The two-day event at Wimmera Events Centre, Longerenong will feature a round of the Barbeques Galore Australian Barbecue Championship Series.

Close to 30 teams from across the country will test their skills in a low and slow cooking competition, one of about 40 across Australia during 2018.

Meat Meet organiser Rob Moir said the event came about to fill a niche in the championship series calendar.

“I’m in a competition barbecue team, and to have a ranking on the championship leaderboard you have to travel to three competitions during the year,” he said.

“This year there looked like there wasn't going to be a lot of competitions in this part of Australia.

“There was going to be a competition at the Creekside Hotel in Warracknabeal and another one in Melbourne, but that was about it for Victoria and South Australia.

“After talking to people in other teams, I said I could put one on if people were willing to part of it.

“Since then a few South Australian events have popped up.”

A competition will run on Saturday before the championship round on Sunday.

“The Sunday competition is more about cooking, for example, a beef brisket for 15 hours and that sort of thing,” he said.

“We have a chap flying from America to run the Saturday competition.

“He'll do a training course for judges, then he'll do a steak cooking masterclass.

“Whoever wins the Saturday comp will be eligible to compete in America.

“Originally I was just going to run the competitions and not have the event open to the public, but people had been saying it would be good if they could come and have a look.

“We’ll have some food vendors there, and people can see teams competing in something they take very seriously.

“It's interesting to watch as some cook on an old-fashioned Weber kettle, and others might cook on a custom-built barbecue trailer that cost them $30,000.

“In each category there's a prize for first, second and third, and in the national competition you accrue points towards your overall total for the championship.”

Mr Moir said the Meat Meet would be open to the public from 11am to 4pm both days.

He said people could pay for what they believed their experience was worth via a donation box on their way out of the event.

Mr Moir is also looking for judges for the Sunday competition.

He said judges would be trained in the morning and would judge five categories, each with six entries.

He said people could apply by registering at www.meatmeet.com.au.

The Creekside Hotel will host its round of the championship at the Creekside BBQ Battle in October.