MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) In between sets of country crooning. Fans at the Carolina Country Music Fest found savory sustenance as the side of 18 wheels opens skyward.
“It’s about 65 feet long, 53 thousand pounds,” Johnsonville Grill Master Steven Hensley said of the grill. “We’ve got about 32 feet of grilling space up here which we can put about 750 brats at a time.”
The Johnsonville Big Taste Grill is completely mobile and travels around the country raising money for local charities.
“People ask so what do you do, I’m a grill master, a grill master what do you mean,” Hensley said of his unique employment.
Johnsonville donates the food and then gets volunteers to help them on the grill. They sold the brats for just $4 at the festival and then donated all of the money back to the Myrtle Beach chapter of the American Cancer Society.
The program has raised over $4 million dollars over the years.
The semi-truck turned grill has four different cooking locations surrounding a freezer in the middle that holds 7,000 brats. It’s a supply concert goers enjoyed throughout the festival as Hensley said they saw a record numbers of purchases.
“This thing is on the road all over the country,” Hensley said. “(Our driver) tells us stories of people who are speeding past him and all of the sudden you see brake lights and they’re slowing back down. He’s says he’ll be driving along and they’ll have their cameras out taking photos.”
No matter your view it’s hard to hide this massive monster creating those perfect pork products. A meal served hot and a stomach well fed is a job well done for a man with one of the coolest jobs in the hot summer sun.
“For me it beats sitting behind a desk all day, I get to interact with people,” Hensley said.
