Inside Tailgating: Spring / Summer 2019

GRILLS & GEAR - FOOD & DRINK - FANS & THRILLS

Spring 2019

GET THE APP TAILGATE NATION

OLE SMOKY MOONSHINE

5

COOL NEW

PRODUCTS

YOU NEED!

THE TAILGATERS’ TAILGATE

GMC SIERRA

+ TASTE

OF THE

NFL

TAILGATE FEST

NEW MUSIC FEST KEEPS TAILGATE GOING

www.insidetailgating.com

ON THE COVER

We Are Loungin’

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ho doesn’t love to go loungin’? Want proof? I just performed a quick lyric search for the word “loungin,” looking for a lyric to inspire me for this letter and found 167 lyrics that used that term. I expected 100% of them to be in rap songs. I was wrong. I didn’t find a lyric to inspire me either.

Sorry Bruno Mars. “I’ll be loungin’ on the couch just chillin’ in my snuggie­—Flip to MTV so they can teach me how to Dougie” came close but not quite (insert your own joke or image here.)

What did end up inspiring me was how diverse the results of my search were, whether the lyric showed up in rock, country, pop, jazz or something else. I don’t think the search automatically translated for K-Pop, but I assume there is a loungin’ lyric somewhere in that genre to keep it real with my daughter’s generation. However you rap it or sing it, loungin’ is a versatile word that is always relatable no matter the context of its use.

You can enjoy loungin at any event, from the Tailgate Fest music festival to our new Inside Tailgating Lounge coming to American Cornhole League’s national events this spring and summer, and you will know what I mean.

Tailgate Fest is a country music festival where you never have to leave your tailgate. I am sold on that concept no matter what the music lineup is. The main question I have is, what if I want to be loungin’ on a pool deck in August? Fortunately, the founder, Melissa Cabone, has created packages to suit any tailgate lifestyle, and a Super VIP pass will get me on that pool deck beside the stage. Make sure you read our cover story about Tailgate Fest and check it out this August in Los Angeles if you can.

Another place where you can be loungin’ all day is at the new Inside Tailgating Lounge at the ACL National Cornhole events coming to St. Louis, Harrah’s Ak-Chin Hotel and Casino, Mohegan Sun Casino and Valley Forge Casino. Enjoy cold beer, check out some cool tailgating products and socialize with Inside Tailgating staff, along with the cornhole players coming to compete from around the U.S. Pick up some bags and throw with them or go gamble in the casino...the tailgating and loungin’ choice is yours. Get more information at www.InsideTailgating.com and at www.iplayacl.com.

Meanwhile, more from the loungin’ lyric search: “I smell sex and candy here—Who’s that loungin’ in my chair?” courtesy of Maroon 5’s cover of Marcy Playground. A toast to you finding “devious stares” in your direction at your next tailgate. Inspirational. CHEERS!

23 Tailgate Fest New Music Fest Keeps

Tailgate Going

GRILLS & GEAR 5 GMC Sierra “The Tailgate To

End All Tailgates”

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8 5 Cool New Products

In Sports Merchandise

12 Portable High Chairs

Great for Tailgating

FOOD & DRINK 13 Ole Smoky Setting The Pace

For Moonshine

16 “Baseball Steak” Take A Swing At Grilling

For Opening Day

18 Taste Of The NFL

FANS & THRILLS 30 Tailgate Nation New App Helps

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Tailgaters Connect

W. Stacey Moore Founder and Publisher, Inside Tailgating

30 INSIDE TAILGATING IS PRODUCED BY TAILGATING VENTURES, LLC:

FOR MARKETING AND ADVERTISING INQUIRIES, CONTACT:

DESIGN & PRODUCTION BY Fiddlehead Studio & Press:

W. STACEY MOORE III: Managing Director smoore@insidetailgating.com 704-595-7603

W. STACEY MOORE III: Managing Director smoore@insidetailgating.com

JOANNA BUONO: Art Director joannambuono@gmail.com

CARROLL ROGERS WALTON: Content Director carroll@insidetailgating.com

MICHAEL KEAN: Business Development michael@insidetailgating.com RYAN ALESSIO: Chief Tailgator ryan@insidetailgating.com

For information about distribution, newsstand sales or investment and franchise opportunities, please contact Stacey Moore at smoore@insidetailgating.com.

Inside Tailgating Spring 2019, Copyright© 2019 by Tailgating Ventures, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without permission is prohibited.

