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The streets of downtown Brighton were filled with the smell of barbecue cooking and the sounds of blues and jazz. 

Brighton’s annual Smokin’ Jazz & Barbecue Blues Festival kicked off its 14th year Friday and continues Saturday. 

“Smokin’ Jazz has been a favorite event for so many,” said festival organizer Jen Ling, the new director of events for the Greater Brighton Area Chamber of Commerce. “With such a great mix of barbecue and non-barbecue foods, amazing music, drinks, dancing and fun things to do, and in a such a warm and welcoming community, this event is a fantastic kickoff to fall.”

Some of the barbecue vendors brought large meat smokers, and non-barbecue food vendors served up eats such as tacos and paella. 

Eight jazz and blues bands were booked to perform evening shows. 

Ling estimated more than 50,000 people would attend the event.

Whitney Davis recently moved back to Brighton, her home town, with her significant other Matthew Brown. 

Davis, 23, said she couldn’t wait to take Brown, 24, to the festival for his first time. 

“I wanted to show him something I grew up doing,” Davis said. “It’s trickier to choose what to eat now. It was just barbecue. Now, it’s, do you want tacos, barbecue or something else?”

They ended up grabbing some tacos from Brighton food truck Peace, Love & Tacos.

“It’s just gotten bigger and bigger,” Davis said. “It gets packed.”

Cedric Shields, who owns Tender Bonez BBQ food truck and catering cooked up ribs and other barbecue in his large, traveling smoker at Brighton’s festival. 

“There is no recipe other than love. If you love it, that’s it,” Shields, of Flint, said when asked to reveal his secret to cooking good barbecue. 

He said he likes that the festival is a competition for barbecue cooks. He said he won a people’s choice award trophy at the Michigan Chicken Wing Festival in Lansing in 2018. He displays the trophy in his food truck. 

“When you do what you love, it means something to you,” he said.

The festival features more than food and music.

Competitive cornhole players and those who enjoy it just for fun competed in two tournaments. The tournaments raised funds for Men 4 A Cause, a charitable arm of the Greater Brighton Area Chamber of Commerce, to prove immediate assistance to people or groups in need.

SELCRA (South Eastern Livingston County Recreation Authority) hosted activities for kids, including a climbing wall and bounce houses. Brighton escape room company Puzzled Escape hosted a scavenger hunt. The festival also featured pie eating contests hosted by Grand Traverse Pie Company. 

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Contact Livingston Daily reporter Jennifer Timar at 517-548-7148 or at jtimar@livingstondaily.com. Follow her on Facebook @Jennifer.Timar99 and Twitter @JenTimar99.

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