What can you tell me about it. Thinking of making a trip down if it sounds good enough, I want to try some mutton!!

In my work I get to travel all over. I have been from Wilmington, NC to Owensboro and in between, for extended periods. I in fact live in east TN.

IMHO, western KY barbecue is meh at best. Also, I absolutely love lamb but mutton is nothing like it at all. I did not like it. Mutton has a totally different taste, texture and smell.

I tried all of the barbecue places in Owensboro as that is my thing. At best, they were okay and that is being generous. Maybe some that will be there from outside the area will improve the local fare.

In all seriousness, I found Brothers Barbecue in Central City better than anything in O'Boro.

Sadly he's kinda right. Mutton and goat are about identical in taste to me. Owensboro does have some great Burgoo though. Moonlight BBQ is great.

O'Boro only has 3 barbecue places.

Moonlite, Old Hickory and Ole South. All of them pretty much push the buffet although you can order off the menu. Western KY sauce is nothing special IMHO. Kind of a KC sauce with an emphasis on tomato and being sweet. I am the first to admit though, barbecue is so very subjective as is the sauce.

The one thing I like about Brothers is that they did have a really good barbecue chicken and pretty good brisket which they really push.

As for goat, count me in! But I will say the age of the goat and how it is slaughtered makes a huge difference in the toughness, texture and taste. The problem with mutton IMHO is that it is an older sheep. Frankly the smell of mutton cooking is very distinctive and to me, not very appetizing.

Just my .02 worth.

I've heard about moonlite - but I've never gone myself.  Each year my old church would have an outing to Owensboro for a Chrism mass, and the bus would stop off at moonlite on the way back.  I always traveled with the choir though and we just drove straight back home instead.  heard it was good though.

Moonlight has good sides, burgoo, and desserts.  Their barbecue is meh...

Old South has a good breakfast buffet.

Old hickory...I can’t really comment on. (I ate there once.  I had bad diarrhea the next day but I think it was a stomach virus, as no one else got sick.)

Thanks for the replies, I wasn't really looking for BBQ places but info about the festival on May 10-11 http://bbqfest.com/
I've seen it on TV shows and I don't have anything going on that weekend. Thought about making a day trip out of it.

I'm local to the area. It's a pretty big event, draws a hefty crowd and a bunch of people cooking from all over. It's not just the Owensboro BBQ places for sure. The worst part is parking. I'd say it's a good day trip

FWIW, Old Hickory has the best BBQ in town, but their sides are meh-ish. Best casual dining in the area is City Walk (really small hole-in-the-wall homestyle place). Get the fried chicken and peach cobbler. It's delicious and cheap.

Moonlite is over rated, not horrible, just overrated.