A spirit of competition and creative excess is helping a local charity cook-off grow bigger and better, and in ways beyond the food offerings.
Great barbecue gets down the basics of smoke and seasoning, and sometimes maybe a little pit master intuition. It typically does not require LED displays, artificial turf, logo-printed swag, costumed characters or a playground slide modeled after gigantic strips of bacon.
But this kind of embellishment has become part of the recipe for success at Hogs for the Cause, an event returning this week to New Orleans City Park.
At its core, Hogs for the Cause is a cook-off themed around whole pigs and barbecue. Teams compete for awards while raising money for families dealing with pediatric brain cancer.
There are plenty of charity cook-offs raising funds for many worthy causes out there. But this one in particular has rapidly grown into a full-fledged music and food festival, adding more facets to raise money. I’m convinced that one reason this event has taken off like it has is the way Hogs for the Cause taps into a spirit of creative excess, the urge to bring it, and do it bigger and better and just more awesome wherever good times intersect with bragging rights.
So, as the event itself has grown in scope, the volunteer teams that put the hogs in Hogs for the Cause are putting more and more energy into the endeavor and that is manifesting itself in many different ways around the Hogs for the Cause experience.
Well-known New Orleans restaurant chefs have bought into Hogs for the Cause in a big way. Among the 80-or-so teams competing this weekend, many count high-profile chefs among their members. But plenty of others are composed of backyard barbecue enthusiasts from all walks of life and other people who simply like the sound of a weekend spent cooking, drinking, getting in some live music and hanging out together. While the competition for cooking awards is heated, these teams have also learned that they can stand out by upping the production value and stagecraft around the booths where the Hogs for the Cause public visits to sample their fare.
The resulting arms race has transformed mere cook-off booths into complex compounds and party pavilions, with sophisticated A/V equipment and lighting, decking and banners and stage settings worthy of a theater production. These souped up sites can take on the dimensions of a small campus or a serious wedding reception — with dining halls, hospitality tents and full-plumbed field kitchens.
Many teams are mum about their plans in advance, but this year you can look for a big barn structure with a blues motif from one team, a Bavarian-style beer garden from another and, yes, still another with a bacon slide.
Some of this building boom is practical. In the past this event has seen a lot of rain, and lot of mud, and teams are understandably eager to engineer more creature comforts. Some of it is calculated too — a more enticing booth can help bring in more customers, and more money for a team’s tally to the charitable contribution.
But the x-factor is fun, and again, the spirit of creative excess. That’s an impulse not to be under-estimated, especially in south Louisiana, and it’s one that runs through Hogs for the Cause like the smoke in great barbecue.
Hogs for the Cause
Friday, March 27, 3-11 p.m.
What: bands on two stages, drinks and snacks available for purchase from vendors
Where: City Park Festival Grounds
Saturday, March 28, from 11 a.m.
What: cook-off competition, bands on two stages, food available for purchase from cook-off teams
Where: City Park Festival Grounds
For advance tickets, ticket packages and band schedules, see www.hogsforthecause.org.
