As Hamlet would say, "Ah, there's the rub"

Kevin Williams, grillmaster for Johnson Hickory Smoked Barbecue of Norfolk, Va., prepares ribs on Saturday at the Phantom Gourmet BBQ and Country Music Festival at the Rochester Fairgrounds. (Lebanon Voice/Harrison Thorp photos)

ROCHESTER - Blake, who was working the Chicago BBQ pit, and lives in the southwest suburbs of the Windy City, says it's all about the rub, the bubbles and the sauce.

"We use a really good rib rub and let it soak 24 hours, then finish it on the grill. After a few minutes we flip it and when it bubbles we put the sauce on it. That's the key. You put the sauce on when it's bubbling, and that draws the sauce down into the rib and locks in the flavor."

Whatever Blake and all the other grill-masters were doing, the folks at the Rochester Fairgrounds - rebranded as the Tri-City Arena for this event - were eating it up at The Phantom Gourmet BBQ & Country Music Festival.

After a slow start on Friday, the fairgrounds were mobbed on Saturday with the smell of hickory and brown sugar wafting lazily under a hazy sun.

Debra Vitigliano of Rochester doles out barbecue for her family, including from left, James Vitagliano Jr., Mathias, 3, and Logan, 7 at Saturday's Phantom Gourmet BBQ & Country Music Festival held at the fairgrounds in Rochester. The fun, food and music continue today from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Lines stretched out 30 and 40 people deep at the four major barbecue pits, and picnic tables set up across the barbecue alley were filled with area barbecue aficionados from all over New England enjoying some of the best barbecue the world has to offer.

Saturday's crowd was estimated in the thousands. It was clear northern Seacoast residents had marked this on their calendars and we're eating it up.

"We've been waiting for this for months," said Debra Vitigliano of Rochester, who sat with her family enjoying some of the mouth-watering, lip-smacking, fall-of-the-bone offerings. "It is absolutely delicious."

They'd gotten their lunch from Firefly, a barbecue restaurant in Marlborough, Mass., home of the "best barbecue in the world," according to their grillmaster, Anderson Abraham.

Next door at Johnson Hickory Smoked Barbecue, which has won numerous awards, Kevin Williams had his hands full with an enormous amount of meat piled at his station.

"We smoke our ribs Virginia style," he said when asked to describe the flavor.

Where you have ribs you will also have beer, and beer lovers were not disappointed. An enormous beer tent was set up where not only could you quench your thirst, you could get out of an unexpectedly hot sun.

Barbecue Row was smokin' hot on Saturday on the second day of a three-day barbecue and country music festival at Rochester Fairgrounds.

Opposite the major barbecue pits on the other side of the festival grounds, Rochester restaurants like the Cast and Grind and Revolution also had booths offering some of their eatery's favorites.

One of the highlights of the day was a 10-minute Nathan's Hot Dog eating competition, which qualified two for next week's national event at Coney Island, N.Y.

Qualifying for the event were Geoffrey Esper of Oxford, Mass., who ate 31 hot dogs and Mia Davekos of Danvers, Mass., who punched her ticket as female qualifier with eight.

It was clear this event was extremely well-planned and top drawer, right down to the bathroom facilities (a stone's throw from the beer tent), which boasted free-standing sinks with water, soap and paper towels near some 20 port-a-potties.

You might say it was a great event, coming ... and going.