Inside Tailgating™ is the trademark of Tailgating Ventures, LLC. Printed in the United States of America.

Check out more at www.insidetailgating.com

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Grills&Gear

GMC

By Carroll R. Walton, carroll@insidetailgating.com

“THE TAILGATE TO END ALL TAILGATES”

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ickup trucks and tailgating were already meant for each other, but General Motors Company has taken the relationship to the next level.

When a team of GMC engineers designed the new 2019 GMC Sierra with a MultiPro tailgate—the most versatile of its kind—it was like a marriage made in heaven. They were playing right into the hands of people who love to take their truck, literally, tailgating!

The MultiPro tailgate can transform into six different

configurations, which give owners not only easier and better access to what they’re hauling but creative and useful ways to use their tailgate at the next NASCAR race, music festival or football game.

Two of the configurations help the most. 1. The tailgate folds down into a step that is nearly as wide as the bed of

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GRILLS&GEAR the truck bed, which means owners can climb up for easy access to gear or just fold it down to use the tailgate panel as a bench for sitting and socializing. The step can support up to 375 pounds and the “bench” is spacious enough for two adults to sit comfortably.

2. The tailgate also folds down into a ready-made work or serving surface in the configuration GMC calls “Inner Gate with Load Stop.” In that form, the tailgate panel is resting horizontally about bar height, which means it’s great for holding drinks and a tray of burgers.

Another bonus is the MultiPro tailgate comes standard with a 120volt power outlet, which is great for setting up a TV for the pregame show.

The GMC Sierra also features a cool new tailgating-friendly accessory: a

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Kicker Audio system, which is available at an additional cost. The 100-watt system can be installed in the inner gate panel and includes water proof speakers, two four-inch coaxial drivers, a compact amplifier and Bluetooth connectivity.

The speakers run on a low-energy

draw that is independent of the truck’s audio system, so owners can play music for hours without leaving the motor running.

“When our team identified the possibility of the MultiPro tailgate, we seized on the opportunity to bring more purposeful innovation to our

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GRILLS&GEAR

owner experience,” said GMC spokesman Fred Ligouri.

It’s like the purpose was tailgating!

So what better way to launch its new GMC Sierra ad campaign than during the NFL playoffs? GMC’s “The Anthem” ad features competing truck owners dismantling and carrying their tailgates toward a mountain where a GMC Sierra owner is standing tall in the back of his truck, having climbed up its convenient MultiPro step.

“The tailgate to end all tailgates,” is the slogan.

No arguments here.

The MultiPro tailgate comes standard in the 2019 GMC Sierra whether it’s with Denali, AT4 or SLT trims and in both the light and heavy duty models.

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GRILLS&GEAR

COOL

By Carroll R. Walton, carroll@insidetailgating.com

NEW PRODUCTS

M

IN SPORTS MERCHANDISE

ore than 380 exhibits were on display at the Sports Licensing and Tailgate Show in Las Vegas in January, featuring the latest in sports and tailgating merchandise. Salespeople were peddling everything from slippers that look like NBA high tops to peel-and-stick cheek tattoos, hair ribbons in coordinating team colors to RV covers touting your favorite school.

We at Inside Tailgating had the audacity to narrow the field to five of our favorite new products from first-time exhibitors at this year’s event. These “Fave Five” will provide a sneak preview of new products you’ll find on the market soon.

1: CUP CAPS

In honor of the start of baseball season, we had to include these. Just when you thought eating ice cream out of mini batting helmets was cool (and a collector’s item) here come souvenir cups with ball cap-shaped lids that snap onto a reusable 32-ounce cup. They’re new on the scene in Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NHL and elsewhere. A cool and refreshing keepsake. www.cupcapnation.com

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GRILLS&GEAR 2: PLAYBOOK PRODUCTS

You can get blurry-eyed looking at all the sports apparel and gear on the market these days, but Playbook Products are totally fresh and new. And they’re fantastic. These innovators have diagrammed plays from the biggest moments in the history of your favorite franchises and put them on everything from coasters to a gym bag. Coaches are never big on opening up their playbooks but these guys figured it out anyway and we love it. The range of plays they feature is impressive, especially to a Dallas Cowboys fan who was 7 when Robert Newhouse threw a 29-yard touchdown pass on the halfback option to receiver Golden Richards to beat Denver in Super Bowl XII. And it’s not just football, they’ve got basketball, baseball, soccer and hockey too. Beyond cool. www.playbookproducts.com

