The South Carolina Peach Festival could become a weekend affair following the recent approval of the 2010 festival dates.

The festival board of governors locked in the dates of July 15-17 so it could schedule next year’s barbecue contest around the availability of Kansas City Barbecue Society officials. The nonprofit organization sanctions contests and provides judges for nearly 300 barbecue competitions in 44 states.

The “Butts and Breasts” barbecue competition team will represent the Peach Festival on Oct. 24 at the 21st annual Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational Barbecue in Lynchburg, Tenn. The Peach Festival was able to place its winner in the Jack Daniels contest after Gov. Mark Sanford designated the Peach Festival as a state championship barbecue event.

The peach festival has already started making plans for next year’s barbecue competition and other events.

Board member Bobby Beattie was chosen as the festival board chairman this month and will officially take office Oct. 1.

Beattie said the festival board is discussing ways to shorten the festival.

“We are looking at a condensed festival where most events would be held over one weekend,” Beattie said. “We want to get the community involved in helping plan the festival. We plan to discuss holding a community forum so we can get input from people on what they would like to see at the festival.”

The barbecue competition will be held over the weekend along with traditional activities such as the dessert contest, Family Fun Day, golf tournament and a beach music concert.