Texas Monthly is headed to Lockhart, about 150 miles west of Houston, for its TM BBQ Fest on Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8. Tickets are now on sale for the Top 50 Picnic, held Sunday.

Early bird tickets were only available to TM BBQ Club members, and are sold out. Tier one tickets went on sale on July 1, priced at $130 for general admission and $200 for VIP, which includes entry one hour earlier and two drink tickets. Prices go up to the second tier September 7, Labor Day.

As an important source of news across the state, Texas Monthly covers everything from arts and culture to politics. It holds a special niche in barbecue, thanks to its definitive 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas list, which comes out every four years.

The picnic happens more frequently, on an annual basis, giving Texans a chance to try 30-plus spots on the list in one place rather than having to traverse the state like barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn.

This year's lineup hasn't been released yet, but it's a good bet that some of Houston seven members of the top 50 list will participate. They include Truth BBQ (No. 10) and six more in unranked lower 40 positions: Corkscrew BBQ (Spring), Pinkerton's Barbecue, Bar-A BBQ (Montgomery), Jennings & Co. (Montgomery), Brisket and Rice, and Rosemeyer BBQ (Spring). Seguin (near San Antonio) joint Burnt Bean Co. is the reigning No. 1 spot and did participate in the picnic in 2025.

Saturday's event, the BBQ World's Fair, is a free public event. Anyone can enter with an RSVP and enjoy an artisan marketplace, live-fire cooking demos, live music, and the festival atmosphere. But to eat, they'll have to purchase a $51 tray. Both events support the nonprofit Feeding Texas and its network of food banks.

Texas Monthly, which is based in Austin, travels to Lockhart for the festival because it is widely known as the Barbecue Capital of Texas. In barbecue's infancy as a cuisine, it was a way to use meats that hadn't sold at the market. Lockhart's longtime barbecue scene — including restaurants like Kreuz Market, Smitty’s Market, and Black's Barbecue — stretches back to those days. There's also tons of local lore about the different barbecue families and their public feuds, as detailed in the documentary Family Beef.

Although Lockhart looms large in barbecue history and culture, Barbs B Q is the only Lockhart restaurant that made Texas Monthly's current top 50 list. If visitors to Lockhart during the festival want to take barbecue home for later, there are several local spots outside the fest that would be happy to wrap something up.