DOWNTOWN — Chicagoans continue to flirt with their cholesterol levels.
Yet another bacon festival — no, not Baconfest, not the Bacon, Sports & Beer Celebration — is scheduled for Saturday.
This one, the Great American Bacon Festival, runs from 7-9:30 p.m. at Union Station's Great Hall, 500 W. Jackson Blvd. It's the same venue where the second annual Bacon, Sports & Beer Celebration just wrapped on Aug. 23.
"The only similarities we see between ourselves and these other festivals is the word 'bacon,'" said Rob Cressy, founder of the Bacon, Sports & Beer Celebration, which drew about 1,000 people.
Red Frog Events, the organizer of the new festival — incidentally, the same folks responsible for the Bacon Chase 5K and 0.05K — expects around 2,000 attendees on Saturday.
"We as a company love bacon. I mean, who doesn't?" said Jordan Diehl, Red Frog's director of public relations. "We don't think there's an end to the love of bacon in Chicago. This is also a nice way to extend summer as long as possible in Chicago."
But bacon consumption extends to all seasons, as organizers of Baconfest, the granddaddy of them all, can attest. The event, now in its seventh year, is in April at the UIC Forum. This year, about 4,500 people came, said co-founder Seth Zurer.
Baconfest's roster of participating restaurants was so large, it was split into three sessions. By contrast, the Great American Bacon Festival has partnered with Jewell Events Catering in West Town to provide all of the food, some 20 dishes from Cajun bacon-wrapped shrimp to bacon s'mores.
Diehl said there also would be informational sessions led by Michigan farmer Nate Robinson of Jake's Country Meats, a Green City Market purveyor, and Chicago writer and food historian Cynthia Clampitt, as well as a butchering demo by Red Meat Market, an online marketplace.
Tickets are $65 online until midnight Thursday; admission at the door is $80.
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