Lifestyle & Entertainment
9 August, 2026
Brisket, blues and big ambitions
THE recipe sounds almost impossible to resist: slow-cooked barbecue, cold craft beer and live blues music beneath the mountains of Halls Gap on Father’s Day weekend. But for the people behind the inaugural Grampians BBQ Festival, the food is only part of the attraction. Their real ambition is to create the sort of annual tradition that becomes part of the region’s identity – drawing thousands of visitors to Halls Gap during a quieter part of the year, filling accommodation, cafés and attractions, and giving families a reason to return year after year.
Absolute Outdoors managing director Adrian Manikas said the festival began with an idea Flame Brothers Smokehouse owner Damon Henricksen had carried for years.
When Mr Henricksen raised it during a meeting with Mr Manikas, Grampians Events director Kate Kirkpatrick and a Northern Grampians Shire Council representative, the response was immediate.
“He basically said, ‘It would be really great to see this kind of barbecue festival happen’,” Mr Manikas said.
“I looked at him and said, ‘Yes, that’s a great idea. Let’s do it’.
“Then the person from council said, ‘Let me have a look into some funding for you’.
“Then all three of us turned around and looked at Kate and said, ‘You know how to make events happen’.”
The team was assembled almost on the spot.
The festival came together remarkably quickly, with just 86 days between committing to the idea and bringing it to life.
That vision comes to life from September 4 to 6, when the main festival takes over the Halls Gap Recreation Reserve on Saturday and Father’s Day Sunday.
Leading pitmasters, regional producers, live blues music and family entertainment will transform the reserve into a celebration of barbecue culture and western Victorian produce.
For Mr Manikas, barbecue, beer and blues represented a “magical formula” – but the timing was every bit as deliberate as the ingredients.
Father’s Day gave families a natural reason to travel, while its position about two weeks before the school holidays offered an opportunity to bring the tourism season forward and add a major event to an otherwise traditionally quiet weekend.
“The idea is to drive a bit of visitation and bring the start of the season a little bit earlier,” he said.
The festival has been licensed for about 2000 people on each of its two main days, with organisers hopeful Saturday could sell out in its first year.
Mr Manikas is thinking well beyond the festival’s first weekend.
He believes the recreation reserve is capable of hosting an event several times larger and hopes the festival can eventually stand alongside the Grampians Grape Escape as one of Halls Gap’s major annual drawcards.
Rather than competing with the Grampians Grape Escape, he sees the two festivals as complementary bookends to the tourism calendar.
If the Grape Escape celebrates fine wine and gourmet produce in autumn, the BBQ Festival is intended to become Father’s Day’s smoky, blues-filled celebration of barbecue, regional beer and the outdoors.
“The idea isn’t to send Dad off to enjoy barbecue for Father’s Day,” Mr Manikas said.
“It’s to bring the whole tribe.”
Australian barbecue teams will compete for a $10,000 prize pool in the Black Opal Wagyu Pitmaster Challenge, sanctioned by the Australian Barbecue Alliance.
A separate Steak Cookoff Association competition will offer $3000 across double-steak and dessert categories, while live-fire cook Tom Ballinger, of Grampians-based Coal Catering, will lead demonstrations and hands-on sessions.
The music line-up includes Mitch King, Matt Katsis, Mike Elrington and The Mojo Corner, while producers from across the Grampians and western Victoria will pour craft beer, wine and small-batch spirits.
Yet Mr Manikas believes the festival’s greatest success will not necessarily happen inside the event gates.
A self-guided Barbecue Trail will connect visitors with participating businesses across Halls Gap and Pomonal from Friday afternoon through to Sunday morning.
Cafés, restaurants, breweries, retailers, accommodation providers and tourism operators will be encouraged to create their own festival-themed offering, whether it is a special dish, a smoked beer, live music or another experience.
Visitors will be encouraged to explore Halls Gap and Pomonal by following the trail, collecting stamps at participating businesses and earning rewards along the way.
“It’s about actively using the event not just to bring people into town, but to drive them into all the other businesses as well,” Mr Manikas said.
That philosophy has also shaped Absolute Outdoors’ growing involvement in events including Run the Gap and its own adventure film screenings.
He said the objective was not to generate enormous profits, but to create events sustainable enough to return every year while giving people a reason to discover the Grampians.
“The motivation behind these events is to drive visitation,” he said.
“People come and visit this place, connect with it and look at the mountains and go, ‘This is amazing. I’m going to come back another time’.
“That’s when they come back and do their rock-climbing tour, go for a walk on the Grampians Peaks Trail or experience all the other things the region has to offer.”
Ultimately, he wants Halls Gap to build a diverse calendar of events, each appealing to a different audience and each filling another quiet weekend in the tourism calendar.
Together, he believes events such as the Grampians Grape Escape, Run the Gap and the Grampians BBQ Festival can create a steadier flow of visitors throughout the year, supporting accommodation providers, cafés, restaurants, retailers and tourism operators alike.
There will be plenty of brisket on the menu this Father’s Day.
Its true success, however, may not be measured until years from now, when families simply assume Father’s Day means a weekend in Halls Gap.
“We’re hoping it becomes a long-term part of the calendar and a big Father’s Day tradition,” he said.
“It’s always exciting to say you were at the first one.”
Read More: Halls Gap