Arenzville’s cup — or bowl, depending on one’s appetite — will overflow this weekend with the return of a 176-year tradition and many people who call the small town home despite no longer living there.
“It’s kind of like a reunion,” Gerry Beard said of the annual Arenzville Burgoo, for which he handles entertainment and publicity. A lot of people come back.”
The event gets its unofficial start today, when crews prep vegetables and other ingredients ahead of a full night of stirring the massive kettles of burgoo for which the event is named. Kettle service — when the cooked stew is dished up and sold to eager crowds — begins at 7 a.m. Friday and Saturday, Beard said.
Burgoo, which is cooked in 18 40-gallon kettles, is cooked both Thursday night and Friday night, so there will be enough to sell both days, Beard said. The stew is sold for $22 a gallon and, during lunch and dinner, by the bowl.
While Beard and Lorratta Myers, who is in charge of the event’s pageants and talent show, describe the town’s burgoo as the best and consider it a top draw of the weekend, it’s just as much about family, and Beard doesn’t see a day when the Arenzville Burgoo doesn’t exist.
“I don’t think it’ll ever happen,” he said. “There are enough generations and enough passion. We always have the Beard (family) reunion the day after the Burgoo, because a lot of people come back home. They may come once a year or once every two or three years, but they come back home.”
Beard acknowledges that they’ve conceded a bit of tradition to technology, trading the tradition of people staying up all night to take turns stirring the burgoo kettles for the ease of automated stirring devices. While he said it does help cut down on the number of people who have to stay up all night, it’s not for lack of willing volunteers.
There still are volunteers who spend the night “stoking fires, putting ingredients in (the kettles) at certain hours of the night,” he said. “There are still people who do that.”
“It’s definitely a small-town family,” Myers said. “The whole town comes together.”
Myers also credits some of the event’s success to organizers’ desire to keep the event growing.
For example, while the Burgoo has been around for ages, the pageants and talent show were just added three years ago, she said.
And their success last year in splurging on hiring John Michael Montgomery as their headline entertainment meant they were able to hire another top-end act this year in Little Texas, Beard said.
“To see a town of 400 and there are that many people or more working” makes Beard believe the event can continue indefinitely, that there’s interest “enough to last a lifetime, my kids and grandkids’ lifetimes, hopefully.”
The Arenzville Burgoo begins with kettle service at 7 a.m. Friday.
Pageants begin at 5:30 p.m. Friday with the Little Miss and Mr. Burgoo contests. The Junior Miss pageant begins at 6 p.m. with the Miss Arenzville pageant at 7 p.m.
Rusty Barr and the Gold Ol Boys will be in concert at 8 p.m.
On Saturday, a 5K run/walk starts at 8 a.m. with kids’ contests starting at 10 a.m. A tractor pull will follow at 11 a.m. with a talent contest at 1 p.m. and other activities continuing throughout the day.
Madd Hoss Jackson will be in concert 6:30 p.m. Saturday with headline entertainment Little Texas taking the stage at 8 p.m.
Admission to the concert and events is free.