Q in the Lou canceled as organizers cite 'lack of support'

The annual barbecue festival was scheduled to take place Sept. 6 to 8

Bad news for barbecue lovers: Q in the Lou 2024 has been canceled. The annual barbecue festival was set to take place at the Gateway Arch National Park between Sept. 6 to 8, but organizers have confirmed that the event will not take place after all.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch broke the news on Monday afternoon, with Q in the Lou representative Sean Hadley telling the newspaper the cancellation was due to a number of factors ranging from a lack of corporate sponsorship, disappointing VIP ticket sales and “public safety concerns.” Hadley told the Post-Dispatch, “We’re seeing a lack of support.”

Reporting on the news, KSDK said Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office expressed “disappointment” at the cancellation. Conner Kerrigan, Director of Communications for Mayor Jones, told KSDK Q in the Lou would “have the support” of the Mayor’s office for any future events and cited the success of recent events such as Festival of Nations and City Social as evidence that “St. Louis knows how to throw a festival.”

Some added context: The organizers' claims about public safety concerns in downtown St. Louis were offset by reports that Q in the Lou's sister event, Q BBQ Fest in Denver (Aug. 22 to 24), had not met organizers' expectations. It was also reported that the Q BBQ Fest scheduled for Oct. 17 to 19 in Dallas had also been cancelled, although tickets appeared to still be on sale Tuesday afternoon via SeatGeek and AT&T Stadium in Dallas.   

At the time of writing, the Q in the Lou website, like the other Q BBQ Fest websites, had been made private, with no information on the cancellation made available to the public.