Festival of Bacon

Festival of Bacon…
The name alone, makes you want to imagine great things. How can a bacon festival be bad? Well the bacon itself was not the bad part, it was how poorly organized that deterred me.
There were plenty of booths, but I don’t think anyone imagined the magnitude of the event. Almost every booth had a line that took at least 20 mins. So if you wanted to try a little bit of everything, you would probably need to spend about 75% of your time waiting in line at the event.
I did enjoy the variety of bacon dishes though. From bacon ice cream to bacon jam, there wasn’t lack of creativity.
Unfortunately, I will most likely not come back. I did not have a good experience due to the long waits. I probably was only able to try 4 or 5 different things. Not worth it in my opinion.

This was the first year for the Festival of Bacon, held in Festival Park in Downtown Orlando. Gates opened at 11 a.m. — we arrived about 11:15 and it was already packed! The lines to get in were pretty long, but moved quickly. We bought a prepaid ticket that included Bacon Bucks — yay!
Overall — it was a good event, but there are some things they could change to make it a great event!
There was no real event map — so a bit hard trying to figure out where things were located.
The lines were LONG! There were a number of places to line up for bacon samples. Basically bacon cooked with different seasonings. There were also many different restaurants selling bacon items. This is where you need the bacon bucks. I found it tough to even get in line because there was a lack of signage to find out what you were standing in line for!
The food though — was great. We sampled a lot of different items and all left with happy, full bellies.
I really had two major complaints about the event.
1– Garbage. There were not enough garbage cans and the ones they did have were overflowing.
2– Drinks. It was HOT. There was little/​no shade and not many places to sit. That was ok. My bigger issues was that it was hard just to even buy a bottle of water. The drinks (water, soda) were sold at the same booth where you could buy all the beer, liquor. It was tough to stand in line with my kids just for water with everyone ordering complicated drinks and getting beer. They really need to separate the two.
But like I said… great event!

A little late on my review, but I agree with the majority of my fellow Unilocalers below… overpriced, overcrowded and disappointing. Parking was a bitch, food lines were insanely long, and the advertised «free samples» were simply two slices of bacon. Plus I was hoping for more creativity from the vendors offering food… a bacon cheeseburger or tacos topped with crumbled bacon doesn’t really make me think «Festival of Bacon.» It was cool that a signature bacon inspired cocktail was offered, but honestly, it tasted rank. I saw several people making ugly faces after taking their first sip.
However, I will add that there were a couple very good bites (the reason for my two star rating instead of one). The Smiling Bison hands down wins for best dish… a bacon fat biscuit topped with pork belly, tomato jam and some kind of greens tossed in bacon fat vinaigrette. Not only was it creative, but it was freakin’ delicious! I’m glad I got one because they sold out fast.
My suggestions for next year (if there is one), ease up on ticket prices, plan for more people, ditch the bacon bucks (what a pain!) and have more creative bacon offerings.

I don’t have much to add about this that hasn’t already been said. I felt that the event disappointed and it looks like I’m not alone in feeling that.
I was here for maybe 2 hours and tried only 5 pieces of bacon, all of which were from a single stand in one of the far corners of the event. Most of everything else that I sampled was an item that was supposed to be or somewhat was bacon-​flavored, but these items failed to impress. The aforementioned pieces of bacon were tasty, but weren’t anything special or that I couldn’t have prepared myself while at home.
I didn’t care for the «Bacon Bucks» concept, or whatever it was called. That was more than a little annoying. I spent most of my bucks on bottles of water, since it felt like it was 100 degrees outside. I must have purchased four bottles of water and maybe even one can of Coke, and since I didn’t bring much $ and didn’t feel that many of the items were worth using an ATM (if there even was one available?) for, I therefore did not get to eat much. Oh, well.
If this event is going to be held again in the future, the organizers may want to consider scheduling it during a cooler month. For me, that was the main problem. More and different flavors of bacon would’ve been nice, too.
I at least got in for free, thanks to an RSVP here on Unilocal.Still, I’m not sure this was worth my time. Sigh …

Many a reviewer before me has accurately described the suck-​a-​tude of this event, so I won’t detail what an abysmal rip-​off/​cluster-​fuck of a festival this was.
Instead, please read my tale of joy taken from this festival of woe:
Chaos and confusion creates opportunity. About three hours into the event, the Fireball girls succumbed to the heat and perhaps their properly allocated shift drinks; they abandoned their tent.
Into the sauna-​like humidity and cruel sunlight (sunlight so bright that it could have killed Akasha Queen of the Damned in minutes), a young, slightly built, raven haired women appeared. Her glowing skin was of a light, cinnamon hue. She was clad in shorts smaller than some swim suits, and her aqua colored spaghetti strapped belly shirt made for a fine décolletage.
This dark haired Robin Hoodette found an abandoned bag of bacon bucks in the Fireball tent. She proceeded to hand out these dollars in the style of Lil Wayne and Fat Joe at a strip club. Being rained upon with Bacon Bucks improved morale for a while, and I think the lady escaped, through Sherwood Forest, to Lou’s Lounge unscathed.