3: SLICKER SEATS

When it comes to toting gear both to tailgates and into the bleachers, dual-purpose is the way to go. That’s what you have with these seat cushions that double as rain slickers. The creators came up with the idea after getting caught in a rain shower at a NASCAR race on an otherwise sunny day. Pack one of these slicker seats and you’ll never have to try to guess at the weather or get a case of bleacher butt! They’re available in a wide variety of colors, as well as camouflage, and can be customized with a school logo. You can buy them online or find them at select Academy Sports & Outdoors. www.slickerseat.com Check out more Grills & Gear at www.insidetailgating.com

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GRILLS&GEAR

4: PRIME TIME BABIES DISPOSABLE DIAPERS

Now that is dedication, outfitting your baby in diapers with your favorite school’s logo stamped on the fanny. But we can respect it, especially as the warm months approach and it’s fun to let your little one toddle about freestyle.

The diapers cost $2 a pop, so you’ll probably want to save them for tailgate weekends or big sports events, but you just know they’ll be a show stopper or maybe just a good luck charm. Right now Prime Time Babies is offering diapers for a select few specific teams, like Ohio State, Baylor, Wichita State and Kansas State, but more will follow. In the meantime they have cute diapers for generic sports (‘lil slugger for baseball, for example). Diapers come in sizes newborn up to 5. www.primetimebabies.com

5: FANnoodles

Just when you thought they’d thought of everything to adorn with school logos and sell! Wrong. Check out these swim “noodles” which make floating in a pool or at the lake cause for celebration. The business is based in Mount Pleasant, S.C. so University of South Carolina and Clemson fans have yet another way to express their fierce rivalry. But we can also foresee these noodles taking off in places like Knoxville, TN and Seattle, WA where fans tailgate on boats—also dubbed sailgating, boatgating and sterngating—is the way to go. www.fannoodleus.com

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GRILLS&GEAR

By Carroll R. Walton carroll@insidetailgating.com

Portable High Chairs...

Great For

Tailgating

I

saw a recent social media post about a portable high chair and it got me to thinking: bringing portable high chairs to a tailgate is a great idea!

We tailgated with our oldest son (now 3) when he was seven months old without a high chair. That meant Mom or Dad had to be holding him at all times. Good luck trying to enjoy a plate of barbecue, while holding a wiggly baby! Worth it, but there’s another way!

The high chair I saw posted was the ciao! baby Portable high chair which retails for $59.99. It looks like a regular canvas camping chair, only it comes with a five-point harness and a plastic food tray. Like a camping chair, it folds easily and fits into a carrying case with a shoulder strap which makes getting it back to the car a snap.

The only issue that might arise, according to some reviews I read, is that the plastic tray isn’t especially sturdy so food tends to slide off. One mom worked around this by bringing a silicone plate which gripped to the

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plastic tray. (Way to go, Mama.)

I’m also a fan of plastic snack holders babies can hold themselves, using their own little fingers to reach in between the rubbery grooves to grab small portions of finger food. Another option is to feed the baby just a little bit at a time. It’s still easier than holding him or her.

Another great high chair option for tailgating, one that I should have thought of earlier, is the IKEA Antilop high chair. First of all, they retail for $22.99, which is a total bargain. They are not meant to be portable, necessarily, but they might as well be. We bought two of them to use as everyday high chairs when we had twins. With twins, not only did we need something affordable but something super easy to clean.

Who has time for cracks and crevices when you have two babies to clean up

after, or a tailgate to pack up?

These high chairs are portable in their own right. You can take the trays off and stack them and go so far as to remove the legs too. We take one tray off, stack them and throw them in the back of our minivan to take to relatives’ houses and will probably do the same on road trips this summer too.

So why not take them to a tailgate?

(Our twins are pictured in their IKEA high chairs at my sister’s house where we celebrated their first birthday with a pool party. Blue cupcakes for all!)

Sometimes as parents, especially of multiple little ones, you wonder why go to all the trouble to bring children to tailgates anyway. It’s not like their attention spans are good for much of the game anyway. But having an easier way to take kids to a tailgate—even if one of the parents heads home with the little ones before the tailgate or game is over—you still get to go and join the fun rather than staying home and missing out.

You can even do what we did when we took our oldest son to his first college football game. He got scared by crowd noise after an early touchdown so my husband took him back out to our tailgate and just hung out there for the rest of the game. It was a beautiful afternoon anyway and not a bad way to spend it. (Plus it was a great way for our son to catch a nap!)

