Spamarama

Festival Location: Austin, TX, USA

Festival State: Texan Festivals

Festival Type(s): Food Festivals, Bizarre Festivals

By: © Nelson Taylor 2009

Not many American cities contain the perfect measure of eccentricity and redneck needed to pull off an event based around Spam. But Austin does, and locals Dick Terry and David Arnsburger have been pulling it off in style since 1978 at this annual Pandemonius Potted Pork Party. Their idea sizzled out of a conversation about the Texas tradition of barbecue and chili cook-offs. Believing that traditional cook-offs were easy, Dick remarked that real cooks should be measured by whether of not they can make Spam taste good. Hence, the Spam-Off was born.

Other events include the Spam Toss, the Spam Burger Eating Contest and the newest of the bunch, the Pork Pull. This is a tug-o-war event, where each team tries to pull the other into a pool of Spam jelly. Spamarama now attracts almost 10,000 people every May. Price for entry is $5.