Purchased my tickets off the Living Social deal. Luckily my tickets were free since I convinced a group of friends to join in this event. As part of Living Social’s promotion, if three people to buy from your referral and your tickets are free.
I arrived at 11:30 a.m. and parked at the plaza called Colonial Promenade (?) They have a Staples, Ulta, etc in that plaza since all the parking was full.
We walked through the entrance where the volunteer were checking your tickets. Snarky volunteer commented that I was wasting my bacon eating time since I didn’t immediately approach him to show my voucher. Whatever. At the entrance they SHOULD’VE been carding people and putting wrist bands for those who were 21+. Instead, bouncers were going around drink stations during the event questioning people once they already had a drink in their hands.
After our whole party crossed the entry line a volunteer explained to the guests where to purchase bacon tickets and what venders were in what sections. Everyone in my party purchased $ 10 in bacon bucks.
First stop was the Shipyard Brew Pub to try their bacon beer. $ 3 bacon bucks.
«This celebration of all things bacon offers more than 30,000 samples of all types from dozens of vendors.» LIES
But here the Elusive bacon samples
Bacon cupcake (no wait)
Bacon chili (15 min)
Bacon from tent #1 (30 min) soo greasy
Bacon from tent #2 (they ran out so we left the line after 15 min)
Purchased
Bacon beer (didn’t taste like bacon)
Cold bacon taco wrap ($ 3 bacon bucks) Had no bacon in it –_​–
Bacon cookie ($ 1 bacon buck) Did not taste like bacon at all
Bacon brioche ($ 3) Bread was stale. Brioche was okay. Best part was the cherry tomato
Bacon cupcake
By 1:30 PM my group was fed up with the long lines, unforgiving heat, and mediocre food. Even though my tickets were «free» this event was not worth it. I felt so guilty for convincing my friends to attend because they did pay for admission + food. Some of them didn’t even use all their bacon bucks yet. This was a glorified, over priced food truck rally with limited vendors.
Overall, event did not meet any of our expectations. I was so disappointed because I truly thought I would have a wonderful bacon experience. I could’ve enjoyed a delicious magical dining meal at a sit down restaurant with air condition with the price of the tickets+parking+bacon bucks. At least the money went to charity.
I left the event still hungry. Handed my Unilocal fan to the volunteer ushering guests at the exit and went to Burger 21 for real food.
Next time if I want free samples, I will just go to Sam’s Club. At least they’re generous with their portions. No lines + AC is an incentive as well.

Promised free samples of bacon, I couldn’t find any. I couldn’t find free anything!
Even samples of dog treats which are normally given away for free, cost a bacon buck.
I expected creative culinary creations involving bacon, I received a hot dog with a slice of bacon.
Rip Off pure and simple. I wish there was some way I could get my money back. It was THAT bad.

I bought a Living Social deal — at least I didn’t pay full price.
Parking: It wasn’t too bad around 2:30 P.M., but I heard it was horrendous earlier in the day. Maybe they should have anticipated the amount of people who would come based on the number of ticket sales prior to the event. Or maybe that’s asking too much.
Samples: One sample of bacon. At least it was a good sample. Plus the bacon chili, which was delicious and the best thing I had there. The number of samples was definitely overstated though it’s possible we got there too late.
Food: My fiancée and I were really looking forward to this event, but when we got there, most of the vendors seemed to be packing up to leave or they had sold out of food. If the event goes until 7 P.M., you should be prepared to serve food until at least 5:30 — 6 P.M.
End Result: I wouldn’t go to another event like this unless I knew it would be more organized. Good concept but poor execution.

