That’s fine, I’m just letting those who are playing along at home know that the usage is broad here in the Us as well, depending on where you are. In some corners of our land, it even gets so divisive that barbecue is explicitly pulled pork. I had a friend from North Carlina who refused to call anything else, regardless of cooking method, barbecue.
Well, you can get decent fresh homemade sausages at around $3/lb US, so that’s not really crazy. Pretty sure I’ve seen it as low as $2.49/lb or even $2/lb in my neighborhood recently, when pork prices are low (recently, a couple places here had shoulder at $0.99/lb, and that’s a typical cut to use for sausages.)
Yeah, in some of the pictures, the sausages look more like fresh, lightly spiced pork sausages, and in others, they almost look like a smoked Polish sausage,
“Had?”
The dude’s a bit extreme, but he has a case. 
Well, we’re still friends. Fine young Jewish guy taught me all about the glories of barbecued pig. 
Anyhow, but even in places like Tennessee or Mississippi, I’ve also often found that “barbecue sandwich” or just “barbecue” refers to pulled or chopped pork. That said, there are parts of the Midwest where the same refers to Sloppy Joes (a ground beef and tomato sauce dish served on a bun for our non-US friends.) So, like I said, it’s regional and anything goes. I bought a church cookbook from the 50s at an antique store in Wisconsin, and almost every single Sloppy Joe recipe was called a “barbecue.” (You’d be surprised how many Sloppy Joe recipes they had.) That will probably make the purists’ heads explode. (Though, to be honest, I tack towards the purist side of things in my own nomenclature. One can find my posts on this subject many times here–I think fatherhood and my age have softened me.)
This is pretty common in WI, more so in the smaller cities and towns. I know of at least one grocery chain that has a permanent booth set up in front of all their stores for just this purpose. The menu almost always consists of hot dogs, brats, hamburgers, chips, and soda. As mentioned, our large home/hardware store chains like Home Depot have a concession space at the exit so it’s unlikely to see a fundraiser set up at one of those. It would not surprise me to see one set up in front of one of the smaller chain stores like Ace or True Value. You will also see them at events like 5K races.
I don’t know about prices in Australia, but you can get some extremely cheap sausages in the US. My grocery store routinely has hot dogs at 6 cents per ounce, which works out to about 2.8 Australian dollars per kilogram. Now, granted, those will be very low-quality hot dogs, and good sausage will be much more, but then, from what you’re saying, Australian sausage sizzles are usually low-quality, too.
Two things to note / clarify about tailgating at US sporting events:
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As a general rule, tailgating is something that you do before game time. It’s a chance to have some food, and a beer or two, before heading into the stadium. Most tailgaters arrive several hours before game time, and are in the stadium once the game starts.
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At an NFL or MLB game, the concessions inside the stadium are almost undoubtedly extremely overpriced. Tailgating is a way to get some of that food and drink at a more affordable price.
With a few notable exceptions of stadiums which are in city neighborhoods (nearly always older stadiums, like Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium, and Fenway Park), most big US sports stadiums are surrounded by acres of parking lots, which undoubtedly helps foster tailgating.
Yeah, to put it into perspective, at a Cubs game, a hot dog is about $6 and a soft drink (approximately one pint) is almost $5. Want a beer? Try $9. And that’s on top of maybe an average of $40 per ticket. You’re definitely not getting much of anything for just a five (which is about US$3.75). Now, the Cubs are a bit more expensive than the league average, but even with the league average a hot dog and a beer is about $8.50. or $11.30 Australian.See here.
While they’re not called sizzles, these are pretty common in Alberta; typically Lion’s Club for the bigger events and a grill set up outside the grocery store on weekends for sport’s teams, etc.
Most of Canada would call the sausages smokies. Normal hot dogs and cheeseburgers would also be in play.
Truth be told, it’s usually middle aged men doing the cooking but hey, if you think prretty women will get you more sales… You’re right.
Oh yeah, thanks NP! Grilled kubies and a side of perogies with bacon, onions and an equal amount of sour cream! Yum!
