2026 BIG SMOKE IN LITTLE KALAMA
IN KALAMA, WA
JUNE 26 – 28, 2026
Registration Deadline: June 22, 2026
$15,000 Prize Pool!
Team Limit - 45 Teams. A waitlist will be available.
Team Limit - 45 Teams. A waitlist will be available.
This is a fully sanctioned traditional 4 meat PNWBA event and the Fifth Annual Big Smoke in Little Kalama Barbecue Competition in Kalama, Washington with turn-in on Sunday. There is a total prize purse of $15,000 plus $250 for People's Choice (Saturday/Sunday combined).
Additionally, there will be a Rib Cookoff of America (RCOA) competition on Saturday with a total prize purse of $3,450. ($1725 for Ribs and $1725 for Wings) The link to register for that event is https://www.ribcookoffassociation.com/events-calendar/2026-big-smoke-in-little-kalama.
Finally, there will be a Kid’s Chopped Challenge (age 8-15) on Saturday, where up to 10 volunteer Pitmasters will mentor the Teams in a format where they are provided all the ingredients to produce a dish for judging.
Open to the public for the Best in BBQ sampling (People’s Choice), the event also includes Beer, Whiskey, and Wine available throughout the Haydu Park venue and NOT contained in a beer garden. If you see underage drinking please report to a volunteer. Live music Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Craft Market, Kids Activities and other Vendors. You will receive a special lanyard in your SWAG bag that gets you into the concert for free. Music is from 7:00 - 10:00pm.
Event Management:
· Organizer: Rose Scattergood
· PNWBA Contest Rep: Dale Groetsema
· PNWBA Head Judges: Steve Rubin and Jane Biehl
· RCOA Event Rep: Alta Hertz
Event Contacts:
· Rose Scattergood, 360-562-6664, rosescattergood@gmail.com
· Dale Groetsema, 360-984-7571, dale@pnwba.com
· Steve Rubin - 206-412-0877 steve@pnwba.com
· Jane Biehl - jbiehl@pnwba.com
· Alta Hertz, 360-600-5727, Alta.hertz@gmail.com
PNWBA Categories:
· Chicken
· Ribs
· Pork
· Brisket
PNWBA Total Prize Purse:
$15,000
Prize Pool Distribution:
To be announced prior to the event
Load In:
Thursday, June 25th: Anytime after 3pm. (with prior arrangement with Contest Rep)
Friday, June 26th: 12pm to 8pm (earlier or later arrivals with prior arrangement with Contest Rep. Use caution when driving between 6pm and 10pm as there will be a live concert on the lawn)
Saturday, June 27th: 6:00 am - 9:00 am (with prior arrangement with Contest Rep)
All vehicles must be out of the arena by 9:30am Saturday morning.
All teams on the lawn must be set up by 5pm on Friday. Vehicles gone by 5:30pm. Up to 9 teams.
Site Inspections:
Friday evening at 5pm there will be a 20 minute team/group meeting in the building, with Cowlitz County Health Dept. to brief you on a quick and successful inspection Saturday morning.
Saturday, June 27th, 9am to 1pm (Health Department)
Saturday, June 27th, 11am to 5pm (PNWBA)
PNWBA Cooks Meeting (Required):
Saturday, June 27th, 6pm At least one member of your team is required to attend the cooks meeting.
Quiet Hours:
10:00pm to 6:00am
Jack Shot:
Sunday June 28th at 9:11am Small Axe Cooksite
Turn-In Schedule:
Sunday, June 28th
· Chicken - 10:55:00 am to 11:04:59 am
· Ribs – 11:55:00 am to 12:04:59 pm
· Pork - 12:55:00 pm to 1:04:59 pm
· Brisket - 1:55:00 pm to 2:04:59 pm
The turn-in window is 10-minutes. Turn in is at the man door on the south side of the expo building this year, not the garage door on the north side.
Awards:
5:00 pm (or earlier when possible)
Subject to change depending on event processing.
