The smell of bacon will permeate the campus of Iowa State University Saturday. The first ever ISU Bacon Expo is being held in the courtyard of the Scheman Center.
Bacon Expo student co-chair Kristin Liska is a senior at ISU studying animal science, with a minor in journalism. “The idea was founded by our College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Student Council President (Jake Swanson)…bacon is a hot topic right now and it’s just a way to showcase agriculture in general,” Liska says.
Iowa is the top pork producing state in the country. About 30 million hogs are raised in the state each year.
Liska says there will be 21 tents filled with vendors and student clubs offering a wide variety of bacon – everything from traditional bacon to bacon cupcakes. “I’ve heard of jalapeño bacon, Cookie’s barbecue bacon, and a maple sugar-pepper bacon that our ISU meat lab is doing,” Liska says.
The event will also include live music and a contest with the theme, “How Do You Wear Your Bacon?” Liska says the Iowa State Fashion Show has “paired” with the expo and will hold a contest with participants given one hour to construct an outfit made out of bacon on a model.
The 1,500 tickets for the event went on sale September 6 and sold out in two days. The inaugural ISU Bacon Expo will run from 1-5 p.m. Saturday. Liska says discussions are already underway for another Bacon Expo next year.
(reporting by Dan Skelton, KICD in Spencer, with additional reporting by Radio Iowa’s Pat Curtis in Des Moines)