KIIC’s BaconTown Draws Huge Crowd

Svetlana Van Wyk of Sully was the grand prize winner of the BaconArt contest with her ‘Bacon Squared’ oil painting of Kevin Bacon eating bacon.   A 2013 Iowa State Fair oil painting champion, Svetlana took home a check for $1000.

Svetlana Van Wyk of Sully was the grand prize winner of the BaconArt contest with her ‘Bacon Squared’ oil painting of Kevin Bacon eating bacon. A 2013 Iowa State Fair oil painting champion, Svetlana took home a check for $1000.

A big crowd was on hand to celebrate all the creative ways bacon can be enjoyed Saturday at the Bridgeview Center in Ottumwa. Attendees had more than 50 items to sample from white cedar and bacon mac and cheese to bacon ice cream. The walls of the Bridgeview Center were transformed into storefronts that the vendors set up in front of to display their goods. KIIC owner Joe Milledge who organized the event says the crowd just kept coming. “Organizers are still tabulating all the numbers but it was a definite increase over our first year – probably by 50%”. Milledge said.

Svetlana Van Wyk of Sully was the grand prize winner of the BaconArt contest with her ‘Bacon Squared’ oil painting of Kevin Bacon eating bacon. A 2013 Iowa State Fair oil painting champion, Svetlana took home a check for $1000. Other art featured metal yard art, a 3 tiered bacon cake, and a bacon flower arrangement to name a few.

Cargill, one of the key sponsors of the event donated all the bacon to the vendors – as well as 150 pounds of bacon to the Southeast Iowa Food Bank. “Cargill is celebrating 150 years as a company so they wanted to do something meaningful and donate to a charity they frequently help” Milledge added.

In addition to the other activities, KIIC created the ‘Bacon Bits Ballot’ for attendees to take a scoop of bacon bits and put them into the jar of the presidential candidate of their choice. That story is here

Next year’s event is slated for August 6th, and Milledge already says plans are underway. “Many of our vendors ran out of food toward the end, we know we need to continue to grow this event and we have some exciting changes for next year”

Posted by on Aug 9 2015. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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