From BBQ to culture, Montreal’s largest halal food event returns this weekend 

North America’s premier Halal BBQ and Street Food Festival, Halal Ribfest 2024 Tour, is making its return to Montreal once again after a successful debut in 2023.  

The festival will be held at Place Vertu in Saint-Laurent from Friday until Sunday, serving Quebecers traditional southern barbecue and innovative street food. 

Montreal is among 11 cities across North America to feature this event which kicked off in the U.S State of Virginia on June 21 and will end in the State of Texas on Sept. 22. 

“We have the RibFest, this is where we bring the communities together,” said Halal Ribfest event operations manager Junaid Khan. “We’re trying to bring all the communities together to come out to our festivals.”

The festival aims at promoting Halal based meals, where the animals must be slaughtered per methods under Islamic law, known as Zabihah. Every meal must be free of pork, alcohol/intoxicants, poisons and harmful ingredients.

“What makes this halal is basically this caters to people with special dietary needs, people of that for Islamic law so they can have something that’s permissible,” Khan said. “What we are doing here is beef ribs,” he said.

The event will feature live entertainment, family friendly activities, a pop-up market, and the BBQ Showdown, a competition where chefs compete for best ribs and best sauce. Khan said events like this are very important to the people who do not go to events because they don’t have that special dietary need.

He says the festivals goal is to make this available for everyone and proper protocols are taken in assuring the food is all 100 per cent halal.

“Do not miss out Halal Ribfest is back,” he said. “It’s going to be amazing….and one more thing, come hungry.”