Our Daily Show! With Cj FT: Glentennial, Smoke-n For the Kids, Fight for Faith, and More!
TROY – The Troy-Edwardsville Shrine Club will host their annual Smoke N for the Kids Barbecue Festival to raise money for Shriners Children’s Hospital.
On Aug. 15 and 16, 2026, community members can come out to Tri-Township Park in Troy for the event. While barbecue masters grill and compete, the public can enjoy food vendors, a bags tournament, live music, a car show and more. All proceeds from the event go toward the Shrine Club’s activities, including their sponsorship of Shriners Children’s Hospital.
“We appreciate all the support we can get,” said Gary, one of the organizers. “We love our community and that’s why we do it.”
The fun starts on Saturday, Aug. 15, with the bags tournament at 1 p.m., featuring a $1,000 prize. The teams will be paired at random.
Kids can enjoy face-painting, a petting zoo and more. Food vendors, including Heaterz Chicken, turkey legs, shaved ice and plenty of others, will be available.
The Troy VFW will operate the beer tent, and Father McGivney Catholic School students will sell soda and water. The evening ends with the Blue Marlin Band taking the stage from 7–10 p.m., with the addition of the Ainad Brass Band for their second set.
On Sunday, Aug. 16, the Rodz n Ribs Car Show kicks off at 9 a.m. Sponsored by the Southern Illinois Street Rod Association, registration costs $20 and the first 150 participants will receive a t-shirt and dash plaque. John, another organizer with the Shrine Club, promises “quite the car show.”
The rest of the day is a blur of vendors, fun and live music. The winners of the barbecue competition will also be announced. Though the public can’t eat the competitors’ food, John and Gary joked they can still enjoy the smell of the cooking meat and get to know the people who are competing.
“The amount of money and time and the effort they’ve spent to get to the point where they’re competing is crazy,” Gary said. “Whenever they’re getting their game on, you just watch them. But there’s plenty of room to walk through the barbecue competition area and check out their grills, smell the smoke that’s rolling out of their grills.”
New this year, the barbecue competition is a doubles tournament. The Master Series Barbecue competition will award a total of $9,400, while the Backyard Barbecue competition offers a smaller prize but a lot of bragging rights.
Last year, the Shrine Club welcomed over 35 teams to compete. They hope to greet just as many for this year’s festival.
The competition and the festivities are a lot of fun, but the goal of the Smoke N for the Kids festival is to support the Shrine Club’s efforts, including their work with kids at the Shriners Children’s Hospital in St. Louis. Gary and John noted that they are still looking for sponsors who will support the event and their nonprofit.
“What we’re looking for is sponsors. We’ve got our sponsor list. We’ve got a lot of the same ones year after year, but we’re also trying to add some,” John said. “We’ve got some bigger sponsors, the stage sponsors and things like that, but we’re looking for sponsors that are willing to spend a couple hundred bucks. There’s advertisement involved. There’s publicity.”
Most importantly, sponsorships help the Shrine Club do more for local kids and families. To learn more about becoming a sponsor, contact John directly at 616-616-8628. For more information about the Smoke N for the Kids Barbecue Festival, including a full itinerary or how to sign up as a barbecue competitor, visit their official website.
