BACONFEST 2016

Posted by Liz and John Attaway, 4/8/16

Around the corner, the church bell rings. Its noon in Atlanta on a dreary, fog-laden, barely spring day with all the hope that bacon will bring sunshine and happiness. Yes, bacon. That means BaconFest 2016 was upon us with all its bacon-y glory. That unmistakable sizzle, that smoky goodness, hilarious games, and pair it with beer, and that’s BaconFest.  This year, fresh off purchasing new digs, Dad’s Garage moved the festival from Masquerade Music Park to their new location in Old Fourth Ward. What’s ironic is this irreverent bunch of improvers now reside in a church. But you know, that’s how they like it… ironic. New place, same fun.

The best, and our favorite activity at BaconFest is always the Hobo Wine Tasting. We remember the first year that we attended and I was fascinated by the sheer nastiness of the wine. To think that this year’s best in show was Arbor Mist Blackberry is a travesty. In what world is Arbor Mist ever good? Whatever you do, DO NOT try the Thunderbird. It’s rubbing alcohol light. Stay away! Everything in between is pretty gross as well, Night Train, Cisco (Strawberry & Peach), Mad Dog 20/20, and Wild Irish Rose. Fun fact: Dayroom, a local Athens band from the late 90’s had a song called, Irish Rose. They talk about drinking cheap wine and waking up stinking like Wild Irish Rose. We assume they mean this drink. WHY, Dayroom, why? Drinking it is one thing, but smelling like it? Gross.

Another game we enjoyed this year was the Battle Shots. Based on the game, Battleship, opponents guessed the location of the shots on the board. If you hit their boat, they would drink the corresponding shot. If they hit your boat, you drink your corresponding shot. Yes, we can see where this would turn you sideways but it was just Miller Lite in there. It was looking like we would win but unfortunately a guy with a cat face-painted on his forehead beat us. This game wasn’t really about winning or losing, but about getting to drink all your beer in a fun, interesting way. It was fun!

We got Rick Rolled at BaconFest! In the church’s basement, adjacent from the photo booth was a Rock Band set up. While we were sitting there, we hear “Never gonna give you up…” Yep, we just got Rick Rolled. We all laughed about it. Some of the other games included human Foosball, which the ball kept coming out of the game and knocking over people’s beers or hitting them in the head. You could get a kiss from the Clairemont Lounge’s world-famous, Blondie. Yeah, no thanks. Plus, there were the caricatures, roasting, and face-painting.

All-in-all between the bacon, bacon chips, beer, games, and improv skits, BaconFest didn’t disappoint. The weather was a little misty, with light rain mixed in early, but gave way to a pretty nice day overall. It didn’t keep the bacon lovers away. The lines got long, so thank Caren West PR for Whole Hog VIP! Since there was no actual VIP, they made separate lines at all the stations for Whole Hogers to get up front. It was pretty nice! Go Whole Hog next year!