Check out more Grills & Gear at www.insidetailgating.com

Food&Drink

By Carroll R. Walton, carroll@insidetailgating.com

OLE SMOKY

Setting The Pace For Moonshine

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t’s been 10 years since Tennessee legalized the production and sale of moonshine and a little less than that since Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery opened its doors—officially anyway.

One of the nation’s biggest moonshine distributors traces its roots to the early settlers of the Smoky Mountains and a group of families who have been making and running “the hooch” for more than 100 years. Now they’re just paying taxes on it!

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FOOD&DRINK

“This isn’t just moonshine, it’s moonshine made with authenticity and enduring pride from the people of the Appalachians,” Ole Smoky boasts on its

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website. (https://olesmoky.com/) Lucky for us “white lightning” is easy to get now and Ole Smoky is leading the way. Ole Smoky Moonshine is available in 49 states and sold at stores like Walmart and Sam’s Club. It is served in cocktails at neighborhood bars and restaurants around the country.

Like the old days, Ole Smoky Moonshine is still sold in mason jars, but now it comes in 20 different flavors, everything from apple pie to chocolate chili.

“We tried to embrace the rich knowledge and expertise of (East Tennessee) instead of just basing it on my granddad’s recipe,” Ole Smoky founder Joe Baker told Time Magazine. “We took the best

of a lot of different recipes and came up with a product that we think best represents the area.”

Now that moonshine is so easily accessible, it’s a snap to make your own moonshine cocktail recipes at home and at your tailgates. To that end, Inside Tailgating has picked five Ole Smoky recipes to try this spring and summer out in the parking lots.

There is no more fitting a beverage to serve at a NASCAR tailgate than moonshine, by the way. The original stock car drivers were all bootleggers!

(A reminder from the folks at Ole Smoky: please “shine” responsibly.)

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FOOD&DRINK

Ole Smoky Dirty Shirley

2.5 oz. Ole Smoky Moonshine Cherries® Juice 2.5 oz. Lemon-Lime Soda Mix well in a glass over ice and garnish with Ole Smoky Moonshine Cherries.

Ole Smoky Hillbilly Icicle

2 oz. Ole Smoky Razzin’ Berry Moonshine 1 oz. Ole Smoky White Lightnin’ 2 oz. Lemon-Lime soda Mix ingredients well in a glass over ice and garnish with lemon twist.

Ole Smoky Blackberry Lemonade 2.5 oz. Ole Smoky® Blackberry Moonshine 2.5 oz. Lemonade

Mix well in a glass over ice and garnish with fresh lemon wedge and blackberries (optional.)

Ole Smoky Ginger Apple

2.5 oz. Ole Smoky® Apple Pie Moonshine 2.5 oz. Ginger Ale Mix ingredients well in glass over ice and garnish with a fresh apple slice (optional.)

Ole Smoky Fire Hound

1.5 oz. Ole Smoky Blue Flame Moonshine 3 oz. Grapefruit Juice .5 oz. Elderflower (optional) Mix well in a glass over ice and garnish with fresh grapefruit slice.

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FOOD&DRINK

By Carroll R. Walton, carroll@insidetailgating.com

Take a Swing at

GRILLING

“BASEBALL STEAK” FOR OPENING DAY

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ajor League Baseball’s Opening Day is upon us and what better way to celebrate what should be considered a national holiday than to get outside and grill! It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the parking lots before a game or in your own backyard.

And if you’re looking for something a little more original to throw on the grill than hot dogs or hamburgers, how about a “baseball steak?” The appropriately-dubbed cut from the upper part of a top sirloin gets its name from its puffy, round appearance as it cooks.

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Check out more Food & Drink at www.insidetailgating.com

For five tips on the best way to prepare a baseball steak, Rob Hawkins, Product Manager at Char-Broil Grills (www.charbroil.com) shares his expertise:

1.

Get your steak to room temperature. If you place a cold steak on the grill, the exterior may cook or burn before the interior hits the desired temperature.

Apply an even coat of vegetable or canola oil on both sides of the steak to ensure that your steak doesn’t stick to your cooking grates.

The most nerve-wracking aspect of cooking a steak is knowing when it’s done. Take the

2.

3.

guesswork out and invest in a digital thermometer. For a rarer steak, the internal temperature as measured in the middle of the steak is 125°F. For medium rare, aim for 130-135°F and well done 155°F.

