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The 9 best bacon festivals across the US

Pure bacon madness. Bacon Sundaes, Miso Bacon Steamed Buns, Chicken Bacon Apple Sausage Sliders and Thai Style Curried Coconut and Bacon Paella all washed down with a Maple Bacon Old Fashion. That’s just the tip of the bacon iceberg when you attend bacon festivals like the first festival on our list, the annual Bacon & Barrels Festival. Bacon & Barrels, Los Olivos and San Diego Held annually in July in Los Olivos and annually in May in San Diego, Bacon & Barrels brings out 1,700 people and 75+ top chefs, distilleries, wineries and craft beer makers. From bourbon infused with bacon to bacon inspired tacos, the sky is the limit. Wear lose pants and prepare yourself for one epic bacon food coma after attending this festival. Bacon and Barrels Festival Zingerman’s Camp Bacon, Ann Arbor, Michigan Camp Bacon takes loving bacon to a whole new level. Attendees celebrate the history of bacon, bacon-making and bacon art all while listening to music and poems inspired by the meat of the hour – bacon! 2014 Bacon Bowl, Bentonville, Arkansas Chefs and amateur cooks put their creativity to the test during this annual festival. Competing in either the entrée category or the dessert category, the Bacon Bowl is the ultimate bacon show down. Ready, set, bacon! Bacon festival Baconfest Chicago, Chicago, Illinois With the festival officially only running for two days, Baconfest Chicago takes the fun a step further with a week of preview events leading up to the big days like a Baconfest Cocktail Kickoff Party, Bacon Cocktail Tour, a Baconfest Past Masters Kickoff Dinner and Neighborhood Bacon Crawls. You can never have too much bacon, can you? Only one way to find out Beer Wine Food: Bacon Edition, Glendale, Ohio With all proceeds of this festival going to The Cure Starts Now Foundation, a foundation funding pediatric cancer research, eating bacon has truly never felt so good. Held in “Porkopolis,” Cincinnati’s historic meat processing city-center, there’s not much to not like about this beer, wine and bacon themed festival. Big Bite Bacon Fest, Long Beach, California Californians take their bacon-eating seriously. Like, next level seriously. With dishes like meatballs wrapped in bacon, bacon donuts, pork belly sandwiches and more, accompanied with craft beer from places like LA-based Angel City brewery, there’s a lot of eating and drinking to look forward to at this event. Bacon festival Hormel Black Label Bacon Fest, San Diego, California Held on International Bacon Day, you know the folks that run this festival aren’t messing around. With 20 eateries and 25 breweries serving unlimited tastings, things just might get a little hog-wild. Southwest Bacon Festival, Albuquerque, New Mexico Beyond the typical bacon snacking, beer tasting and live music listening that goes on at most bacon festivals, this one raises the bar by also offering bacon eating contests, bacon film screenings, bacon photography, bacon art and bacon poetry contests. Yep, that just about covers everything. Bacon festival Ozarks Bacon Fest, Springfield, Missouri If you’ve ever wondered how much bacon you can eat in two minutes, the Ozarks Bacon Fest has a challenge for you. Their bacon eating contest is definitely not to be missed and a highlight of this day-long festival. Now that you’ve gone through the list, which bacon festival are you most excited to attend?

Breanna Wilson

Breanna is a Travel Foodie and complete Travel Bad*ss. She loves to eat weird foods around the world and find unique adventures to get into. She’s a Trippy.com and FlyingYak.com Travel Ambassador and you can follower her adventures on Instagram and Twitter under the username @breannajwilson.

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2 Comments

  1. I love this, Breanna. Bacon is my weakness. I did the BaconChase 0.05k race in Chicago with all-you-can-eat bacon at the finishline. 3 plates of bacon later and a mechanical pig ride, it was bad news. These seem much less athletic.

  2. I went last year to the first annual Bacon Bowl in Fayetteville, AR. And it was delicious! (Mmm, bacon wrapped chicken in white truffle oil…) Can’t wait to go back to this year’s event, which has been moved to Bentonville. Can a person get tired of bacon? Nah!

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