I have had some time to digest the experience known as the «Festival of Bacon» and the conclusion is Fail.
I am not going to bitch and moan about admission. I got 4 tickets at a pre sale price and a discount code for $ 15 which included $ 10 in bacon bux so when all was said and done, it cost me $ 20. Now the value of said bacon bux is definitely valid. There was hardly anything bacon inspired to buy with these things. So it was spent mostly on over priced drinks and sub par food truck fare.
They definitely over sold this event. Parking was a huge mess. We just decided to park in the Colonial Promenade plaza and inconspicuously walk over to the park hoping that they didn’t send the tow truck convoy in. Thank you OPD and Colonial Promenade for understanding.
Aside from some «free» bacon samples, I had a hard time finding the bacon. Those vendors that were there without anything bacon to offer, shame on you. This is the Festival of Bacon for goodness sake.
The best was having the live band play and the DJ spinning tracks simultaneously. Big props to whoever planned that. And while I am on it, the DJ, terrible. Look man, just play the song and stop talking over it every two seconds with «I see you over there» to anyone who may have bobbed their head for a split second. I swear someone could have been having a seizure and the DJ would have shouted out to them «I see you over there, that is how you move it.»
Trash was everywhere. I saw like one person emptying trash and he was on break most of the day. What a mess.
Lines were ridiculous but if you didn’t want to starve and had those freakin bacon bux to get rid of, then you had to stand by to stand by.
The best thing I was able to sample was the bacon chili from the Orlando Chili Cookoff guys.
In the end this was the Festival of Failure.

I thought it was me. I thought it was because I wasn’t feeling 100%. I thought it was because I had been out the night before. I thought maybe I was just more tired than I realized. I felt bad that we were leaving after being there less than an hour. Then I read the other reviews.
It wasn’t just me. When you say Bacon, you better be able to back up your promises and expectations. My husband put it best when he said it felt like it was a festival put on by a bunch of kids. No harm meant to the numerous volunteers, but whoever was leading the charge was definitely on a sinking ship.
We did luck out with a few of the bacon-​buck bought bites we tried. They were good, but I was surprised there seemed to be more vendors (ant not necessarily bacon-​related) than food sellers or samplers. Am I beating myself up for leaving and going to the Food & Wine Fest at Epcot? Not one bit. Do I wish I would have saved on the ticket cost even though I got a deal on Living Social? Well, sort of. I won’t say I’ll never go again, but it will be a long time before I drive out of my way for this event.

I have to chime in with my own experience. We bought our tickets early online and showed up around 2pm (after all, it was supposed to be an 8 hour affair) to find that there was nearly zero parking. We paid $ 10.00 for parking at the Central Florida Leadership Academy which was probably the only money well-​spent since it went towards a school.
I had no idea there were going to be «Bacon dollars». I suppose I didn’t read the event description carefully but I can’t imagine the logic behind this aside from ripping off event-​goers.
There were plenty of alcohol tents with long lines but by the time we had arrived, most of the vendors had run out of dishes. We ordered a «bacon wrapped sausage» from a food truck with a short line. I was expecting a sausage encased in bacon. There was just one sliced haphazardly secured by a toothpick round the middle.
We then stood in line for bacon ice cream, but they ran out before we could get one.
None of the dishes we could see were interesting or imaginative. One poor guy at a cooking demonstration booth was positioned right in front of the Red Bull DJ who was inexplicably playing house music. I felt sorry for him because it was impossible to hear anything he was saying so he didn’t have an audience to demonstrate to.
This whole event felt like an expensive, disorganized tailgate. I probably would have enjoyed myself more if I just set fire to $ 35 dollars myself. Same thing.
Unless they do away with admission, I will probably never attempt going to this festival again.

