Samples vanish in a flash at Beach, Boogie and BBQ in Myrtle Beach

For the first time this year, visitors to the Beach, Boogie and BBQ Festival could buy the opportunity to taste all of the slow-cooked, delectable barbecue on display.

It was almost too good an idea.

Barbecue cookers quickly ran out of food for sampling.

"Ten butts, they went this quick," said Dennie Somheil, of Big Butts BBQ in Sumter, snapping his fingers.

After less than 30 minutes of serving food, Somheil and others members of his cooking team stood at the front of their booth and told passers-by they were out of food.

"I guess it was just that good," said Somheil, smiling.

Several other contestant booths had no food on display, especially those on the side closest to the entrance.

Some said they would have more later, once it was done cooking, and others said they were just out.

"They wiped us out the first hour," said Butch Kelly, of Butts "R" Us in Waxhaw, N.C.

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce website said the barbecue tasting would start at 11:30 a.m. and continue "until supplies last."

But Dave Stickels of Fort Mill said that wasn't how the $10 wristbands were sold.

"You paid for the wristband, and they're selling it as there are 41 competitors, 41 samples," he said. "But at least half weren't even open."

Stickels said despite getting fewer samples than he'd expected, he enjoyed tasting the different barbecue.

"It's interesting seeing how each company cooks it and comparing," he said. "It would be nice to have more to compare."

Cathy Estridge of Conway and her husband came to the tasting and said they got to try about a dozen different barbecues.

She said they got to the festival at 11:30, when tasting began, but said "we knew we were setting ourselves up by coming later."

Lady Mixon, a member of the Omar Shriners and a wristband seller, said the barbecue cookers told her their first batches of pork were out, but several would have more ready later in the day.

"They asked us to wait on the wristbands until they had more," she said.

Mixon said the response to the wristbands was very positive.

"People said we should have done this years ago," she said. "They're having a great time."

And many of the cookers said they liked getting feedback from the public and talking to them about their barbecue.

Dennis Jarrett of Pot Belly Cookers in Summerville said it was "like a big family out here."

"I really do like interacting with the public. Some come back around and say 'Yours was the best' and I say 'I wish you were judging,'" he said.

The cookers are there to win the South Carolina Barbeque Championship, and each team has a different tactic.

Kelly, who has been competing in barbecue competitions for about three years, said his team changes their barbecue based on where they're competing.

He said tomato-based barbecues have been winning in this area recently, so he was serving that on Saturday.

Others served up a combination of tomato and vinegar-based barbecues.

Jarrett said their combination barbecue was a "happy accident."

About a year and a half ago at a competition, the two sauces got combined. The Pot Belly Cookers served it and won.

"It's been great for us ever since," Jarrett said.

But Somheil said he was sticking with tradition and vinegar-based barbecue.

"It's the South Carolina way," he said.

Somheil said while he was there to win, the Omar Shriners' charity, the Shriners Hospitals for Children, was the real reason he was glad to serve his barbecue.

The proceeds from the wristband sales benefit the hospital network.

"We really do it for the cause," Somheil said.