It’s an event my family has talked about for months…Festival of Bacon!

Last year we went to a Bacon Festival in Orlando which was basically bacon cook-off between food trucks.  It was pretty awesome.

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!

Festival of Bacon – Bacon Bucks

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.  Now- I leave you with food porn!

Bacon Cannoli

Bacon fat chocolate chip cookie

Patrick and bacon

Brendan and bacon

Pork taco topped with bacon