The local supermarket occasionally has “meat” hot dogs on sale at $1.99/lb. My poodles love 'em!
Cheap hot dogs are sold cooked, though. There’s no equivalent raw sausage product at such a low price point. Which makes me sad.
Sonno Italiano il spirito!
I grew up in Omaha’s Little Italy, and every festival had at least one booth selling home made Italian sausage with peppers and onions on a fresh Rotella’s hoagy bun. You can get this at a dozen restaurants in the old neighborhood.
If you should ever stop here in Omaha, my niece Tracy sells the best sausage sandwich in town on 13th street about a mile south of the Old Market at The Ethnic Sandwich Shop
Okay, who’d like a banger in the mouth? Oh, right. I forgot. Here in the States, you call it a sausage in the mouth.
Pretty much the same in CA. “A barbecue” means burgers+hot dogs on a grill. Going to a “barbecue” restaurant means real BBQ (to the extent that it exists in CA). “Barbecue” applied to any item on a menu in a non-BBQ restaurant probably means it’s slathered in BBQ sauce.
Regarding the OP, “Beer and Brats” fundraisers are pretty common.
Maybe, but there are still hot dog vendors. While walking in downtown L.A., I’ve often seen at least one guy (or lady) selling $3 bacon-wrapped hot dogs from a little cart or table with a hot plate or grill, with cooked onions and peppers on one side and maybe a cooler of sodas and water bottles for a dollar if they’re ambitious enough. They make serious money outside the convention center, on account of the hot dogs inside the convention center are about $6 each.
Also, Costco (warehouse store/club) has a little snack bar outside most of its stores. No trip to Costco is complete without stopping for a hot dog and a soda or lemonade on the way out.
That was my first thought as well; I’m sure people would love to do this, but I have little doubt that the various permit, venue and health department requirements would make it a monstrous pain in the butt to do.
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For example, I went to a community Oktoberfest deal last fall, and one of the stands had to shut down, as they didn’t have a sink handy in their tent, and the health department requires that if they’re handling ingredients X, Y or Z, regardless if they’re wearing gloves, using tongs, and are at an outdoor festival.
That said, it’s not uncommon to find commercial street food vendors near there; my local hispanic grocery almost always has a taco stand near the doorway- outside if the weather’s nice, inside if not. Nothing quite like a $1 barbacoa taco…
Given Australia’s (IMHO justified) reputation as a nanny state, I’m actually surprised there aren’t a small rainforests worth of forms involved in trying to run a sausage sizzle - but fortunately, there isn’t. Basic food hygeine and remember to clean the grill, basically!
A million years ago in a simpler time, one of my scout troop’s main annual fundraisers was to set up a hot dog stand at the Old Home Days events on the town green. Not quite the same setup, but similar in concept. We sold a lot of hotdogs & sodas.
Not sure if they still do this or not. If they do, it’d have to be another in-town troop, as mine fell apart years after I left active scouting.
Around here, it’s more likely to be a spaghetti dinner.
Down south, maybe a fish fry. Or spaghetti dinner.
Really, I’m thinking, and for a meal-type thing? Spaghetti dinner.
Also, bake sales.
While I’ve never heard the term “Sausage Sizzle” We often see grilling stands and trailers outside certain large retailers or small sporting events selling hot dogs, brats, and burgers to raise money for Boy Scout troups and local charities.
Almost every Farmer Market and local festival has at least one stand selling fresh cooked sausages or other items you can eat as you peruse the market. That goes for art fairs, festivals, and other occasions.
And then there’s the food trucks that park outside the small breweries. Yum.
Tightly regulated in AUS too, but (in VIC) a sausage sizzle, where only bread, sausage, onion and sauce is provided, non-profit, nobody is paid, food is not stored for later service, is a class-4 activity, and all you have to do is notify the local government. They may inspect your operation.
Eggs, or hamburger, (which are notoriously risky elements) would make it a class-3 activity, which is the reason why the sausage-sizzle has now become such a stereotypical activity.
… The serviette /napkin is so that nobody, including the customer, touches the food. So that, when the council comes round to check your operation, they don’t close you down for improper food handling technique.