4.

Let it rest. Never cut into a steak that’s hot off the grill.

Pull it off the heat, tent with foil and let it rest for about 8 minutes. While it rests, the steak’s fibers will relax, and the juices will redistribute back to the center.

5.

For the baseball steak, which should be about 2 inches thick, it will continue to rise in temperature even when off the grill.

We recommend pulling it off five degrees before your desired target internal temperature.

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FOOD&DRINK

TASTE of the NFL W

By Carroll R. Walton, carroll@insidetailgating.com

ayne Kostroski, nationally-known restauranteur and founder of the wildly successful “Taste of the NFL” charity event, believes its annual Party with a Purpose is equivalent to spending an evening at the best restaurant in the country.

He makes a compelling case.

Every year, on the eve of the Super Bowl, celebrated chefs from each of the 32 NFL cities join alumni from each NFL team, including Hall of Famers like Franco

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Harris and Tony Dorsett, to serve up some of the country’s best cuisine to a couple of thousand lucky guests.

Chefs like Susan Spicer of New Orleans and Miami’s Carlos Garcia (by

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FOOD&DRINK way of Venezuela,) Seattle’s John Howie and Baltimore’s Nancy Longo pair their dishes with dessert supplied by the “Cake Boss” Buddy Valastro. Toasting it all with some of the country’s best beer and wine, they raise money for food banks across the U.S. Taste of the NFL has raised more than $25 million so far. The way Kostroski puts it, based on what he’s learned from food banks, money raised by Taste of the NFL has accounted for 220 million meals for those in need.

“Isn’t that staggering?” he said. “Every dollar can create either four or eight meals depending on the food bank.”

Next February in Miami, Kostroski will host the 29th annual Party with a Purpose.

His first was in 1992, when the Super Bowl came to Minneapolis while he was chairman of the restaurant board there and a member of the Super Bowl host committee. Kostroski spoke with Inside Tailgating about the evolution of Taste of the NFL, what makes it so unique and its impact.

Q. How did you come up with the idea for Party with a Purpose?

A. The challenge with the leadership of the (Minneapolis) host committee was “How do we distract people from the fact that it’s going to be cold and there’s going

to be snow?” At the time there were 28 teams in the NFL. I looked at the 28 towns and realized I knew chefs in about 24 of those. I didn’t know any football players other than two alumni from the Minnesota Vikings so I called them up and had a meeting with them. I said “Look, I want to raise money for hunger. I want to do

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FOOD&DRINK facility is and whatever can comfortably be put in there for the chefs and the guests.

Tickets are no longer $75. It’s $700. What’s remained constant is that it’s a heck of a value because at Super Bowl everything is priced crazy, in my opinion, for not much value. You go to a breakfast or a lunch and you’ve got a Hall of Famer speaking at the podium but you are way across the room.

You pay that amount just to be in the room and you never have a shot to get an autograph or a photo.

an event the night before Super Bowl. I can call the chefs if you guys will call a player. Current player or alumni, or a Hall of Famer, just get a player from each NFL team. Nobody gets paid. We’ll cover the airfare and lodging but this is 100 percent volunteer and let’s see what we can do.”

We put it together in about 12 weeks.

Literally, my thoughts were “Let’s do this great event one time.”

Q. And then?

A. It sold out in three weeks, and we put the event on. It was terrific. In the next three, four weeks I kept getting calls from players and some of the chefs, saying “Hey, what are plans for L.A.? We’re in.”

That’s where the Super Bowl was going.

I said, “Whoa, I wasn’t really planning on that.” They said, “You’ve got to do this.

We loved it. It was impactful. Our families loved that we were involved with this.

We’ve got to do this.” So we kept doing it.

And last year was our 28th year.

Q. Other than the fact that there are more NFL cities now (32), what’s changed between the first event and the 28th?

A. One of them is the size. That first year, we had it in the lobby of an office tower because that was the only site that was left that late in the game. And we had a capacity of 1,100 people. Admission was $75. Fast forward to the 28th year last year in Atlanta. The capacity was 2,200 people. In New York a few years back, it was the largest it’s been, with 3,200 people. We go according to wherever the

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website, see all the teams listed, click on the team you’re the big fan of and you can donate any amount, $10, $50 whatever.

That bucket grows all through the season.

At end of the season it’s a second check that we write to all those food banks.