I’d like to suggest a new rule for next year’s Festival of Bacon: If you want to be a vendor, you must have at least one item on your menu that involves bacon. Preferably SHOWCASES bacon. Because that’s why we’re here. I’m not talking about giving me a hamburger slider with one tiny piece of bacon on it. Do it right.
What is Pretzel Crisps doing here? Go away. Take the vendors with no bacon-​related content with you. I’m not here to buy t-​shirts or energy drinks.
Oh yeah. And don’t charge me $ 25 (without the Unilocal discount it would have been $ 35) just to get in when the vendors are charging $ 3 to $ 5 for everything as well. I’m not saying it needs to be free, but that price is ridiculous.
Trash was everywhere. In an event that revolves around eating and drinking a lot, there’s going to be a lot of trash. Certainly there’s no excuse to have trash cans so few and far between that I had to actively search for them every time I needed one. And no recycling? Come on.
The drink tents offered a bacon cocktail, quite possibly one of the most vile things I’ve ever tried. Apparently they were doing the bacon infusion themselves? Here’s a hint: Not everything infuses well, and when it does, whatever you throw in the bottle is almost always inedible after all of the flavor has been leeched out of it. They put a piece of bacon in that drink that must have been a part of the infusion process. It was soggy, gritty cardboard with no flavor and it put me off in a big way. The drink itself was hideous, and the only reason I managed to get through about half of it is because it cost me $ 8.
Some vendors did pretty well (Meat House with the bacon burger and bacon brussel sprouts, Station with the pork belly sliders), but others really seemed to be phoning it in. Wildsides had nothing bacon, and their pulled pork sandwich was lukewarm and uninteresting. We couldn’t even TRY the bacon ice cream that one vendor offered, because after waiting for a while in the line that was stretched to the back fence, they said that they had a problem with their freezer and it would be another 30 minutes before they could start serving again.
By that time, we had pretty much given up on the festival. BUT we still each had $ 10 in Bacon Bucks (i.e., «rip off dollars») that we HAD to spend because it’s not like we could get our money back for them.
Parking: well, I was okay with parking because I found an area where everyone was just jumping curbs to park for free in a grassy area, so I did that. Did you want me to park somewhere else? A sign or two would have been nice.
There will have to be some serious changes before I consider doing this again.

I guess my expectations for this were pretty low, because I did end up having an OK time! (That was probably more about the company that I was with, but I digress.)
I did pay for parking, but I wasn’t really butthurt about it, since we arrived from Jacksonville around 2pm. (And the lot was actually pretty close!) By that time, there were no lines to get in, so we didn’t have to deal with that chaos either.
The bacon bucks were a bit annoying… especially when we were over it and ready to go, so we made someone really happy with an additional $ 15 that we handed out at random when walking out.
I do agree with everyone about the admission. I bought my tickets on LivingSocial, and would have been pisssed if I had to pay regular price. I again, agree with everyone else that if you are going to charge that price at the door… then there better be some pretty spectacular vendors going on. This was a basic food truck/​booth festival and some of the booths had bacon.
Even thou we came late, we did get some free samples. (nothing special, pretty greasy and no napkins to be found anywhere.) The Elvis cookie (peanut butter, banana, bacon) was pretty good. We were in the line to try the bacon ice cream as they ran out. :(booo.
All of the decent beer was sold out so we had to suffer through a few nasty Miller Lites. It happens.
All in all? Would I go back? Probably not. If it was in my town? Only if I had free tickets. Not counting the gas from Jax, we ended up spending about $ 125 for everything… definitely not worth it… but I have awesome friends and we made the most of it!

I was looking fwd to some darn bacon and we Couldn’t even get in! Thank god I didn’t pay for my ticket! This place was over crowded and although there were some parking spots open they weren’t letting anyone in! We’ll at least it gave me time to go get my knew iPhone 5s lol…

Hope the event organizers read this :)
This event had a lot of potential and needs to be better organized next time. I have to agree on some points with other reviewers, the free parking if you checked in on Unilocal didn’t pan out. They didn’t honor that or said it filled up too quickly to offer it. I was there early to park so I know the parking was still plentiful. On a positive side we had some really great food at Shipyard, Anthony’s, and Wildsides BBQ tables. I would say Shipyard with free beer mini cups and the little bacon sliders were great. I also has some really fantastic maple bacon cupcakes and candied bacon. That was the highlight of the day! So for next time, the ticket admission price should be way less since it was more like a food truck rally and not a food sampling festival. I got tickets via Living Social and didn’t get any bacon bucks to spend. The vendors there pretty much charged between $ 3-​$ 6 in bacon bucks for everything, so that really added up quickly. I think the press about the event with the «sampling» was really inaccurate, I had one beer sample and one bacon sample and that was all I found for samples. Maybe the samples ran out quickly? I would suggest that the vendors could have done a better job with providing samples, and also posting their menus on larger signs, like you see at many outdoor events or on food trucks. With the long lines it was hard to see menus of what was being offered. I would go back again if the event was more organized and the tickets were less $. I have to admit the food I had was great, but disappointed by the lack of sampling and that some vendors ran out of food quite early in the day. It just seemed like a lot of hassle waiting in a long line (in the sun) just to get a little bit of bacon-​y food. There seemed to be a lot of people there, so this event was very popular, but more samples and better signage was needed to keep the flow of people organized. Have to say that the Unilocal tent was awesome fun! Loved the photo booth and the Unilocal staff were lots of fun!

