Tickets for evening concerts at this year’s Sarnia Kinsmen Ribfest go on sale Monday.
Tickets for evening concerts at this year’s Sarnia Kinsmen Ribfest go on sale Monday.
Ribfest – returning this Father’s Day weekend to Centennial Park – has free admission during the afternoons of June 17 and 18, as well as all day June 19, but tickets are required for the first two evenings when the “ribbers,” other vendors and beer tent will be joined by live music.
Tickets will be available online from www.ticketscene.ca for $20 each night or $35 for a weekend pass. Any tickets not sold before Ribfest weekend will be available at the gate for $25 per night.
The Friday entertainment lineup includes Scott Manery and the Barnburners, as well as other local bands, opening for Shania Twin, Donna Huber’s tribute to Shania Twain, and Les Smiths and Fresh Horses, a tribute to Garth Brooks.
“We have a fantastic lineup,” said Jack Struck, co-chairperson of Ribfest.
“If you closed your eyes and listened to the music, you’d think the real people are right there in front of you,” he said about the tribute bands.
Saturday evening’s lineup will be local opening acts, followed by headliner Destroyer Canada, a tribute to Kiss.
Sunday’s Ribfest boasts the Steve D Trio and Robb Sharp and Lit’l Chicago performing in the afternoon.
Struck said the club is excited to return to an in-person event in Centennial Park.
“It’s long overdue,” he said, “and I think the general public is going to be surprised when they see the crowds that are going to come out. It’s going to be unreal.”
The club’s 2020 Ribfest had to be canceled because of the pandemic, but the Kinsmen were able to hold a successful drive-thru event in June 2021 in the parking lot at Lambton College.
The Kinsmen have been hosting Ribfest in Sarnia for more than two decades to raise funds to support community charities and projects.
Typically, the event has attracted about 15,000 or more over several days.
“It doesn’t matter about the weather,” Struck said. “People come out anyway.”
Everyone attending this year’s 23rd Ribfest will be entered in a draw for prizes to be announced on the final day of the event, he said.
“We’ve got a lot of prizes” that have been gathered over the two years since the last local in-person Ribfest was held, Struck said.
He added the “ribbers” attending this year also went together to create a prize that includes a barbecue, sauces and ribs.
“It would be nice to gain enough revenue to be able to look after our people we have donated to for many, many years,” Struck said. “It has been kind of lean for the last couple of years.”
Anyone wishing to get involved in this year’s Ribfest as a sponsor or volunteers is being asked to visit the website sarniakinribfest.com. Carpenter’s Local 1256 is this year’s title sponsor.
The service club has been operating in Sarnia for 90 years and raised more than $1 million in that time for the community.
“We support over 30 charities and initiatives, such as the kids playgrounds, Baxter Park upgrades, the Inn of the Good Shepherd, Salvation Army, Kidney Foundation, Boys Scouts, Air Cadets, Heart and Stroke, Cystic Fibrosis, Cancer Society just to name a few,” Struck said.
The club also raises money to help it organize the city’s Santa Claus and Canada Day parades.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Sarnia Kinsmen Ribfest
WHERE: Centennial Park, 430 Front St. N., Sarnia
WHEN: Friday, June 17, and Saturday, June 18, from 11:30 am to midnight. (Tickets required from 7 pm to midnight). Sunday, June 19, from noon to 7 p.m.
Tickets and weekend passes for Friday and Saturday nights are available via www.ticketscene.ca