Load Out:
After the Awards conclude on Sunday, June 28th
Sampling:
Sampling is optional but strongly encouraged for all teams.
Vending vs Sampling. Vendingis selling "servings" of an item, such as a Pulled Pork Sandwich or a bowl of chili. Samplingis a 2–4-ounce portion of pulled pork, with a little sauce, or a similar sized portion of chili. Based on local Health Department regulations, we willonlybe sampling at this event and absolutely limited to 2 ounce or 4 ounce portions or a single piece of chicken or rib. No full meal or platters of food can be sold at this event. We appreciate your cooperation in providing standard-sized samples.
Sampling on Saturday will be cooks choosing what they are offering to the public. Suggested items to sample include up to a 2- or 4-ounce portion of sausage, Mac-n-Cheese, Bread Pudding, Brisket Street Tacos, Bacon Wrapped Anything, Jambalaya, BBQ Ramen, Brisket Chili, and Sliders. Think about Tapas and appetizers for inspiration. Of course, competition meats are always welcome, too.
On Saturday, sampling within the fenced arena is encouraged from 11:00 am - 4:00 pm. Teams placed on the lawn are encouraged to sample from 11:00 am - 8:00 pm.
Sampling on Sunday will be competition meat (anything else will be optional). On Sunday, sampling is encouraged from 11:00 am - 4:00 pm. You choose the times and duration of sampling that works best for you.
We will also have additional vendors offering sweets and non-alcoholic beverages.
All sales will be paid for with Big Smoke in Little Kalama Orange Dice. They will be recorded and collected throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday. They sell for $3 per Dice.Teams keep 75% of the sampling Dice value. The event will keep 25% of sales proceeds.
For up to 2-ounce portions, charge one Orange Dice. For up to 4-ounce portions (or 1 chicken thigh or 1 rib), charge two Orange Dice. Except with prior approval, you should not be selling samples for three or more Orange Dice.
One team member must have a current Washington Food Handler Card. Link to online resources to acquire your Food Handler card: https://www.foodworkercard.wa.gov/
Teams shall adhere to all Health Department requirements. The Health Department will be inspecting us on Saturday. After you register for this event, we will send you a Health Department Application (very simple document this year) which you need to fill out and return as quickly as possible.
Checks for sampling will be written directly by the Big Smoke in Little Kalama and mailed to you no later than Tuesday, June 30th. You will be required to complete a separate W-9 between the team and the Big Smoke in Little Kalama committee. You can download or print a W-9 here. Fill it out and email to rosescattergood@gmail.com
BBQ Bingo
Returning again this year, and to encourage the public to spread their purchases across as many teams as possible, each person purchasing tokens will be given a BBQ Bingo card that will list each team that we know is sampling. As they make their purchase, the teams will stamp the box for their team. No purchase necessary to get a stamp. You can leave the stamp out for the public to ‘self-stamp’ if you don’t have time to deal with it. Bingo cards are turned in to be redeemed for a raffle ticket and used to make their People’s Choice.
People's Choice:
There will be a People's Choice Competition amongst all those selling samples on Saturday and Sunday. Each event attendee will use their BBQ Bingo card to indicate their favorite BBQ team. Be sure to remind your customers how that works when they present their Bingo Card to be stamped. The First Place winner will be announced and the cash prize ($250) and trophy awarded at the Awards Ceremony on Sunday.
Kid’s Chopped Challenge
Held on Saturday, where up to 10 volunteer Pitmasters will mentor the Teams in a format where they are provided all the ingredients to produce a dish for judging.This would start at 10:00 am with awards by 12:30 pm. So mentors would meet their ‘kid’ at 9:30 am. Rules explained at 9:45 am. Time starts at 10:00 am. Turn in is at 12:00 pm. Tasting/Judging/Awards immediately following.
Each kid takes home their grill that is made by Smokin’ Iron Fab. There will also be some swag for the teams and cash for 1st through 3rd place.
