World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest

This is the weekend before the Rodeo proper opens, and it is the event Houstonians get most defensive about explaining to visitors, because the obvious assumption is wrong. A general admission ticket does not buy you barbecue. It buys you onto the grounds, into the public tents, and in front of the music.

The great barbecue is inside the private team tents, and those are invitation-only. If you know somebody on a team, that is the ticket you want. If you do not, go anyway for the public tents and the atmosphere, but eat first or accept you are buying food from a vendor like anywhere else.

It is a three-day party on the Reliant Park grounds and the Friday and Saturday nights are the loud ones. Thursday is the civilised version if you want to actually look at the cooking.

Dress for standing on gravel in February weather that could go either way, and check their site for this year's dates, which move with the Rodeo.