For Pleasantville residents, this weekend’s annual Pleasantville Pig Out will be two days of fun and good food; but for a few of the state’s elite barbecuers, it will be serious business.

This year’s annual barbecue contest will take place on Saturday in the town square; this year’s contest has a trip to the Iowa State Fair on the line, and Chris Harvey from the Pleasantville Betterment Organization tells KNIA/KRLS News the competitors come in early, and come to win.

“They do; they come in at midnight, they start out, they’ll be there throughout the hours cooking, getting ready…this is our first year of being a site where you can qualify for the Farm Bureau State Fair barbecue contest. We have eight to nine barbecuers planning to join us,” Harvey says.

Everything starts this evening at the Pleasantville ballfields; there will be a bags tournament, inflatables for kids, a free meal and live music.

The action starts early on Saturday morning; not only will the barbecue contestants be getting ready, but the car show participants will be setting up starting at 6:30 a.m.

There will be more activities downtown, ranging from live music to exercise demonstrations to a vendor fair. Judging and sampling of the barbecue contest entries begins at noon; the awards will be presented at 3:00 p.m.