Please do not volunteer for this if it prevents your team from sampling Saturday morning.
Team Swag
Each team will be given 2 Big Smoke in Little Kalama T-shirts. Specify the size of the two free shirts that you want when you register. You can pre-order additional T-shirts and sweatshirts to ensure availability at the event. Indicate the Style #, size and quantity you want. Sizes are Sm, Med, Large, X-Large, 2XL, 3XL and 4XL.The short sleeve shirt and the full-zip sweatshirt are available up to 6XL.
If you prefer your shirt/sweatshirt in the Tall size, please contact Rose Scattergood but no guarantees as those tall sizes are universally scarce right now.
Team Requirements:
Please review the Team Rules Page, even if you are an experienced team. Each site will be inspected to meet these requirements listed in the team rules. If you are a new to competition BBQ team or new to PNWBA competitions, we recommend visiting our New Team Info page.
Inspection Reminder: Please be sure to verify the inspection requirements in the competition instructions for cooks. The head judge team will be reviewing the following items during inspection. Should the following not pass inspection, you will not be able to prepare your meats or receive a turn-in box until inspection has passed.
1. Competition meats - Meats must be held under 40 degrees and may be pre-trimmed, but may not be brined, injected or seasoned prior to inspection.
2. Coolers - Coolers must contain enough ice to maintain meats and perishable items at food-safe temperatures. - Foster Farms ice truck will be available again this year.
3. Fire Extinguisher - 2A40BC or 3A40BC (or larger) required at each cooksite. The needle must be in the green zone. The extinguisher must either be tagged with a date that is 1 year or less from the competition or must have a receipt attached with the date showing within 1 year.
4. Basins - 3 basins for dish wash station.
5. Dish soap for dish wash station
6. Bottle of bleach for dish wash station
7. Hand wash station that has a 5 gallon minimum insulated container with a free flowing spigot. Example- A 5 Gallon insulated Cambro (the larger) or insulated 5 gallon cooler modified with a free flowing spigot.
8. Catch bucket for hand wash station water
9. Bleach bucket with sanitizing solution with a cloth cleaning rag for bleach bucket
10. Digital Thermometer
11. IRS W-9 Form completed online during the 2025 season prior to inspection.
Registration Fee:
Team entry fee is $295.00 USD with $100 going to the event and is non-refundable. In the event of a cancellation by the event coordinator, $274.00 will be refunded from the payment made. Regardless of the situation, a designated amount of $21.00 from the entry fee is non-refundable to cover payment and event processing expenses. You may also choose to apply the entire registration fee as a credit towards a future registration. No refunds, or credits are available after June 22nd, 2026.
Registration Payment Due:
Team entry fees must be paid at the time of registration.
Site Utilities:
· Power - provided by the venue, but if you are dependent on power it is recommended to bring a backup source.
· Potable Water - provided by venue
· Trash disposal – provided by venue
· Ash disposal – provided by venue
· Grease disposal – provided by venue
· Grey water disposal – provided by venue
· Ice - will be provided by the venue. Also, nearby retail outlets have ice.
·
Team Site Size:
20 wide by 20 deep – Indicate during registration the exact size you need, especially if you require a larger footprint or can fit in a smaller footprint. We really need to keep it to 20 x 20 so we can fit all the teams. Please measure your trailers and other equipment, including the hitch portion as part of your footprint. All vehicles that do not fit entirely within your team space must be removed by 9:30am on Saturday to a rock/gravel area that borders the east side of the park. Vehicles cannot re-enter the arena or the lawn after 9:30 am on Saturday. Also teams cannot park at Haydu Park. There is parking across the street and at the adjacent gravel lot.
Location:
Haydu Park
253 Kalama River Road
Kalama, WA
Accommodations:
Lodging – There are hotels and campgrounds nearby if you need an overnight stay. Groceries and other retail are right in town.
Discounted hotel at:
https://www.choicehotels.com/reservations/groups/NK69E8
