The fifth annual Sturgis BBQ Fest is slated for Saturday, September 30 in downtown Sturgis with 10 grill/pit masters scheduled to compete.

Festivities will take place from noon to 7 p.m. along North and John Streets, and will include live music, several food vendors, kids activities, a beard contest, a corn hole tournament, and of course, live college football on the big screen.

Many of the 10 or so BBQ competitors will be selling their food along with a few other non-BBQ food truck vendors, and a beer tent. Live music will start at 4 p.m. and end around 7 with the band Country Current occupying the stage, and a DJ providing music before the band’s set, starting at noon.

Kids activities will be available from 12-5 p.m. including wagon hay rides, pumpkin painting, face painting, and make and take.

The cornhole tournament costs $10 per person to register, which opens at 1 p.m. with the tournament and the beer tent opening at 2 p.m. Registration for the beard contest starts at 2:45 p.m. with the contest beginning at 3 on the Sturgis BBQ Fest main stage.

The Michigan-Nebraska game will be featured on a big screen movie truck starting at 3:30 p.m., while much of the first half of the Central-Eastern Michigan game (1:30 p.m. kickoff) will be featured from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Alek Haak-Frost is executive editor and publisher of Watershed Voice.