Festing: Hogs for the Cause, My Favorite Festival

Hogs for the Cause! Eat all the pork!

My absolute favorite New Orleans festival is Hogs for the Cause. Every year at the festival grounds at City Park, Hogs has a food and music festival, raising money to donate to pediatric brain cancer research and care. Teams from all over cook mouth-watering pork dishes, from the traditional ribs, tacos, and sliders, to culinary creations such as a corn dog with pimento filling, pork grits, a pork filled “hupig” pie, bacon sundaes, and pretty much any other thing of which you can think, just add pork. This was our fourth year attending, over the weekend of March 27-28, 2015, and once again, it did not disappoint.

This year’s Hogs was probably my favorite one yet. The layout was perfect, with everything spread out enough so that you don’t feel crowded, but close enough so that it still feels like a small festival. This year, there were over 40 teams that participated in Hogs, many with pun-filled names like 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, Deuce Pigalow Pork Gigolo, Notorious P.I.G., Piggy Stardust, and The Pig Lebowski. We had several friends that worked at a booth, including Swineaux and Up in Smoke.

Pictures Don’t Do the Food Justice, But We Will Try

We bought the 2 Day PassPork, which let us in both Friday and Saturday and gave us each $45 in Hoggy Dollars. Though there were limited menus on Friday, Saturday was an all-out gorge fest. I can’t even begin to describe all the different types of ways pork was cooked, but here are some photos that show some of the samplings.

More Than Just Food

Besides the food, there were other activities to keep people of all ages entertained, including plenty of cornholes, a bacon slide, lots of photo ops to put your face through and become a pigs in various funny clothes, some homemade carnival-type games like spinning wheels to win prizes, and, of course, music.

We spent most of our time by the NOLA Brewing Stage. Friday night, we enjoyed Uncle Lucius, Strand of Oaks, and Drive-By Truckers. It was really cold by the time the sun set, so I spent most of Drive-By Truckers tucked in warmth of my blanket on my chair. I thoroughly enjoyed Uncle Lucius and Strand of Oaks. Kurt owns Heal on vinyl by Strand of Oaks, so I had heard of them slightly before, and they did not disappoint. Kurt has a whole blog planned for just them, so I’ll save the juicy details of the show for him.

On Saturday, we enjoyed Hiss Golden Messenger in the afternoon. We unfortunately had to miss Tab Benoit and The Soul Rebels due to plans that evening, but I can pretty much guarantee that they were enjoyed by everyone that were there.

I am already looking forward to next year and I hope that if you haven’t had a chance to make it out there yet, that next year you can. Not only is it for an amazing cause (helping kids with brain cancer), but it is by far one of the best festivals in New Orleans. Hope to see you all next year at City Pork for a fabulously fun-filled two days!