Ribfest 2011 By The Numbers

With the Naperville Exchange Club's Ribfest 2011 in the rearview mirror, we thought it would be fun to take a look at Ribfest 2011 by the numbers. While the official results of Ribfest have yet to be released, below are a few off-the-beaten-path statistics that may be of interest.

• Naperville’s Ribfest has been voted Best Fest in the Midwest by top rib venues and national publications for the past 15 years in a row.
• As expected, ribs were the main attraction at the Fest with 14 different vendors preparing their special recipes. Although it may not be possible to say exactly how many ribs were enjoyed during the Fest, after speaking to the vendors, a conservative estimate of 125 tons of ribs would not be out of line.
• In addition to the ribs, fest-goers also gobbled up nearly 35,000 ears of corn, more than 2,000 pounds of kettle corn and slightly more than 8,000 corn dogs, 1,500 of which were hand-dipped.
• To wash down all those tasty treats, fest-goers consumed approximately 1,200 barrels of beer along with nearly 35,000 smoothies and roughly 4,000 gallons of lemonade.
• Five minutes after opening, the lines at several of the rib vendors were already 10 people deep.
• Knoch Park, the site of Ribfest 2011, is 20 acres in size.
• Thirty-nine bands performed on two stages during the four-day fest.
• Approximately 40 employees of D & J Entertainment manned the carnival that featured rides, games and other amusements to fill in any downtime not spent eating.
• The best view of the Fest was atop the 90-foot tall Ferris wheel.
• If you’re looking for a little breeze in your hair, get a ticket for a ride down the 110-foot long fun slide.
• If you have ever wondered how accurate the “Fool the Guesser” man is, guess no more. “Tim the Guesser” said he is accurate 65 percent of the time.
• Miller’s Petting Zoo featured more than 75 animals including goats, alpacas, calves, ducks, geese, pot-bellied pigs and even two 25-pound rabbits.
• And finally, approximately 200 porta-potties were available for fest-goers when nature called.

The above numbers are not official results of Ribfest 2011. They were compiled through speaking to vendors and others and spending several hours at Ribfest. Two statistics that were inadvertently left out of the above listings are that fun was had by one and all and only 358 more days until Ribfest 2012.