After surveying 428 attendees at the 2010 Blue Ridge BBQ & Music Festival, a team of researchers from a national polling firm hired by the BBQ said the Tryon festival is a gem among the pebbles.

Over the years, we have been associated with festivals and events, we know what we will hear before we even get there, wrote Lynn Goodman, senior analyst with TouchPoll of Georgia, Inc., in her June 15 executive summary report to the Carolina Foothills Chamber of Commerce, owners of the festival.

Typical results from their surveys, Goodman said, find festival-goers complaining about the lack of toilets, the inconvenience of the parking, the price of the food and being jammed into crowded conditions.

We heard not one peep about any of this at the Blue Ridge BBQ, Goodman wrote. Are you perfect? Not quite, but you are not far off.

She suggested minor tweaks be implemented in the future, such as being clear and totally honest in delivering what is advertised. At this years festival, Goodman said a senior discount offer did not specify the age requirement. Offers for unlimited rides for children caused confusion, and visitors were unable to find the promised cooking tips.

However, she said, festival visitors went out of their way to praise the helpfulness and work ethic of the festivals corps of volunteers.

Your volunteers were simply amazing, Goodman wrote. We even had people stop by simply to tell us how impressed they were not only with the constant work, but their attitude, willingness to be helpful and always a smile.

Unaudited financial results show an attendance of 14,569, including visitors, volunteers, cookers and vendors.

Overall, your attendance was noteworthy, especially in light of the heat breaking weather forecast early in the morning together with a recession still in play, Goodman wrote.

In the survey, a total of 428 visitors were asked 24 questions regarding themselves, how they liked the festival, where they learned about the festival and how they planned to spend their money. The sample size, as a percentage of total attendance, offers a statistical 95 percent confidence rate in the results, Goodman said.

About 83 percent of those surveyed were visitors to the festival, while nine percent were volunteers and three percent were cookers. Thirty percent reported their family income level as $70,000 or greater, and thirty percent reported family income of $40,000 to $70,000. Most where white, 88 percent, and 6.5 percent were African American.

Sixty six percent of those surveyed said their favorite thing about the festival was the great food. Seventy percent of those surveyed rated the food at the festival either outstanding, or very good.

The second most popular facet of the festival, cited by 42 percent, was the music and entertainment. Seventy percent of those asked said the music was either outstanding, or very good. Sixteen percent thought is was O.K.

The low cost of admission (37 percent), the ease of parking (27 percent) and the shuttle service (20 percent) were the three factors cited most often as playing a part in the decision to attend the Blue Ridge BBQ.

Most of those attending said they learned about the BBQ by word of mouth, (49 percent). Another 23 percent learned of the festival from print media, primarily newspapers in Spartanburg (21 percent), Tryon (18 percent) and Asheville (17 percent). The internet provided 15 percent of the information, and that came overwhelmingly (78 percent) from the Blue Ridge BBQ website, according to the survey.

The two higher income (groups) reported no response for learning (about the festival) through the Internet, TouchPoll reported.

When asked if they participated in the Going Green initiative at the festival, few responded, 13 of the 428 surveyed, but the researchers praised the effort.

This was a noble effort on your part, TouchPoll wrote in a comment to the data. Of all the festivals we work, across the states, the Blue Ridge BBQ is by far the most green we have experienced to date. This experience was further enhanced during our visit Sunday at 8 a.m. to pick up our tent. A veritable army of volunteers was policing Harmon Field.