The annual Hog Wild Barbecue Competition won’t have the usual family festival attached to it this year, but visitors can still expect a lot of good smells wafting through downtown Brookhaven today, May 3.

The 14th Hog Wild will feature a competition only, said Mark Porter, who organized the competition and festival for the 13 previous years. Though he’s competing this year with his team, 2nd Hand Smoke, he turned over the reins to Wes Garrett to manage the competition, which is sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society.

Twenty-seven teams will compete in four categories – chicken, pork ribs, pork and beef brisket, hoping to win grand champion status and a chance to compete in the Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational BBQ to be held in Lynchburg, Tenn., in October. Considered the Super Bowl of barbecue competitions, “The Jack” features some of the finest BBQ chefs across the globe.

To qualify for entry into “The Jack,” teams must win a state championship.

That’s why it was important to keep the Hog Wild Barbecue Championship running. It’s one of only two KCBS-sanctioned events in Mississippi. Southhaven’s competition was last weekend. Hog Wild will be the last chance for serious pitmasters to possibly earn an invitation to “The Jack.”

Garrett, pitmaster of Piglitically Incorrect of Brandon, has been to “The Jack” twice before. He’ll be competing today as well, hoping for a return shot to Lynchburg, Tennessee.

“I’m ready to go back,” he said.

But just winning the Hog Wild doesn’t mean an automatic invitation. The winner will get their team’s name on a a bung, which is a piece of wood that goes into the side of oak whiskey bottles. Those coveted bungs from sanctioned events are placed into bags representing each state. Each state’s bag will get a draw.

“Whoever wins this has a coin-flip’s chance to get into ‘The Jack’ so that’s why all these teams are coming,” Garrett said.

Downtown Brookhaven will see massive rigs downtown representing teams from Mississippi but also Kansas, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Tennessee.

In the future, Garrett would like to see the Hog Wild competition resume as a festival as well.

“We used to have vendors, they used to be down the street. I actually would love to see that again. We had concerts and fish fries. That was fun,” he said.

Garrett said KCBS rules don’t allow competitors to sell food, but pitmasters may have food to share after the final turn-in at 1:35 p.m. Most pitmasters enjoy meeting people and will be happy to talk about barbecue, just not when they’re working to get their meats plated, garnished and turned in, he said.

One competitor who would be a good visit for a barbecue enthusiast is Paul Keltner, a pitmaster with Rooters-N-Tooters of Mt. Pleasant, Tenn. Keltner is one of 17 2025 inductees into the Kansas City Barbecue Society’s Hall of Fame.

“For us, we just cook a lot and we cook all over. We enjoy going to new towns and this is our first time here ever,” he said.

Keltner arrived about 3:30 a.m. Friday and headed to Janie’s Pastry when it opened.

“We’ve already been to visit the pastry shop over there and that was amazing. It was an amazing little store,” he said.