A Canadian team cooks bacon and onions during the 2014 I Love BBQ and Music Festival in Lake Placid. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID — I Love BBQ and Music Festival officials are still trying to rebuild their competitive team base for the annual event after the COVID pandemic’s lull, but they keep adding family-friendly activities to draw in more people at the gate.

The festival, which is the biggest annual fundraiser for the Shipman Youth Center in Lake Placid, will be held from Friday, Sept. 1 to Sunday, Sept. 3 at the North Elba Show Grounds. Aside from competitive barbecue cooking, there will be kids’ activities, BMX bike shows, live music, food vendors, professional wrestling, Paul Smith’s College woodsmen’s exhibitions and cornhole with the Lake Placid Cornhole Club.

“Paul Smith’s College is well known for its men’s and women’s woodmen’s competitors, and it seems that everyone has caught on to cornhole,” said Dmitry Feld, event organizer and marketing manager of USA Luge, which executes the festival. “We thought it was natural to bring these two groups to the event this year.”

The general public can try cornhole from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, followed by an exhibition match between club competitors from 4 to 5 p.m.

“Sunday used to be a light day,” Feld said. “So I think by bringing in the woodsmen, it might get people excited to come and see them.”

Andy King of the Bastey Boys Barbecue Brigade mops sauce on his pork ribs during the 2014 I Love BBQ and Music Festival. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

The woodsmen will be featured from 11:40 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. and 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

“The Paul Smith’s College Woodsmen’s Team is a co-ed athletic team that competes in traditional lumberjack disciplines,” said Keith Braun, team coach. “The team of 40 student athletes competes against other collegiate teams across the northeast. Ax throwing, cross-cutting (a two-man saw), log rolling, chainsaw cutting, tree-climbing, and bowsaw (a one-man saw) are a few examples of the competitive events that have grown from old-time logging work.”

During the first year of the pandemic — 2020 — the traditional I Love BBQ and Music Festival was canceled and replaced with a three-day drive-in movie festival at the North Elba Show Grounds on Labor Day weekend, instead of the usual Fourth of July event held annually until 2019 at the Olympic Speedskating Oval. In 2021, the festival returned to the show grounds on Labor Day weekend for good, and this year it continues to grow.

“We learned that people — visitors and locals — want to see more stuff,” Feld said.

The past two years, the festival was the only Kansas City Barbeque Society sanctioned event in New York. This year, the Lake Placid event and the Frog Alley BREW-B-CUE Cookoff in Schenectady are the only KCBS-sanctioned events in the state.

Competitive barbecue teams in Lake Placid have also dwindled because of COVID.

In 2019, there were 43 teams, 15 coming from Canada. In 2021, there were 15 teams, all from the U.S. since the Canadian border was still closed for non-essential travel due to the pandemic. Last year, there were 22 teams, three coming from Canada. As of Monday, Aug. 28, Feld said 18 teams had signed up for this weekend’s event, three coming from Canada.

Barbecue teams from the U.S. and Canada will compete Sunday in the Kansas City Barbeque Society contest, which includes separate prizes for pulled pork, pork ribs, chicken and brisket. There will be two opportunities to try food cooked by the teams: pulled pork on Friday and pork ribs on Saturday.

As a youth center fundraiser, the event, now in its 17th year, will add to the $350,000 that has been raised to date. In addition to the festivities, a limited number of raffle tickets (300) will be sold. Tickets may be purchased online at: https://shipmanyouthcenter.wufoo.com/forms/z1tozjoj1lsuwsy.

The youth center was inspired by Thomas Shipman, a designated Lake Placid youth police officer, who died in 1999 and built the center with community donations of money, materials and labor.

For the last 24 years, the Shipman Youth Center has provided services to over 5,000 children. Programs include homework time and assistance, community services, recreational services, weekly family-style dinners, travel, and guest speakers. The center provides a supervised, safe and exciting environment where local children can grow and develop as individuals.

The I Love BBQ and Music Festival will be held rain or shine. Admission is $6/adult and free for children under 10 years old.

For more information, visit www.ilbbqf.com.

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Friday, Sept. 1

3 p.m. – gates open

3 p.m. – Music by Maribyrd

4 p.m. – Music by Austin and the In-Laws

4:30-6 p.m. – Public BBQ Tasting (pulled pork). Pay $2 for 2 ounces of pull pork prepared by the competition teams.

5 p.m. – Music by Sven Curth

6 p.m. – Freestyle BMX bike performance with the Krusher stunt team

6:20 p.m. – Music by Larry Stone

7:20 p.m. – Music by Carl Rubino

9 p.m. – Doors close

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Saturday, Sept. 2

11:30 a.m. – Gates open

Noon to 4 p.m. – Cornhole for public to play

Noon – Music by Crosswinds Jam Band

1 p.m. – Music by Scott Sileo

1-2:30 p.m. – Public BBQ Tasting (pork ribs). Pay $1 get one rib prepared by the competition teams. Vote for your favorite in the Best Ribs in the East People’s Choice Award contest.

2 p.m. – Freestyle BMX bike performance with the Krusher stunt team

2:20 p.m. – Top chef demonstration with pit master Greg Boggs (Boggs Hog BBQ)

2:20 p.m. – Music by All Without the Bass

3:20 p.m. – Music by Ursa and the Major Key

4 p.m. – Exhibition match between cornhole competitive players

4 p.m. – Top Chef demonstration with pit master Cole Kowalski (Risk it for the Brisket)

4:20 p.m. – Music by Mad Dog Marino

5:20 p.m. – Music by Junior Sixteen

6 p.m. Freestyle BMX bike performance with the Krusher stunt team

6:20 p.m. – Wrestling: Performance Arts Connection presents professional wrestling with stars like Crusher Bigelow (Hardcore Icon), Scrap Iron (The Iron Man of PAC) and others

7:30 p.m. – Award Ceremonies: The Best Ribs in the East, Quinn Family Barbecue & Hot Sauce Competition, Kids in the kitchen, Top Chef

8:30 p.m. – Doors close

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Sunday, Sept. 3

11 a.m. – Gates open

11:40 a.m. – Woodsmen’s team performance

Noon – Music by Pat Duffy

1 p.m. – Freestyle BMX bike performance with the Krusher stunt team

1:20 p.m. Wrestling: Performance Arts Connection presents professional wrestling with stars like Crusher Bigelow (Hardcore Icon), Scrap Iron (The Iron Man of PAC) and others

2:20 p.m. – Music by Last Pages

2:45 p.m. – Woodsmen’s team performance

3:20 p.m. – Music by Adrianna Noone

4:15 p.m. – Award ceremonies and raffle drawing: first place, $1,500; second place, $1,000; third place, $1,000. Each category $1,000. Total cash prizes are $8,500. To purchase raffle tickets $100 each (only 300 tickets sold), visit www.shipmanyouthcenter.org, press donate, purchase ticket and we will send your ticket number.

5 p.m. – Event is over but gates remain open for food sales until vendors close