Date-Clash Checker
Teams can only be in one place on a Saturday. Pick the weekend you are thinking about and where you are, and this shows every sanctioned contest within range that would be competing for the same field — how hard each one pulls, and which weekends either side are quieter.
Type a contest town, a state, or a ZIP — or leave it empty to see the whole country. 600 contest towns autocomplete in the box.
About average for this stretch Saturday, October 10, 2026 · within 300 miles of Missouri (the middle of the 650 contests on record there)
That weekend
Competing pull
In the window
The weekends around yours
The number is how many contests are within range of that Saturday; the bar is their competing pull, so three contests a long drive away can stand shorter than one next door — click a weekend to check it instead.
- 3 Aug 29
- 2 Sep 5
- 3 Sep 12
- 6 Sep 19
- 2 Sep 26
- 7 Oct 3
- 3 Oct 10
- 1 Oct 17
- 1 Oct 24
- 2 Oct 31
- 0 Nov 7
- 1 Nov 14
- 0 Nov 21
The weekend of Nov 7 is the quietest in range: 0 contests, pull 0 against your 28.
Contests within ±2 weeks
| Date | Contest | Where | Distance | vs. your date | Field | Pull |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 10, 2026 Your weekend |
Stover Rock Island Festival (BACKYARD ONLY) | Stover, MO | 38 mi | Same day | 13 | 10 |
| Oct 9, 2026 Your weekend |
Smoke on the Water State championship | Topeka, KS | 113 mi | 1 day before | 31 | 18 |
| Oct 9, 2026 Your weekend |
The United Rentals Big Blue BBQ at Union Station State championship | Kansas City, MO | 60 mi | 1 day before | — | — |
| Oct 9, 2026 | Flavor & BBQ Festival Cancelled State championship | Park City, KS | 214 mi | 1 day before | — | — |
| Oct 16, 2026 | King of the Corn State championship | Ottumwa, IA | 170 mi | 6 days after | 33 | 15 |
| Oct 16, 2026 | Happy Basset 6th Annual BBQ Contest Cancelled State championship | Topeka, KS | 116 mi | 6 days after | — | — |
| Oct 2, 2026 | La Belle MO Show Me BBQ Showdown State championship | La Belle, MO | 128 mi | 8 days before | 39 | 21 |
| Oct 2, 2026 | Big Creek BBQ Bash (BACKYARD ONLY) | Pleasant Hill, MO | 39 mi | 8 days before | 21 | 17 |
| Oct 2, 2026 | Gladfest Smokefest (ONE MEAT RIBS) | Gladstone, MO | 63 mi | 8 days before | — | — |
| Sep 30, 2026 | American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Open Contest | Kansas City, KS | 74 mi | 10 days before | 486 | 326 |
| Sep 30, 2026 | American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Invitational Contest | Kansas City, KS | 74 mi | 10 days before | 215 | 144 |
| Sep 30, 2026 | American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Kids Que | Kansas City, KS | 74 mi | 10 days before | — | — |
| Sep 30, 2026 | American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Sides | Kansas City, KS | 74 mi | 10 days before | — | — |
| Oct 23, 2026 | Rock Lane Presents Grills Gone Wild State championship | Branson, MO | 147 mi | 13 days after | 11 | 6 |
| Sep 26, 2026 | Carnivore Carnival Cancelled State championship | Kansas City, MO | 58 mi | 14 days before | — | — |
| Sep 25, 2026 | Shawnee Great Grillers State championship | Shawnee, KS | 65 mi | 15 days before | 65 | 45 |
| Sep 25, 2026 | Murphysboro BBQ Cook-off/Praise the Lard State championship | Murphysboro, IL | 239 mi | 15 days before | 71 | 27 |
| Sep 25, 2026 | Downtown Jonesboro BBQ Festival Cancelled State championship | Jonesboro, AR | 256 mi | 15 days before | 30 | 11 |
Pull is a rough estimate of how much of your potential field a contest takes: its field size, halved for roughly every 150 miles a team would have to drive past your gate to get there. It is a comparison aid, not a forecast. Field is the published team count where there is one, and otherwise the average of that contest’s own past editions.
Distances are straight-line from Missouri, which is the middle of the 650 contests on record there rather than an address — name your town in the Near box for a tighter answer.
Only contests already sanctioned and listed at kcbs.us can show up here, so a quiet weekend on this page is not a guarantee — the next organiser to sanction one might be looking at the same square on the calendar. Nothing you type into this page is stored or sent anywhere: towns and ZIPs are matched against the contest listings themselves.