vendors that were there ran out of a lot of items. The only local «restaurant» was a bar that doesn’t specialize in BBQ. With only 4 BBQ tents serving food, the lines were long and the ones that weren’t had barely average quality meat and sauce.
The beer selection was actually impressive. Instead of just Miller/​Bud, they also had Goose Island and Founders. But if I’m paying $ 6 for a beer, I’d prefer it were fresh and cold from the tap. The system they had going on had them pouring it ahead of time and the person serving just takes it off the table, leaving you with almost warm beer.
Hopefully they can improve it next year with more local places and the vendors more prepared. The live music was good, and was worth the $ 5 the optional donation.

Another fest that felt promising but really was a bit too small. Truth be told, I got there Sunday night, having bought the Groupon deal for admission and four beers– which was a decent deal in my opinion. The weather was nice, and there was a decent selection of the same stuff at every festival– food, beer, candles, people, etc.
The people at this fest were quite interesting, a lot of families. The food was way overpriced– my beef brisket sandwich was decent, medium in size, but cost $ 10. I’m not an expert, but I feel like it should have been slightly cheaper. Same holds true for the other stuff. I guess my thinking is I pay $$ for food, beer, entry, what does this fest have for ME? Nothing really. The only real reason is to see cool stuff people make, hang out with friends, and relax. Only stayed here like 30−40mins before I got bored… but DID hit the DOLLAR STORE down the street!

Entertainment was fun, kids had fun, crowds not bad but not enough BBQ vendors, lines were ridiculously long.

4 bbq vendors for a fest that’s called BBQ fest? yikes, better get more next time guys… and thanks for wasting a visit to the city!

I live in a building on the block that this occurs, so I was excited. I love BBQ, and the idea of a whole BBQ Fest just outside my door sounded fantastic. Sadly, BBQ fest was significantly lacking on the BBQ, there were three stands selling BBQ, and I am being generous by calling one of them BBQ, It is basically carnival food.
You have to buy tickets for the food just like most other festivals, which is fine, until you find out that most of the stands have sold out of BBQ before noon. So you have to settle for something you weren’t really interested in because you have tickets that you have to use.
I hope they improve the Fest this year, you know by actually having decent BBQ.
…BBQ

Someone’s gotta stick up for this fest. I googled when I saw the 6 Corrners bbq fest was comin back around this year and then I see mostly bad reviews. Who are these people?
It’s a fun neighborhood streetfest. My friends and I have gone every year and left with a full stomach and possibly a little tipsy. Last year they had Shakespeare street theater and professional wrestling. Love that quirky mix.
I’m going again this year. Five stars if nothing else to counterbalance the negativity.

Had a great time this year. This is one of the more interesting fest I have attended. Quite a mix of entertainment… from a great kids area… to pro wrestling for the older kids and dads… to some really great music.
My only complaint is that it should last longer. Why not go over 3 or 4 days?

A couple days before moving into the neighborhood and felt like I should check it out. Not as crazy or super crowded as the likes of the one in North Center. It definitely has a more neighborhood block party feel to it. It was nice to see they made it about enjoying with your family with games for the kids and even showcasing different ethnicities in the neighborhood through cultural dance. True the actual BBQ vendors were a little lacking, but I enjoyed being able to walk around without wall to wall people or with items being sold out.

A friend and I went to the fest today and were made to feel guilty for not paying the «suggested donation» of 5 dollars each. Both of us live in the neighborhood to begin with and are super inconvenienced this weekend with the 56 Milwaukee bus being rerouted from Montrose to Irving Park for 2 days. That equates a donation to me.
At 4:40 pm today all of the hand washing stations were completely out of water except for one that barely had a trickle coming out. The fest opened at noon today! If I can’t wash my hands after using a port o potty how can the people that are making the food?!
Another thing was there was not enough port o pottys for the size of this fest. There were a total of like 6! There was at least a thousand people at the fest.
It seems like they are trying to make as much money as possible at the expense of some acceptable level of cleanliness.
And as a previous reviewer noted no immediate area restaurants that have great to decent BBQ were represented here.
The inclusion of Texas Thunder BBQ from Texas was a good move though.
If this fest can work out the kinks next year I might attend again, but I am not going to hold my breath.

