29th Annual Amarillo Chamber BBQ Cook-Off Kicks Off Tonight

Amarillo is full of some pretty great events that happen throughout the year, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING, will pull in more people than something that involves food. We've seen different food trucks happen where hundreds of people gather.

See, Amarillo LOVES food. The number of restaurants we have in the city is staggering, and the majority of them survive even in the toughest of times. It's why any kind of food event works, but there's always one that will draw the biggest crowd.

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A Cook-Off Is Always A Winner

We see several of these pop up throughout the year in the Texas Panhandle. Chili cook-offs are always a big draw, but there is one that always stands above the rest of them. That would be a BBQ cook-off.

Tonight, a big one is about to happen, and you aren't going to want to miss it.

The Amarillo Chamber BBQ Cook-off Happens Tonight

Tonight, October 2, 2025, the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce holds its 29th Annual Good Times Celebration Barbecue Cook-Off in the parking lot of the Tri-State Fairgrounds. Sounds like a big place to hold a cook-off, right?

That's because there are nearly 100 teams that are vying for the title of best of the best. There are several different levels competing, with professional, amateur, and corporate divisions smoking all sorts of different types of meat.

How Can I Get In The Door

For $45 at the door, you'll get to go inside the parking lot and get your clothes smelling like smoke for the next six months. You'll also get to enjoy an all-you-can-eat event where you can stuff your belly full of some incredible smoked meats. You can also purchase tickets at the Tri-State Fair site.

The event kicks off at 5 pm, so don't be late...and bring an empty stomach.

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Gallery Credit: Angela Underwood