Spamarama canned?

Austin, Texas is known for its music and its IBM plant.

Another well-known attraction is the annual Spamarama festival spotlighting Austin, Minn.'s favorite Hormel-created meat product.

I've written about this in the past. Hormel Foods is not involved with the event, though the quasi-related Spam Mobile has made appearances.

Today I saw a column by John Kelso in the Austin Statesman foreshadowing that the festival may not gel this year.

It’s looking like Spamarama isn’t going to happen this fall as previously planned. The sticking point? Money.

Rob Lippincott, one of the owners of Guero’s Taco Bar on South Congress Avenue, has been trying to get Hormel, the Minnesota company that makes Spam, to put up $10,000 to help with the costs of putting on the traditional Austin festival that spoofs the potted pork product.

But apparently the Spam folks don’t want to pay that much to be made sport of.

“I think they offered $1,500 or something like that,” said Lippincott, who had hoped to put on Spamarama in September at the Triangle in North Austin. “We’re in the business of taking risks, but we don’t want to take too much. Especially on a deal like that. On this you make most of your money on entry fees. And if it rains that day, you get nothing.”

So, Lippincott added, “It doesn’t sound like it’s going to happen this year.”

Lippincott said part of the problem was that Hormel kept dragging its feet on deciding if it wanted to allow the cookoff to occur. And this close to the deadline, it’s just too risky, since he’s running out of time to find sponsors.

“We would have been happy with the $1,500 if they had given us an answer six months ago,” he said.

This will be only the second time in 30 years that Spamarama hasn’t happened in Austin.

In case you never made to a Spamarama, the competitive cookoff featured recipes that included Spam done just about every which way — such as Spamalama Ding Dongs, chicken-fried Spam, Spamguini, trouser trout (don’t even ask), Tequila Spamrise drinks, and the occasional really disgusting display — like the Spam facial, which featured a chick under a hair dryer with a Spam spread covering her face.

Comments

[Dr. Joe]

Spam is mislabeled as a food product. I use it when I feel irregular. Does the trick within 30 minutes.

[Jeff Kiger]

Uh…thanks for sharing, Joe.

Sort of like Hints from Heloise. Heh.