Q. Is there an anecdote or memory you

Q. What’s stayed constant?

A. We always sell out, and we sell out a couple months in advance. We hold back a few tickets until we know who the two teams are. Then companies from those two cities call in a panic, and say “Do you have any tickets left?” We want to make sure they’re there. Then they go back to their respective cities, hopefully, talking about what they can do with the food bank in their community they had such a good time at this party.

Q. Speaking of local communities, why and how did Taste of the NFL broaden its reach to smaller events held in individual NFL cities?

A. I’m never satisfied that we’re having enough impact because to put an event on the night before Super Bowl in a Super Bowl city when hotel rooms are four times what they normally would be, pipe and drape is four times what the cost would normally be, etc. it’s really hard to gauge how much you can end up with. So we started doing team events. We’ve got 11 teams that do them: Taste of the Cowboys.

Taste of the Vikings. Taste of the Rams, things like that….We don’t run it. We get it going. We promote it. And 100 percent that’s raised on that local event stays in that community. It started 14 years ago now in Dallas in a parking lot of Kent Rathbun’s restaurant….Generally, the average of those teams’ result is generally about $160,000 to $200, 000. The Cowboys have set the bar. Last year they raised in one night $430,000 for the north Texas food bank.

Q. How else have you widened the scope of your fundraising?

A. Five years ago we started a thing called Kick Hunger Challenge. At the beginning of the football season, people go to that

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FOOD&DRINK have of going to a food bank and seeing firsthand the impact you all have made?

A. The first time we were in Phoenix, the fourth or fifth year of the event, we were at St. Mary’s food bank. We did the usual grip and grin check presentation back in the early days. We don’t do that anymore

because it’s cheesy….But (afterward) the director of the food bank (introduced me to) this woman. She was there with two boys, I’m guessing 7 and 5…The older boy said, “My mom tells me that because of you we are going to have more meals together than we did before.” I struggle

to maintain myself now every time I tell that story. I almost burst into tears.…

That’s what drives me in hunger relief. The opportunity for a family to sit together Is missing when you don’t have food. It’s the root of a lot of problems.

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Fans&Thrills

By Carroll R. Walton, carroll@insidetailgating.com

TAILGATE

FEST New Music Fest Keeps Tailgate Going

T

he only bad thing about tailgating is when it’s over, right? Just when the conversation, the food, and the cornhole is really heating up seems to be right when you have to pack everything up and scramble into the show or sporting event. Entertainment entrepreneur Melissa Carbone has figured a way around all that, and it’s genius: keep the tailgating going during the concert.

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FANS&THRILLS Carbone (pictured below), who made a name for herself and her Haunted Hayride business on ABC’s “Shark Tank,� has left spooky in the shadows to venture into country music with Tailgate Fest. She and partner Alyson Richards started the all-day country music festival in 2018 in Los Angeles.

While taking in a lineup that featured acts like Toby Keith, Joe Nichols and Nelly, fans tailgated from parking spots beside the stage, along the standing-room only area, and lots in and around the Forum.

Some 10,000 fans packed in, either standing in front of the stage, watching from their truck beds with a vantage point of the stage or a video monitor, or swimming in the 250-person stage-side pool that came complete with a swim-up bar. The festivities also included a two-step dance contest, a jacked-up truck contest, and a cornhole tournament, with winners getting upgraded into VIP areas.

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FANS&THRILLS Even the artists seemed to enjoy the show’s unique format. Carbone, who lives in L.A., overheard some great feedback while rubbing elbows with promoters and agents during Grammy week.

“One of the agents at UTA was talking about Tailgate Fest with somebody else and

said Toby did a ton of shows last year and Tailgate Fest was his favorite experience of the year,” Carbone said. “When I heard that, I was floored and so proud.”

Tailgate Fest 2019 will feature country artists Brantley Gilbert, Brett Eldredge,

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FANS&THRILLS Lee Brice, Tyler Farr and others.

Carbone built her reputation for creativity and attention to detail while turning her passion for Halloween into an entertainment company specializing in horror attractions.

She talked Mark Cuban into investing $2 million while appearing on Shark Tank in 2013, which was the biggest deal he’d

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ever made on the show. She has since sold Ten Thirty One Productions to focus on tailgating, another passion project.

“I got introduced to the tailgating culture going to country music festivals and concerts, and I fell in love with it,” said Carbone, whose wheels started turning after seeing Kenny Chesney, Brantley Gilbert

and Jason Aldean in one show at the Rose Bowl. “I was embedded in that culture for a few years, and then started to really get bummed out when we had to pack up our tailgates to go into the show….

