Salad Dodgers: BBQ battalion back for Big Chill in 2024

Beefy Brothers, Jack's Creek, Primal Iron just to name a few, will be competing for $15,000 worth of cash and prizes.

This year, the barbecue competition will be held over the two days of the Big Chill festival and will include a format never seen in Australia.

BBQ Battalion treasurer Brad Sauer, said this year's event is shaping up to be the biggest and best in its four-year history and 2024 will hold more of an emphasis on being interactive and collaborative.

"The format across the two days is mostly keeping to how things have been over the past few years, particularly with the different rule sets but there are a few major surprises this year," he said.

"On Saturday we run the rule set from the Steak Cook off Association (SCA) based in the US and then on the Sunday we use the rule set from the Australian BBQ Alliance (ABA).

"Some of our competitors compete across the two days in both rule sets, where as some are wholly and solely SCA or ABA cooks.

"We have an incredible amount of interest in terms of registrations, we are up to 32 for the Saturday which again, is more focused on the individual where as Sunday is more of a team sport and we are up to 22 registered entrants."

Registered cooks and teams are travelling from North Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and even New Zealand.

Something that's unique for this year, occurring on the Saturday, for the first time in Australia is a single day quad steak cook.

"We've had an overwhelming response to the quad steak competition we are running on the Saturday," Mr Sauer said.

"If you place well in that you will have the opportunity to win a golden ticket to compete at the world steak cook off association in Fort Worth, Texas, which is the largest steak cook off in the world."

There will be at least $15,000 on offer in terms of prizes across the two days. Sunday ABA competitors will also receive competition points that can go towards being potentially crowed grand champion for the Australian Barbecue Alliance.

BBQ Battalion is bringing a fresh new experience to the Big Chill in 2024 due to popular feedback from punters.

"We are bringing together some great minds in butchery, industry experts and competition pit masters to be able to deliver some live demonstrations, which is pretty exciting.

"On Saturday morning we have BBQ Battalions in-house butcher Darrell and Dr Peter McGilchrist from UNE meat Science. Pit-masters will give prep and cooking demonstrations.

"A lamb carcass will get broken down into the individual cuts, there will be a spit roasting prepared over charcoal and we have Mr McGilchrist talking about meat quality and cooking methods," he said.

"Some of the feedback we have had from previous years is to make the event more interactive with crowds.

"We want to build and grow a bit more of the general punter kind of experience this year and going forward also."