Spamorama 2007
Written by Sean French   
SpamoramaSaturday, April 7, 2007: Noon 'til 6pm Waterloo Park: 403 E. 15th St., Austin Texas. Austin's annual pandemonious potted pork festival,does its part to ?Keep Austin Weird? celebrating its 29th anniversary.

(from Spamorama.org history)
What a year 1978 was! Jimmy Carter was President to 222.6 million Americans whose life expectancy was 73.5 years. The U.S. Senate approved a treaty to turn over the Panama Canal to Panama by the year 2000. The Dallas Cowboys won Super Bowl XII. Both Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul I died. Jim Jones followers committed mass suicide in Jonestown. The first SPAMARAMA? was held. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Menachim Begin and Anwar el-Sadat following their meetings with President Carter at Camp David. The first spam email was sent. Annie Hall won best picture. Hotel California was Record of the Year.

You read it correctly, the first SPAMARAMA? was held in 1978! Two bar patrons?David Arnsberger and Dick Terry?and one bar owner? George Majewski?pooled resources, may have consumed some suds and established what has become an annual rite of Spring passage for Austin, Texas. Their thinking? BarBQ cook-offs, too easy. Chile Cook-offs, pass?. Show us the brave souls who can present SPAM? dishes that the public would consume and that would be a competition worthy of notoriety. And so, it came to pass (sic).

The event has matured and evolved since 1978. The SPAMALYMPICS? Competitions have become a draw for the adoring public. A kid?s area is feeding and nurturing the notion that SPAMARAMA? is becoming more of a ?family event.? SPAMARAMA? resembles other public fairs with it?s retail and food alley and the occasional silent auction benefiting a local non-profit agency, Disability Assistance of Central Texas.

Locations have pin balled around south and central Austin from three Soap Creek Saloons to Scholz Garten, Austin Opera House, Green Mesquite, La Zona Rosa, Cedar Door, East 6th Street, Auditorium Shores, Austin Music Hall and Waterloo Park.

Judges have pin balled their way through the SPAM? Cook-0ff tent, caught between the creative delicacies of master chefs in the Professional Division and the only-to-be-avoided entries of the ?artistic? entries in the Open Division. The judge?s directory includes a ?who?s whom? of Austin open-mindedness: Jim Hightower, Mel & Joyce Pennington, John Kelso, Eddie Wilson, Guich Koock, Max Nofziger, Bryan Beck, Kerry Awn, Linda Wetherby, Gordon Fowler, Molly Ivins, Nick Barbaro, Liz Carpenter, Billy Forrester and Jackie Goodman. Cajun Chef Paul Prudhomme even dropped by one year! Many others have been part of the judging bench, too many to mention.
for more info www.spamorama.org