Despite shortage of food, Columbia residents stand strong at festival
It was a cornbread festival, without the cornbread.
A line stretched out from Cornbread Alley — past food trucks popping fresh kettle corn and deep-frying Oreos, funnel cakes and sweet potato ribbon fries — as a steady stream of bubbles, from automatic bubbles wands, wove through the hungry mass.
The cast-iron smoker kept burning with seasoned and slightly charred racks of ribs and chicken quarters, each piece waiting for its specialty corn muffin side.
The line kept growing, and growing, and even after 30 minutes of waiting, people stood strong. The corn muffins — infused with pulled pork, bacon, cheddar or sour cream — were being driven over as they were baked at the Bi-Lo on North Main Street.
A car pulled up behind the cornbread stand, and women ran tins of the treats to the front of the line. Tajuama Seibles of Columbia chanted passionately, “Conbread! Cornbread! Cornbread!”
Within minutes, the pulled pork and bacon muffins were gone.
Columbia hosted South Carolina’s inaugural Cornbread Festival at North Main and Newman streets Saturday. The festival, which will become an annual city event, is modeled after the National Cornbread Festival that takes place every April in South Pittsburg, Tenn.
The entire festival, which stretched across two large fields and down connecting sidewalks and streets, only had two actual cornbread vendors: Cornbread Alley and the Dreamy Delectables food truck out of Batesburg, S.C.
The first, as established, was short on its supply.
Daniel Jones, the manager of the North Main Street Bi-Lo, had tears streaming from the corners of his eyes. They were turning pink at the edges as smoke billowed up from the smoker into his face.
Jones started preparations and delivery at 2 a.m. Saturday and fired up the grill around 9 a.m. He would man the grill for the entirety of the festival.
“I don’t take breaks,” Jones said.
He ordered 10 cases of chicken quarters and 10 cases of ribs for the event. Each case of ribs packaged 20 full racks.
Jones also had a hand in the corn muffin recipes. It was Jiffy corn muffin mix, layered with the pulled pork, bacon, cheddar and other fillings. Long-waiting and chanting customer Seibles tasted the Jiffy but noted, “When people use Jiffy, they usually add a little something else.”
Seibles said the Cornbread Alley muffins were worth the wait, pulling each of the offered flavors from a brown paper lunch bag and taking a taste from the top. The bacon and cheddar muffin “tastes like breakfast,” she said.
She wasn’t as enamored, if at all, with the Dreamy Delectables cornbread, served as mini muffins on skewers. Seibles tasted one and spit it out on the ground. She wished it was a bit sweeter.
From across the fields, through the masses, one could spot a bright green and yellow corn stalk. With a yellow painted face, like kernels, there was “Corn B.”
The festival’s mascot, played by Emmanuel Bazemore — who was unsure why the name Corn B — got roped into the job by his aunt Sabrina Odom, one of the event organizers.
“I actually said no, but ... ” Bazemore said.
As Corn B posed for a quick picture, the chorus line of V.I.C.’s “Wobble” caught wind from the grandstand stage speakers: “’Ey big girl, make ’em back it up.”
Columbia’s Southern Grooveline, outfitted in full burgundy jumpsuits, led lines of women from a “Wobble” to the “Cupid Shuffle.” One set of spirit fingers and black sneakers with metallic, golden wings, stretched out past another.
Nancy Manne, a member of the dance troupe, wore a red velvet newsboy cap, with “Nancy” spelled out in beads above the bill, and matching gloves. She was feeling it.
“People pretend they don’t like to line dance, but they get out there and have so much fun,” Manne said.
The cornbread festival also crowned royalty.
On Friday, girls competed for four titles: Little Miss Corn Muffin, Junior Miss South Carolina Cornbread, Teen Miss South Carolina Cornbread and Miss South Carolina Cornbread. Carla Wider, who graduated from W.J. Keenan High School in 2011, won the Miss South Carolina Cornbread honor with a lyrical performance of Mary J. Blige’s rendition of “Hard Times Come Again No More.”
She wore her crown and a baby pink sash at Saturday’s festival.
Mayor Steve Benjamin also perused the festival, trading a “Miss S.C. Cornbread” sash for a VIP badge clipped to his suit. The VIP passes were for city and county council members and granted access to a reserved tent and pizza, said city councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine.
The mayor stood beside the face-painting tent — painting full faces like dragons, princesses and superheroes for just $7 — and turned away from an interview to pull a stray fish bone from between his teeth.
“It’s a great time out for the inaugural event — celebrating foods, community and fellowship,” Benjamin said.
He had tried the VIP pizza, as well as the fried fish, but recommended the red velvet waffles from the Kiki’s Chicken & Waffles tent.
“My mother-in-law loves them,” he said.
Devine, who was resting in the corner of the face-painting tent, had run the festival’s “Live Sugar-Free” 5k earlier in the morning. Since then, she had tasted most of the fried staples but gave a glowing endorsement to the funnel cake.
As Devine finished her sentence, Seibles, still holding her brown paper bag of cornbread, offered her friend Devine a bite of the pulled pork muffin.
“It needs a little bit more meat,” Seibles said.
