By Alexis Simmons|February 10, 2020 at 3:25 PM EST - Updated February 10 at 7:15 PM
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Organizers of Bacon and Bourbon plan to reschedule the event which was canceled hours before it was set to take place on Saturday.
The social annual event was scheduled to take place at the Charleston Area Convention Center. It includes unlimited sampling of bacon dishes and bourbon, according to event’s Facebook Page.
Organizers blamed the abrupt cancellation on a liquor licensing issue. The South Carolina Department of Revenue says their alcohol license was denied because of irregularities on the application.
The following post was made on the event’s Facebook page:
Bacon and Bourbon will be postponed. This morning SLED informed us that we cannot operate our event under the liquor license of the venue as planned. We have tried everything to fix this but cannot overcome this in time for tonight. We are working right now on a new date and will send that out to all ticket holders ASAP. We are heartbroken and hope you will be able to attend the rescheduled date. Refunds will be issued to those who cannot attend.
Ticket holder Jarrett Hodson had planned to attend the event with others in the Oyster Point Bourbon Club.
He says they rented out a party bus to get there.
"My biggest thing was thinking of all the people who had to set this event up," Hodson said. "The losses they would have had, the people that I have heard spending weeks to get their food ready to get everything ready all to be cancelled with that kind of notice it's disaster for those people and my heart goes out to them."
The group of decided to take the party bus around to some of the participating restaurants to show them support. He says some were offering free samples to ticket holders.
“Making the best out a bad situation. That’s what we do in Charleston,” Hodson said.
Eighteen chefs and 35 distilleries were expected to provide food and drinks at the event.
The Executive Chef at Uptown Social, Jonathon Kaldas, says they will be offering the dishes they were going to serve at the event as specials at the restaurant this week.
“Our focus is the just the impact that the guest is going to have we hope that they understand it and they are willing to give them another shot and come out and try our food again,” Kaldas said.
He says he’s participated in the event four times.
“It’s a lot of fun, you get to hangout. get out of the kitchen and enjoy the time with these folks and get good interaction with people as well," Kaldas said.
People commented on Facebook saying they traveled out of town and paid for hotels to attend the event.
Tickets will be valid for the rescheduled event. However, if you are unable attend organizers say they will provide refunds.
The organizing group, Gosnell & Company Event Management released the following statement on Monday:
“We are moving quickly to get the event rescheduled and anticipate announcing the new date within days. We were blindsided by a last-minute, third party snafu that we could not overcome. We are committed to making the rescheduled event the best ever, and appreciate the kindness of so many people: the chefs and the many partners who have rallied to help, and the many guests who have sent words of support. This event is a long standing tradition and we are committed to moving mountains to make it happen again!”
On Facebook, Bacon and Bourbon says it has has partnered with Feed The Need. The organization provides over 500 meals per week and job training to four area shelters. Proceeds from event fund training programs for shelter residents to gain employment in the food and beverage industry.
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