Darn it if we couldn’t even get in! All of the lines for parking were backed up with signs that said the lots were full. Even though we could see empty spots peppered through the area through the fence. Frustrating.

To the booty shorts wearing server at «The Station» bacon stand … Diggin your wedge out your booty shorts and touching the good is way too much cheese for my bacon

I wanted to love this but… so much room for logistical improvement.
Parking was insanity. After driving around several times, no legal parking was to be had anywhere (as someone else mentioned, hey, I can see through that fence, there are empty spots and people exiting… wtf?). Fortunately I was with a friend who had no compunctions with hopping a curb in his truck and securing us a «spot». I do want to give props to the City of Orlando for not sending in a massive police/​tow truck army, which would have made things a thousand times worse.
In general, it was much like a food truck fair, with many long lines. There was also nowhere to stand and enjoy my food without being in the path of traffic (bring a blanket you say? I couldn’t really find a good area to camp either. I think there might have been spots in the sun near the Red Bull stage, but ehhh. Distributing a map would have been handy. Staff at the entrance had *no* time to chat). Many vendors were out of things I wanted to try (and this was at 2:30pm — can’t imagine what it will be like later), sometimes you found that out before standing in line, sometimes you didn’t. Many of the food offerings were kind of predictable (BLT, bacon-​wrapped hot dog) or else were gut-​busting for the sake of being gut-​busting (bacon/​peanut butter/​cheez whiz burger). My favorite food item that I tried was OLV’s bacon-​jalapeño pancakes. Also picked up a jar of their bacon jam for experimentation at home. I didn’t get a free sample of anything offered to me anywhere — no idea where those were — and I can see that not going over well with anyone who paid full price to get in.
Also, though I did see staff attempting to rectify this, there were overflowing garbage cans errwhere and quite a bit of randomly abandoned trash. On the upside for my dog, he was able to enjoy a LOT of bacon, sausages and hot dog buns from the ground, which people had dropped and not bothered to attempt to clean up. If your dog gets sick easily when eating people food, this is probably not the place to bring him or her.
Overall, if this is going to be a recurring event and not just a one-​off designed to separate Orlando residents from as much of their money as possible, the concept needs some refining. Smaller event with emphasis on gourmet food/​drink? Collect a small donation at the door and make it more like a food truck event? As is, it was a little too chaotic, with far better marketing than execution.

Wow so glad I had the privilege of spending $ 35 a ticket to have the privilege to spend MORE money. Seriously, that admission price got me two (count em, two) pieces of Hormel’s finest.
I’ve never felt more ripped off than I did today. Awful job across the board.

I got in free due to a Unilocal hook up, so I can’t complain about the pricing. I know it was $ 25 if you bought your ticket ahead of time and that included $ 10 in bacon bucks to spend. I still got the bacon bucks so I was happy about that. At the end of the day I would have been okay with the price as long as I had bought my ticket ahead of time and gotten the $ 10 in bacon bucks. I can understand why people paying at the door were unhappy.
There were a LOT of parking issues. I got there only 30 minutes after it opened and the free parking they were bragging about was completely full. I ended up parking at a shopping center on Colonial and hoping that I didnt get a ticket or towed (neither happened).
Plenty of tents with different vendors, but I really expected more samples with the price of admission. Other than the «free bacon sample» tents on the one side there weren’t any other samples. Thankfully the long lines at the bacon sample tents went fast and the bacon was tasty. If you wanted something to eat you had to bust out your bacon bucks. Even the tents where you had to pay for food had really really long lines. They did have plenty of places to get a drink so I was happy about that. I actually got a drink as soon as I got there since I knew that eventually I would be standing in a long line.
The food I did get was fabulous, so that was good. A lot of different options that ranged for $ 1 on up, so you could make your $ 10 go a ways if you tried.
A couple random things… plenty of places to wash your hands, but I had a hard time finding garbage cans. Only place to sit was a tent on one side of the grounds, no where on the other side. WAY more shade needed if they are going to keep it this time of year — it was SO hot. Entertainment was good and you could hear it on either side of the grounds. Handing out a map of where vendors are at the gate would be SUPER helpful. I heard lots of people wondering where particular stuff was and getting frustrated when they couldnt find it.
Definitely needs some help for next year, but I think they can swing it. It is a great concept. Hopefully they will read all the reviews and take the suggestions & comments into consideration :)