Bacon daze: Indiana Bacon Festival celebrates popular pork product, vital Delphi industry

DELPHI, Ind. — Amid all the hoopla surrounding the 2024 elections, the Indiana Bacon Festival has a ticket that most everyone can agree on — “Bacon for President 2024.”

“We have an event theme every year and a T-shirt and this year’s theme is one that I think everyone will enjoy,” said Julia Leahy, the executive director of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce in north-central Indiana.

And yes, there will be a T-shirt.

“We will have T-shirts for sale and other themed swag,” Leahy said.

The Indiana Bacon Festival will take place on Saturday, Aug. 24, in downtown Delphi.

The festival, now in its 11th year, celebrates not only the popular pork product, but the local industry that produces it — Indiana Packers Corporation, which produces Indiana Kitchens bacon.

The emphasis of the festival is on “bacon, bands and brews,” and festival organizers make sure that there is plenty of all three for visitors.

“If you come to a bacon festival, you want to make sure that there is plenty of bacon. We are pretty particular about the food vendors we choose. All of those food vendors must have Indiana Kitchens bacon in some of their products,” Leahy said.

“I always tell people you aren’t going to find chicken legs or cotton candy — unless it’s bacon flavored or wrapped in bacon.”

Indiana Packers donates Indiana Kitchens bacon to the festival for the vendors to use and feature in their festival menus.

This year, one of the 18 food vendors slated to attend has done just that.

“We have a cotton candy vendor this year who has bacon-flavored cotton candy,” Leahy said.

Vendors get to try their hand with new dishes that include bacon.

“One of our new vendors is an Italian restaurant and he’s going to have bacon ravioli. The festival gives these amazing food folks opportunities to experiment and try different recipes with bacon, from bacon-wrapped asparagus to bacon mac ‘n cheese and all kinds of sweet treats,” Leahy said.

“We have a local vendor who makes a cupcake that is maple and bacon and she makes these tiny little pancakes that are stacked on top. Her maple bacon long johns always sell out.”

Bands and live music is another important part of the festival that runs all day and into the evening in downtown Delphi.

“One of the highlights is live music. We always have an amazing musical lineup and this year’s headline act is Lou Gramm, the lead vocalist for Foreigner,” Leahy said.

Gramm performs at 9:15 p.m., preceded on the main stage by Young Kingdom, The Indigos, and Escape: A Tribute to Journey.

Another important part of the festival is brews and that carries a local flavor, as well.

“We have a brew garden where we feature Indiana beer and wine. Most of those that are in the brew garden are made in Carroll County. We also have a couple from neighboring counties so it’s a neat way to showcase three breweries and three wineries,” Leahy said.

The 2024 Indiana Bacon Festival Brew Garden features Crasian Brewing Company of Brookston, Arwin’s Acres Brewery and Meadery of Delphi, Fontana Farms Brewing of Delphi, Hooker Corner Winery of Pine Village, Teays River Brewing of Lafayette and Whyte Horse Winery of Monticello.

The festival focuses on a family-friendly atmosphere, too, with a family fun zone that offers activities for children of all ages.

“We want it to be family friendly and good for kids of all ages,” Leahy said.

The event is by admission. Advance tickets are $10 and tickets at the gate are $20. Children age 12 and under get free admission.

“The entry fee gets you access to all four concerts and free samples of bacon,” Leahy said.

“It is a gated event and then you buy food and drink tickets. Everything is done in tickets to make it easier for everybody,” Leahy said.

Some 250 to 300 volunteers from 16 local nonprofit organizations will be working at the festival, wearing their “Will Work for Bacon” T-shirts.

The proceeds from the festival are donated back to those nonprofits. The festival has donated back around $250,000, Leahy said.

The volunteer T-shirts are so popular that volunteers will work just for the shirt.

“We always have people who come up and say, ‘I can spend a couple of hours volunteering, what do you need?’ They get free admission to the event and the coveted ‘Will Work for Bacon’ T-shirt,” Leahy said.

The festival takes over the Delphi downtown.

“Delphi is a town of about 3,000 residents. We take over the downtown streets and we more than triple the population of the community for that day,” Leahy said.

Every detail of the festival is designed so that visitors can relax and enjoy bacon, band and brews.

“You can park for free at the high school. Camp Tecumseh and the Delphi United Methodist Church run their shuttle buses, so you can bring your lawn chairs, park for free and take the shuttle downtown,” Leahy said.

The festival was the idea of a former mayor of Delphi, who wanted a way to celebrate the town’s largest employer and the area’s agriculture industry. Leahy said the first year of the festival, around 4,000 visitors showed up.

“We didn’t have any idea what to expect,” she said.

Indiana Packers Corporation is a major employer for Delphi and Carroll County, with the Delphi processing facility employing some 2,200 workers.

“They make a big impact here. They work with local nonprofit groups, they donate meat products and they also support the Wabash and Erie Canal Park,” Leahy said. “I can’t picture what it would be like here without that employer, to be honest.”