I tried to really like this fest. I live within walking distance of it, and it seemed to gather a big crowd.
That big crowd didn’t stay long. Two BBQ vendors and Las Tablas. That’s not a BBQ fest; that’s just a small little block party. Way overpriced, too.
We were encouraged to tour the old Portage Theater. It was open, and when we walked in, the big screen had an art film or some type of blue movie with close-​ups of sexual organs.
That was weird.
More varieties of food would really help to boost this new fest. Heck, just more food in general.
*Update: the immediate neighborhood has a lot of great BBQ venues: Smoque, Gale Street Inn, Sutherlands, The Portage, La Villa and even Bread and Wine. That’s a great line-​up of local food operations if there ever was any.
Not one of these restaurants were featured at this festival; just the catering operation that took over for the former Giovanni’s in Berwyn. I used to go to Giovanni’s, and they were alright. But this fest was in no way a true BBQ fest, and definitely not representative of the area.

2011 was the first year of a BBQ fest serving the 6 corners community and hosted by the Six Corners Association. I see that someone has posted it in the Events area of Unilocal so it’s happening again this year (2012). If you click the link for the website you may not find any information, yet. I clicked it already and it’s a homepage for a new blog. Last year’s site was up for some time but offered little to not enough info. It’s another year and I hope for 2012 we can see more representation of local restaurants. There are some big names in Chicago BBQ that are nearby and if the association could get them to come out, that would be a big deal to barbecue enthusiasts like myself. Jefferson Park has a reasonable festival that gets Gale street to theirs, it’d be a place to start?
2011’s fest was okay, best for families and kids. They are operating this in the shadow of bigger BBQ festivals happening all around the city. Ribfest Chicago being the biggest and best of, at least for the 606 zip codes. Another local big one with big names is one which happens in Forest Park during later summer which happens to attract barbecue caterers and wannabes that aim to find out if they have the gusto to start a new business off of winning a prestigious title of, «best of». If you attended the Windy City BBQ fest which happened in the Uptown area last year, their festival was almost exactly like the 6 corners version. Except less drunken, strange people. Don’t get me wrong, drunken strange people make for interesting people watching. The six corners area is more family involved. So, what I liked most about it was the layout and offering. They kept one area for the stage and music which was far away from where the children and families were seated and playing. They had a few jumpers set up for the kids but the hours of service of those areas was a detail very hard to get at their different entrances. My first visit out there with four wee ones in tow turned angry when the entrance folks told us there was still time for the kids to play, but after paying and entering, we find out the carnies are taking the jumpers down. The kids were heartbroken, especially after the length of time sitting in the car looking for nearby parking.
FYI, good information for a festival website = Times of or schedule of a kids area and or shows for the kids. They may have had a schedule of shows last year, but I don’t remember a timing schedule for kids activities & jumpers. If the kids are happy, then I can manage to get in some beer time with the parents and check out the local singles scene for myself. As far as ribs, tips and more I found the selections to be too typical. Some of the people they had offering food are the companies we always see at Chicago festivals. The guys with the huge triple layered signs selling frozen lemonades, fried snickers and run of the mill BBQ and those huge turkey legs. They had one or two Chicago barbecue names like Robinson’s which I don’t have the highest regard for. If I go to a fest for barbecue I usually always come out with fingers stinking of sweet barbecue. After leaving this one, that wasn’t the case. The fest was geared more for the likes of the neighborhood or felt like one huge block party. I hope this year the fest has a larger offering and involves more of the community. Maybe more stores that are located on that stretch of street have open doors and are participating in the fest. More inclusion or involvement from area businesses or other service providers hosting tents at the fest. Just some ideas, I hope will enliven this years.