Lexington Barbecue Festival

Held each October in Lexington, North Carolina, a city long known as the 'Barbecue Capital of the World', the Lexington Barbecue Festival takes over nine city blocks for a single day dedicated entirely to the region's distinctive pork barbecue tradition. First proposed in 1983 by local newspaper publisher Joe Sink Jr., the inaugural festival was held the following year and quickly grew into one of the most significant food festivals anywhere in the American South.

The festival draws as many as 200,000 visitors, who can sample chopped pork, slaw and fries from up to 20 local restaurants alongside dozens of visiting food vendors, giving them a genuine cross-section of Lexington-style barbecue, distinguished from other North Carolina styles by its use of pork shoulder and a distinctive tomato-based dip. The event has earned recognition well beyond the region, appearing in the book 1000 Places to See in the USA & Canada Before You Die, and U.S. News & World Report once ranked Lexington fourth among America's best barbecue cities.

For barbecue enthusiasts specifically, Lexington's festival offers a genuinely concentrated way to compare a city's entire barbecue scene in a single afternoon — a rare opportunity given how spread out most serious barbecue destinations tend to be.