Walking tacos, jerk chicken egg rolls, and Angus beef hot dogs are heading back to the Fort Ben Cultural Campus as the City of Lawrence gears up for its annual BBQ & Blues Festival on Saturday, September 12, running from 4 to 8 p.m. The free, rain-or-shine event is shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest vendor showcases in the neighborhood, with roughly a dozen food businesses confirmed so far.
According to the City of Lawrence, Indiana – Government, this year’s food lineup includes Tychinn Catering, Chef Manda’s Bakery, Hoosier Philly Ice, It’s Those Egg Rolls, R&R Extreme Wings, Foster’s Café & Catering, Colonel Mustard Catering Inc., TwistedDaqs, RMY’s Soul/Comfort Food Mobile Kitchen and Catering, MJ’s Backyard BBQ and Catering, Sweets by Charlotte, Heavenly BBQ, and Terri’s Tastee Treats. The city says it plans to announce additional vendors and the performance lineup as the date approaches. Attendees are welcome to bring lawn chairs, but organizers have asked that pets stay home given the crowds expected, per Visit Lawrence.
What’s Cooking This Year
It’s Those Egg Rolls is bringing its Soul Train Egg Rolls, stuffed with jerk chicken, Caribbean-spiced cabbage, seasoned rice, and cheese, a menu item the vendor bills as bold flavor with big vibes. Colonel Mustard Catering’s booth will offer a full hot dog and sausage menu: a Corporal Angus beef hot dog for $5, a Sarge version for $7, and Wisconsin sausages including the Pulaski Polish sausage and the Schwarzkopf brat, both priced at $7. Walking tacos come in small ($6) and large ($10) sizes loaded with beef, chili, nacho cheese, onions, tomatoes, and sour cream, with chili and cheese available as a $1 add-on.
Sides at the Colonel Mustard stand include chips, soda, and water, each priced at $2. The vendor also lists an unusually wide range of accepted payment methods, including cash, credit, Cash App, Apple Pay, Bitcoin, rare coins, and precious metals. On the sweeter end, Sweetly Charlotte will serve chewy sugar cookies made with all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, salted butter, eggs, corn syrup, and baking soda, with the vendor noting the cookies contain milk and egg allergens.
A Venue Built From a Decommissioned Army Post
The festival takes place at the Fort Ben Cultural Campus, a venue built on the grounds of the former Fort Benjamin Harrison, which operated as an active U.S. Army post from 1903 until it was decommissioned in 1995. Its 2,500 acres were subsequently redeveloped into civic, residential, and commercial districts under the Fort Harrison Reuse Authority, a transformation widely cited as a national model for military base adaptive reuse…