“We have these beautiful little worlds,” she continued. “Then you have to shove everything in your pockets, and eat hotdogs and warm beer inside an arena. I used to pontificate to my friends, ‘Wouldn’t it be a dream if we could just keep tailgating while the show was going on? Just bring the stage outside?’”

She’s done that and much more, and the

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FANS&THRILLS ideas keep coming. She’s expanded this year’s festival to two days, with overnight RV camping, and moved it to a bigger venue. Tailgate Fest 2019 will be held Aug. 17-18 at Silverlakes Park in Norco, Calif.

The 200-acre sports complex features 24 soccer fields which means fans can tailgate on grass rather than pavement.

And the flat wide open layout means every vehicle will have a vantage point of the stage. The new venue also has 8,000 hotel rooms within a five-minute shuttle ride.

In addition to last year’s contests, this year’s festival will feature bonfire singalongs with guitar players leading the music and s’mores available to roast over the fire. There will be a Bloody Mary brunch the second morning for a little “hair of the dog.” And for those highenergy country fans, spin classes will be offered the second morning as well.

Tailgate Fest takes a unique approach to concession sales as well. Tailgatingfriendly food items like hotdogs, buns, sliced tomatoes and ice will be available— staples that all-night tailgaters are likely to run out of.

“At the end of the day we just want it to be an insanely fun experience,” Carbone said.

At its core, though, Carbone believes

she’s tapping into a culture with tailgating that doesn’t require a lot of event planning and micromanaging. She sees tailgating as one of the rare social scenes in today’s plugged-in world where people actually put away the cell phones and engage with each other.

“Festivals have become giant Instagram photo ops,” Carbone said. “Tailgate Fest is literally plucking people out of that world.

People are not on their phones when

they’re tailgating. It’s visceral and very human to human interaction, which is why it feels so good.”

Bringing tailgating experiences to a big city like Los Angeles is Carbone’s way of delivering a slice of downhome American life. It’s akin to what she did with Haunted Hayrides when she put, as she says, “city-dwelling Los Angelenos in the woods at night.”

“There’s not a lot of tailgating here (in L.A.),” she said. “You have a really hard time finding that vibe here, that nostalgia, that small-town Americana, so that’s what I started to think about. If I was going to do Tailgate Fest, I should it do it somewhere where people don’t have a lot of access to tailgating because if there are enough people who want it and can’t find it, I’ll grab all those people. And also launching a new giant brand like that in a city like LA gives you a magnifying glass that you wouldn’t get if you launched it somewhere else.”

Carbone said for now her focus is on cultivating the L.A. event. She’d love to see it grow to 80,000 or 90,000 people. But as an entrepreneur, she can also visualize the festival going coast to coast.

“I think Tailgate Fest can manifest itself in a ton of different ways,” she said. “It can be in a beach parking lot with a bunch of jumbotrons to kick off football season. You can roll into a park with 500 to 1,000 people and have a fourth of July tailgate with a couple of emerging acts. It can really be scaled up or down depending on the content subject matter. I think the road ahead for Tailgate Fest is wide open.”

Check out more Fans & Thrills at www.insidetailgating.com

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FANS&THRILLS

TAILGATE FEST A HIT WITH FANS

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rom our conversation with Tailgate Fest founder Melissa Carbone, we know both organizers and country artists were happy with the debut of Tailgate Fest in 2018. But what did fans think about it? To find out more, we connected with Heather Tepper, a fan from Calabasas, Calif., who attended last year’s festival and has tickets to go back to Tailgate Fest 2019 in August.

Last year she won tickets to the show and took her mom. (What a nice daughter!)

This time, she is paying her own way to make sure she’s there for it. For details on what she thought of the show and her overall experience, read on. Here, in her own words, are her thoughts on…..

THE FORMAT: “I loved the format. It was great that you could hear the music from everywhere, and you did not really have to leave your car to have a fun time.

There were options like staying at your car and relaxing or going up to the stage and watching the performers up close. There was something for everyone.

ON THE MUSIC: “The concert itself was amazing. The artists were incredible; acoustics were great. Nelly bringing out Florida-Georgia line for ‘Cruise’ was epic.

Jana Kramer having her daughter run onto the stage was the cutest thing ever, and Toby Keith always brings the house down.

He is truly one of the best performers.”

ON THE TAILGATING: “I did not tailgate for that long. I just went with my mom, and we ended up getting upgraded to the pit, so we were up near the stage the whole time.

We did go back to our car and tailgate during one artist because we had seen him before, but other than that we stayed in the pit. The reason we would go to our car was to eat.

The great part of the festival was because it was all about tailgating, you were able to bring your own food and drinks, which made

everything so convenient and easy. Going back and forth was very easy to do.”

ON THE CHANGE OF VENUE FROM THE FORUM IN INGLEWOOD TO SILVERLAKES PARK IN NORCO THIS YEAR AND EXPANDING FROM ONE DAY TO TWO: “I was not a fan of the location change. I loved the location where it was last year, and I thought everything was perfect. It is also way farther for me then the original location, but I understand why they did it. Overall (a two-day event) is a bigger hassle. I like one-day festivals more than multiple days.”

THE OVERALL VIBE: “It was a very fun scene and everything was very accessible.

The concert goers were nice and friendly. and everyone was just there to have a great time. It was one of the best festivals or concerts I went to last year and I look forward to attending this year.”

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Check out more Fans & Thrills at www.insidetailgating.com

FANS&THRILLS

TAILGATE NATION

New App Helps Tailgaters Connect

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hen it comes to innovation and what’s new on the tailgating scene, generally you think about gear: coolers with stereos built in, grills that fold up like a suitcase, portable TVs and satellites that put a standard tailgate over the top. But none of those innovations address questions like: Who is coming to my tailgate? Where can I find a tailgate? How can I connect with other tailgaters?

John Lieberman (pictured right) has bridged that gap with an app which is changing how people connect for tailgating. His creation, Tailgate Nation, helps travelers find tailgates at games or concerts in cities they are visiting. It also helps locals find tailgates nearby if they’re not up for hosting themselves.

Inside Tailgating spoke with Lieberman about his passion for tailgating and how he came up with the Tailgate Nation concept. Here are excerpts from that conversation.

Q: How long have you been tailgating?

A: Growing up in Northern New Jersey I would attend New York Giants games as well as Mets, Knicks, Nets and Devils games. Giants tailgates were my introduction to this lifelong passion. From early fall games with the grill and football tosses to the colder games when sometimes my brother and I would get some delicious subs and stay warm in the car eating and talking football before the game. One of the reasons I love tailgating—and people around the country I’ve talked to agree—no matter the outcome of the game, you always win in the parking lot.

Q: What problems did you notice people having that inspired you to create your app?

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A: The idea for Tailgate Nation stemmed from a few things I noticed attending games. I was attending a Giants/Bears game while staying in New York City. I didn’t have a car, cooler, grill etc. yet I wanted to tailgate before going to the game. I wanted to connect with an existing tailgate and share in the food drink and fun. At most home games around the country, visiting fans show up the same way—ready to tailgate but unprepared with the right necessities.

Q: How does Tailgate Nation address that problem?

A: (With) Tailgate Nation, you look for a tailgate to attend at the event you’ll be going to. If there aren’t any listed, you can also become a host for that event.

As a host, you have a platform to share your tailgate with new and old friends as well as a chance to make some money doing what you love.

Q: What challenges did you run into while creating the app?

A: Just like Airbnb and Uber, in the beginning the challenge is to find enough hosts at events to keep up with user demand. Our team (went to tailgates) and asked about features that would help hosts and attendees looking for tailgates. We keep updating to make our app not only useful but extremely user-friendly. Once we explain how easy our app is almost (everybody we talk to) downloads and starts using right away. Look for updates and a lot more hosted events this summer and fall!

Check out more Fans & Thrills at www.insidetailgating.com

By Ryan Alessio, ryan@insidetailgating.com

Q: Where can people use the app?

A: Tailgate Nation is currently available at all major sporting events including the NFL, NCAA football, Major League Baseball, the NBA, NASCAR and major concerts and tours around the country.

In the near future, events such as golf tournaments, ACL cornhole events and custom events will be added to the app.

Q: What do you think the future holds for Tailgate Nation?

A: I (think it can be) used by people just looking to host or attend a party.

At the end of the day, a tailgate is a party and Tailgate Nation wants to be the official “host� for all of these events. Most people think of only football for tailgating, but tailgating is a year round event. And even if people aren’t sports or concert fans, they can host and have fun attending these events.

To follow Tailgate Nation on Twitter: @tailg8nation. Download the app in your store and start using it today!

Check out more Fans & Thrills at www.insidetailgating.com

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